The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max were put to the test in a series of drop tests to see how well each phone could withstand impacts.
Round Number One: Backdrop Drop
At first glance, both phones look pretty good. The iPhone's glass remains fully intact and the stainless steel frame did a good job at absorbing the majority of the damage. The Galaxy S21 Ultra, on the other hand, sees the majority of its damage to that metal camera housing, but unfortunately, the s21's glass itself didn't come away unscathed. A scuff mark appeared at the bottom right corner of the phone, which wasn't actually from the drop itself. It's unclear how it happened, but it's not a good sign in terms of scratch resistance. However, in terms of drop resistance, the S21 Ultra got a hairline crack near the top, which is kind of tough to see unless you place the phone just right under direct light.
Round Number Two: Corner Drop
The corner drop didn't do much to either phone, with just a few scuff marks that are only really noticeable if you're looking for them under direct light. The hairline crack on the Galaxy S21 Ultra didn't look any worse after this test, which is definitely a good sign. However, as can be seen in the photo, the S21 Ultra did get scratched up from that metal clip that was used to mount the phones for the corner drop. This suggests that the S21 Ultra may not be as scratch-resistant as the iPhone.
Round Number Three: Face Drop
After the face drop, the iPhone's glass remained fully intact, while the S21 Ultra unfortunately had its glass shattered. This is somewhat of a surprising result, considering that last year's Note 20 Ultra didn't crack on the face drop. However, it's possible that this was just due to random bad luck or that the S21 Ultra is significantly heavier and has a different design.
Bonus Round
The S21 Ultra wasn't having the best drop test so far, but it still technically remained fully functional after several drops onto a smooth steel surface. However, when it was dropped again from higher up, despite its cracks continuing to spiderweb across the front of the phone, the fingerprint scanner, touchscreen, and cameras still remained fully functional. Unfortunately, however, after all the repeated impact, the hairline crack on the back had finally gotten worse and there was major damage to that same corner.
Bonus Bonus Round
The test continued with several more drops, and despite the cracks continuing to spread across the front of the phone, the S21 Ultra remained fully functional. However, it's clear that once a phone is dropped and damaged, even if it seems somewhat fine, it becomes more susceptible to additional damage on subsequent drops.
Conclusion
In the end, the iPhone 12 Pro Max emerged as the winner in this test, surviving multiple drops onto rough concrete blocks with flying colors. The Galaxy S21 Ultra, on the other hand, was clearly the loser of this round, suffering major damage after just a few drops and eventually becoming too damaged to continue the test.
It's worth noting that while the iPhone may have won this particular test, there are likely many other scenarios in which the Galaxy S21 Ultra would perform better. Samsung has done a good job at making their phones relatively impact-resistant, but as seen in this test, that doesn't necessarily mean they're completely scratch-proof or damage-proof.
More coverage of the Galaxy S21 Ultra is coming to the channel soon, and it will be interesting to see if the phone can take the top spots in both the speed and battery test rankings away from the iPhone.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwe finally have the galaxy s21 ultra in the lab and the first test up of course is the drop test where we're comparing it side by side to the iphone 12 for max footage from the drop test that we conducted earlier now just like last year's note 20 ultra the s21 ultra is using gorilla glass victis on both the front and on the back of the phone while the iphone is using its toughest glass in the ceramic shield only on the front however unlike the galaxy the iphone has the advantage of a flat edge design where the glass on each side actually sits flush with that stainless steel frame making it less susceptible to damage in the event of a drop both phones weigh roughly the same whereas last year's note 20 ultra was significantly lighter and the only other difference worth mentioning here is samsung opted to use a metal camera module compared to the glass modules that we typically see which means while the s21's camera housing won't be as susceptible to cracking as the iphones it will be more susceptible to scratching so it's going to be interesting to see how these two phones stack up this video is sponsored by mine the smart data assistant that lets you discover who has your data on the web and gives you the tools to keep that data only where you want it i found that a whopping 648 companies had my personal data and with a new data breach every day that's way more exposure than i need most of the companies i don't even use anymore for example i haven't used nordstrom in years but they still have my financial and identity information so with a single click i can send a request to have the company delete that data automatically and boom i just minimized my online risk the app is still free to use for now but it won't be for long so check it out at the first link down below round number one backdrop in three two one after that backdrop at first glance both phones look pretty good the iphone's glass remains