When Zack Nelson of YouTube’s JerryRigEverything put Samsung’s new Z Fold 7 through his torturous durability test, the handset actually came out pretty well. Particularly impressive was how it managed to remain intact during the bend test in which Nelson used his bare hands to flex the Fold 7 against the hinge.
Nelson has snapped lesser handsets clean in two before, and with a mere hinge holding the Z Fold 7 together, it seemed like a dead cert that it’d cave in under the pressure being forced upon it. But Samsung managed to design it in a way that ensures the phone’s structural integrity, even in extreme situations like this.
A week after subjecting the Z Fold 7 to his durability test, it was the Z Flip 7’s turn to face the tools of Nelson’s trade, which besides his own hands include scrapers, cutters, a lighter, and a pile of grit.
Like the Z Fold 7, the Z Flip 7 was officially unveiled by Samsung last month. It’s more affordable than the Fold and features a clamshell design, while the Fold opens like a book.
The Flip’s bend test starts at the 7:43 mark, with Nelson applying a great deal of pressure as he flexes the device backwards — a direction in which it definitely does not want to go. Impressively, the handset stays together. Nelson then bends it a second time and hears two cracks, “signifying something cool might happen … but instead of breaking, we get nothing,” the YouTuber says.
It’s another win for Samsung, and while Nelson feigns disappointment, he’s actually pretty impressed by Samsung’s design team and what it’s achieved here.
Coming soon to the YouTuber’s desk of horrors will be the iPhone Air, which Apple is expected to launch in just a couple of months from now. It’s set to be Apple’s thinnest phone ever, but will it bend or break when put to the test?
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