The internet is out to break the iPhone Air, but it seems indestructible

At just 5.7mm thin, the new iPhone Air is slimmer than even Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s so thin you’d think it would snap in half if you accidentally sat on it or your toddler decided to test their strength with it. Now that the iPhone Air is landing in the hands of reviewers and early users, the very first thing everyone seems to be doing with this pencil-thin device is trying to bend it. Some folks are taking it to extremes, too, bending it over table edges, smashing it with hammers, you name it. The thing is, no one seems to have succeeded in breaking the iPhone Air so far.

It looks like Apple has actually built an indestructible iPhone, a far cry from the iPhone 6 Plus “Bendgate” days. Take the bend test from Chinese YouTuber Mediastorm, for example. His version of the test for the iPhone Air looks far more scientific than the other chaotic ones floating around, even if those are definitely more fun to watch.

The YouTuber placed an iPhone Air and an iPhone 6 Plus in a machine that applies downward pressure at the center while the ends are supported, simulating real-world bend stress.

The machine registered -60.1 Kgf on the iPhone Air and -60.2 Kgf on the iPhone 6 Plus. Under that force, the iPhone Air barely budged, while the iPhone 6 Plus was visibly deformed. Mediastorm did note that you can feel a slight flex if you apply serious pressure on the iPhone Air, but once you let go, the phone snaps right back into shape.

Meanwhile, other creators have been putting the phone through less-than-scientific trials. A YouTube Short from HowToHacksYT shows someone trying to brute-force the iPhone Air into bending, but it doesn’t give way. On TikTok, a man in black gloves tries to murder the phone by smashing it against table edges and whacking it with a hammer. By all accounts, the phone should have shattered, but it made it out intact.

Apple released its own durability videos to show off the iPhone Air’s strength. In one test, a machine applied 58kg (about 130 pounds) of pressure directly to the middle of the phone, yet it bounced back without taking any damage. Pretty darn impressive for a phone so thin, and something Android brands planning ultra-thin phones could learn from.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, the Galaxy S25 Edge also previously passed YouTuber JerryRigEverything’s famous bend test. The thin Galaxy showed a slight separation on the back panel, but no catastrophic damage. Other recent, not-so-thin Android phones, like the OPPO Find X8 Ultra and Find N5 (foldable), weren’t as lucky in their respective bend tests.