fully intact and the stainless steel frame did a good job at absorbing the majority of the damage the galaxy on the other hand sees the majority of its damage to that metal camera housing but unfortunately the s21's glass itself didn't come away unscathed now this scuff mark at the bottom right here wasn't actually from the drop itself this happened to the phone somewhere in between the time we unboxed it and prepared to put it in the machine i honestly don't know how it happened but it's not the best sign in terms of scratch resistance but in terms of drop resistance the s21 ultra got this hairline crack near the top it's kind of tough to see unless you place the phone just right under direct light but it's definitely a crack and something that we'll have to keep an eye on as this test progresses giving the iphone the small win in round number one round number two corner drop the corner drop doesn't do much to either phone with just a few scuff marks that are only really noticeable if you're looking for them under direct light that hairline crack on the galaxy doesn't look any worse which is definitely a good sign but as you can see here the s21 ultra did get scratched up from that metal clip that we used to mount the phones for the corner drop now we've been using that clip to mount phones for years now and this is something that i haven't seen happen to any other phone so based off of that and the fact that we had that mysterious scratch on the phone after unboxing it it just seems like the s21 ultra at least in this phantom black color isn't as scratch resistant so for mainly that reason the advantage goes to the iphone in round number two round number three face drop after the face drop the iphone's glass remains fully intact while the s21 ultra unfortunately has its glass shattered this is somewhat of a surprising result considering that last year's note 20 ultra didn't crack on the face drop so this could just be due to random bad luck or it could be due to the fact that the s21 ultra is significantly heavier this year and it also has a different design it's impossible to say which one it is precisely without having multiple samples but from the sample that we do have it's a clear win for the iphone in round number three bonus round okay so while the s21 ultra isn't having the best drop test so far it is still technically fully functional so it moves on to the bonus round where we'll be dropping it from higher up onto a smooth steel surface where last time the iphone passed the bonus round with flying colors without sustaining any additional damage so let's see if the galaxy can do the same three two one after the first bonus drop there's nothing new to report the phone still remains fully functional and that hairline crack on the back surprisingly hasn't gotten any worse so we'll keep on going three two one and drop four drops in and despite the cracks continuing to spiderweb all over the front of the phone the fingerprint scanner the touchscreen and the cameras still remain fully functional however after all the repeated impact that hairline crack on the back has finally gotten worse and there's major damage to that same corner which perfectly illustrates how once a phone is dropped and damaged even if it seems somewhat fine it becomes more and more susceptible to additional damage on the following drops but nonetheless the phone is still going so we'll continue seven drops in and it's more of the same just continued spider webbing of the cracks on the front of the phone and the back maybe looks a little bit worse but the phone still remains fully functional and drop all right last drop three two one and after 10 bonus drops the galaxy is still fully functional while obviously this is a phone that's in desperate need of a repair samsung did do a good job at making it relatively impact resistant but since the screen is cracked and the phone has clearly had enough the test for the galaxy ends here but for the iphone it went on to the bonus bonus round where it was dropped from that same higher height but this time onto the rough concrete block and just incredibly it survived that drop as well with a quick glance you would never guess that this iphone has been dropped 14 times making the iphone 12 pro max the clear winner in this test and still the fumble style drop test champ we have much more galaxy s21 coverage coming to the channel soon where the s21 ultra has a real shot at taking the top spots in both the speed and battery test rankings away from the iphone so be sure to subscribe if you don't want to miss out on those videoswe finally have the galaxy s21 ultra in the lab and the first test up of course is the drop test where we're comparing it side by side to the iphone 12 for max footage from the drop test that we conducted earlier now just like last year's note 20 ultra the s21 ultra is using gorilla glass victis on both the front and on the back of the phone while the iphone is using its toughest glass in the ceramic shield only on the front however unlike the galaxy the iphone has the advantage of a flat edge design where the glass on each side actually sits flush with that stainless steel frame making it less susceptible to damage in the event of a drop both phones weigh roughly the same whereas last year's note 20 ultra was significantly lighter and the only other difference worth mentioning here is samsung opted to use a metal camera module compared to the glass modules that we typically see which means while the s21's camera housing won't be as susceptible to cracking