Hours into the launch, and the newest iPhones are already hitting pavement. Early owners are sharing photos and videos of scratched frames, cracked glass, and stress tests gone awry. Yet another question that springs to mind: how hard-wearing are Apple’s new flagships in their native state?
What’s Failing First on Early iPhone 17 and 17 Pro Units
First talk is of surface damage to the iPhone 17 Pro’s aluminum frame. A number of hands-on reports and in-store images shared on social networks depict rail micro-abrasions and scuffs, particularly at the right angle and on the camera bump. That’s significant, because last year’s high-end phones relied on titanium; aluminum, though it is lighter and easier to machine, is softer and shows wear more quickly when its anodization wears down from nicks from grit or keys.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has proposed a sensible theory for the color lineup: darker anodized coatings show off scratches more than lighter ones, which may be why you’re not seeing a true-black Pro variant this year. This is speculative, but fits how metal coatings work in the real world.
Aside from scuffs, the earliest cracked screens are pretty much what you’d expect: impacts at both edges after waist-high drops. Ceramic-reinforced glass aids scratch resistance, but not shatterproofing. A face-down hit against textured concrete can still spiderweb a panel on day one.
Drop Tests and Teardown Theater: Early Durability Insights
Durability creators wasted no time. Popular channels like JerryRigEverything and iFixit generally scrutinize new models in bend tests, scratch tests, and early teardowns to see how much internal bracing and glass layering is there. Media from those deep dives is rolling in, though the first batch of clips depicts the ultra-thin “Air” model flexing under significant hand pressure and living to tell, while denser Pro models remain strong but tend to show off visible frame abuse more quickly than expected when rubbed against pocket detritus.
Remember: viral stress tests are about finding the breaking point, not simulating normal usage. A hammer, a vise, or lots of concrete drops will eventually destroy any phone. The far more telling evidence is the chorus of little everyday mishaps — phones that tumble off car seats, graze brick walls, or share a pocket with a sandy beach souvenir.
Data That Cuts Through the Hype on Real-World Breakability
Independent labs provide a useful baseline. Allstate Protection Plans’ annual breakability tests continually demonstrate that the latest iPhones tend to crack on their face from even the first drop or two at about six feet, and that’s despite improved generations of tougher glass. The organization has also estimated that Americans shatter more than 50 million phone screens each year, highlighting how rapidly “new” becomes “needs repair.”
Cost remains a harsh teacher. In the past, out-of-warranty iPhone screen replacements were — and for Pro models still are — in the $279–$379 range, with repairs to back glass adding much more. AppleCare+ knocks that down to a service fee that is only about one-sixth the cost, and third-party insurers have deductibles in the same neighborhood — as long as you’ve come back down to Earth before gravity has its say.
Why Aluminum Gets Marked Up and How to Prevent It
Anodizing gives aluminum its color and a thin layer of protection in the form of a hard aluminum oxide shell. That layer does enhance the phone’s resistance to corrosion and scratching but is not impervious — a sharp grain of quartz or grit loosened in your pocket can puncture it, producing an illuminatingly bright scratch in the softer metal below. Titanium, on the other hand, is harder and thus more likely to display swirls rather than those bright gouges, which is in part why last year’s Pro models wore abuse differently.
Concrete defenses are basic and heartily helpful: a case with raised lips to guard edges and camera glass; a tempered-glass or hybrid screen protector for distributing impact; carrying habits that border on mindful — your phone should be in its own pocket, away from keys, coins, sand. An immediate microfiber wipe followed by stashing it in a pocket after the beach can save the frame from grinding away at invisible grit. If you’re going to carry your phone caseless, lighter finishes generally conceal small scuffs more effectively than darker ones.
What to Watch Next as More iPhone 17 Tests Roll In
Look for more hard lab results in the coming days, as iFixit publishes its repairability findings and our durability channels finish standardizing their drop series. Look for two things in particular: whether the iPhone 17 Pro’s aluminum rails gather marks more readily than earlier Pro generations do during real-world use, and whether the ultra-thin Air design creates new points of weakness around button cutouts or the camera island.
For now, the headline is straightforward: people are smashing open brand-new iPhone 17s accidentally and on purpose. If you are getting one, a case and protector on day one remain the cheapest upgrades money can buy.