The Apple iPhone 15 series is out, and the tech world rejoice, just like what had happened every single year before this when a new iPhone series is introduced.

And the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is the flagship of the 2023 iPhones, succeeds the iPhone 14 Pro Max in almost every way. While on the outside, the 2023 iPhone 15 Pro Max does look very similar to the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro Max, Apple has improved pretty much everything on the inside and outside.

Just when the phone hits the store, one huge design change of the phone made it a lot less durable.

JerryRigEverything, a YouTuber known for reviewing phones and disassemble them to see how they work, found that the back glass of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is extremely fragile.

During what he calls the "durability test," the back glass of the phone cracks using only his thumb as the pressure point.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max utilizes titanium instead of aluminum.

Titanium is known for its remarkable strength-to-weight ratio. Besides being incredibly strong yet lightweight characteristic, titanium is also highly resistant to corrosion, which is fantastic for durability. However, titanium is hard to machine, and expensive.

Aluminum on the other hand, is also lightweight, but not as strong as titanium. But if compared to titanium, using aluminum is more cost-effective. Aluminum is also easier to machine.

Because of this, titanium is an ideal choice for applications where weight is an issue and cost is not, whereas aluminum is popular for various everyday items, from cans to car parts.

But Apple is known for using high-quality material, and after becoming one of the first big brands to use metal as a phone's frame, the company has upped its ante by using titanium on the iPhone 15 Pro and the Pro Max.

This makes the phone lighter.

According to Apple, it uses grade 5 titanium, which is the most well-known titanium alloy. It's incredibly strong, heat-resistant, and lightweight. Grade 5 is widely used in aerospace, automotive, and sports equipment.

But that doesn't protect it from the durability test.

JerryRigEverything tested the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and first, he found that the titanium doesn't stand to his scratch test. The titanium is also prone to scratch, and that even a knife can leave marks.

The YouTuber heated the titanium with a blowtorch, and indeed, the metal shows its real characteristic, in which it turns to rainbow-like color, a trait unique to titanium when heated to the extreme.

The matte back glass, is far more scratch resistant, and the display also fares quite well during the scratch testing as well, as do the three camera covers on the back of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

But things get more interesting pretty quickly.

"It’s time to see if the new blended aluminum titanium grafted hybrid structure compromises the structural integrity of the iPhone 15 Pro Max," said the YouTuber, whose real name is Zack Nelson.

Zack then started putting pressure on the device, and within seconds, something snapped. The back glass has cracked.

"I did not see that one coming," he said. "You’ve been watching me durability test smartphones for about 11 years now, and most phones do not break. iPhones especially do not break, like ever. And [the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s] snap was abnormally quick."

Zack speculates that this could be due to the titanium having five times the amount of tensile strength as aluminum, leading to the glass back not being able to withstand even small amounts pressure and flex. On the bright side, Apple has made it far cheaper to replace the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s back glass if compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

In another video, Zack disassemble the iPhone 15 Pro Max, to see its inner working.

And here, he found that the titanium is only on the outside.

Apple still uses aluminum as its center piece, the main chassis. The titanium is only there to hold the two sheets of glass together, bonding the entire unit into one.

This isn't the first time Zack found an iPhone with this kind of design flaw.

Before this, the first iPhone product that he famously tested and cracked was the iPhone 6 Plus. In his video, he subjected the iPhone 6 to various durability challenges, including scratching the display, attempting to bend it, and ultimately cracking the screen. This video was one of the early catalysts for the trend of durability testing and "bendgate" discussions surrounding the iPhone 6 when it was released in 2014.

Zack's detailed tests have since become a staple for tech enthusiasts and consumers looking to learn more about the durability of their devices.

Regardless of the design flaw, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is an improvement over its predecessor in almost every other way.

Like the rest of the line up, the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with iOS 17 out of the box, and with the proprietary Lightning connector with USB-C to comply with the EU mandating the use of this connector in smartphones.

It also supports AV1 video hardware decoding, an Action button, replacing the mute switch, and more.

Inside, the phone uses the A17 Pro system on a chip (SoC), and a redesigned Apple-built graphic processing unit (GPU), which adds hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

And on the outside, besides the overly-hyped titanium ornament, the iPhones 15 Pro Max's most significant upgrade on the camera sector, is its 12MP, 5x, telephoto camera with 3D sensor‑shift optical image stabilization and autofocus, and "tetraprism" design.

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