as the iphones it will be more susceptible to scratching so it's going to be interesting to see how these two phones stack up this video is sponsored by mine the smart data assistant that lets you discover who has your data on the web and gives you the tools to keep that data only where you want it i found that a whopping 648 companies had my personal data and with a new data breach every day that's way more exposure than i need most of the companies i don't even use anymore for example i haven't used nordstrom in years but they still have my financial and identity information so with a single click i can send a request to have the company delete that data automatically and boom i just minimized my online risk the app is still free to use for now but it won't be for long so check it out at the first link down below round number one backdrop in three two one after that backdrop at first glance both phones look pretty good the iphone's glass remains fully intact and the stainless steel frame did a good job at absorbing the majority of the damage the galaxy on the other hand sees the majority of its damage to that metal camera housing but unfortunately the s21's glass itself didn't come away unscathed now this scuff mark at the bottom right here wasn't actually from the drop itself this happened to the phone somewhere in between the time we unboxed it and prepared to put it in the machine i honestly don't know how it happened but it's not the best sign in terms of scratch resistance but in terms of drop resistance the s21 ultra got this hairline crack near the top it's kind of tough to see unless you place the phone just right under direct light but it's definitely a crack and something that we'll have to keep an eye on as this test progresses giving the iphone the small win in round number one round number two corner drop the corner drop doesn't do much to either phone with just a few scuff marks that are only really noticeable if you're looking for them under direct light that hairline crack on the galaxy doesn't look any worse which is definitely a good sign but as you can see here the s21 ultra did get scratched up from that metal clip that we used to mount the phones for the corner drop now we've been using that clip to mount phones for years now and this is something that i haven't seen happen to any other phone so based off of that and the fact that we had that mysterious scratch on the phone after unboxing it it just seems like the s21 ultra at least in this phantom black color isn't as scratch resistant so for mainly that reason the advantage goes to the iphone in round number two round number three face drop after the face drop the iphone's glass remains fully intact while the s21 ultra unfortunately has its glass shattered this is somewhat of a surprising result considering that last year's note 20 ultra didn't crack on the face drop so this could just be due to random bad luck or it could be due to the fact that the s21 ultra is significantly heavier this year and it also has a different design it's impossible to say which one it is precisely without having multiple samples but from the sample that we do have it's a clear win for the iphone in round number three bonus round okay so while the s21 ultra isn't having the best drop test so far it is still technically fully functional so it moves on to the bonus round where we'll be dropping it from higher up onto a smooth steel surface where last time the iphone passed the bonus round with flying colors without sustaining any additional damage so let's see if the galaxy can do the same three two one after the first bonus drop there's nothing new to report the phone still remains fully functional and that hairline crack on the back surprisingly hasn't gotten any worse so we'll keep on going three two one and drop four drops in and despite the cracks continuing to spiderweb all over the front of the phone the fingerprint scanner the touchscreen and the cameras still remain fully functional however after all the repeated impact that hairline crack on the back has finally gotten worse and there's major damage to that same corner which perfectly illustrates how once a phone is dropped and damaged even if it seems somewhat fine it becomes more and more susceptible to additional damage on the following drops but nonetheless the phone is still going so we'll continue seven drops in and it's more of the same just continued spider webbing of the cracks on the front of the phone and the back maybe looks a little bit worse but the phone still remains fully functional and drop all right last drop three two one and after 10 bonus drops the galaxy is still fully functional while obviously this is a phone that's in desperate need of a repair samsung did do a good job at making it relatively impact resistant but since the screen is cracked and the phone has clearly had enough the test for the galaxy ends here but for the iphone it went on to the bonus bonus round where it was dropped from that same higher height but this time onto the rough concrete block and just incredibly it survived that drop as well with a quick glance you would never guess that this iphone has been dropped 14 times making the iphone 12 pro max the clear winner in this test and still the fumble style drop test champ we have much more galaxy s21 coverage coming to the channel soon where the s21 ultra has a real shot at taking the top spots in both the speed and battery test rankings away from the iphone so be sure to subscribe if you don't want to miss out on those videos\n"
