Inside the secretive labs where Apple’s torturers put iPhones to the test

In the next room, iPhones are being tested for water resilience. Surviving these tests is required to earn IP ratings that tell consumers how protected they are from being dunked or sprayed. Apple has had these ratings for about a decade, so I feel like it may be something of a formality. One iPhone is running a video while locked in a case and submerged, to prove it can last at least 30 minutes. Another is being gently rained on, and then assaulted with a high-pressure blast. A third has jets hitting it from every angle.

Watching the drowned iPhones, I’m reminded (and not for the last time) of just how far phones have come in terms of durability. Apple and others copped some flak over the years for seals and other elements needed for waterproofing, which can make repairs more difficult. But surely millions of repairs have been avoided altogether now that most phones can survive an accidental soak.

At last, a robot in the third room. An Epson robotic arm, and apparently one that absolutely despises phones and laptops. With a device loaded into its grip, it manoeuvres over a surface (wood flooring, asphalt, granite counter top), gives a few randomising rotations and lets the thing fall. Everyone in the room groans involuntarily at the thwack, except for the person whose job it is to do this every day.

The fall angle is random, but the robot can be asked to replicate it if specific falls do notable damage. A high-speed camera captures the impact for analysis, and I watch as a replay of a falling MacBook shows shockwaves moving through its lid and chassis, temporarily making the metal look liquid. But the laptop is working fine post-drop. Not a bend or a dent.

Is this kind of research going to result in an iPhone with a screen impervious to smashing? No. But it’s clearly helping. Over the past 10 years Apple has seen out-of-warranty repairs decrease by 40 per cent, and people are routinely keeping their iPhones for five years or more.

Nearby a separate dropping machine tumbles steel prisons with iPhones inside, like a very slow dryer. This machine is mandated to meet a durability standard, but Apple’s custom robot arm is clearly closer to simulating real-world drops.

Moving on, a curious and very noisy table the size of a small room is vibrating a bunch of MacBooks, iPads and a Vision Pro headset. The table can be programmed to simulate specific vibration patterns, from trains to a range of motorcycle models. Certain movements and specific resonance points can be damaging to moving parts inside the devices, such as cameras and accelerometers. Here the devices are bolted to the table, so they’re probably copping it worse than a real-world device, but again the insights don’t mean much if they’re not reproducible.

In the final room, batteries are being charged and then depleted, over and over at different temperatures. Each one will go through the cycle 1000 times, and a robot is moving around relocating the batteries (human fingers introduce inconsistencies, since depleted batteries can be floppy and fragile). On a table is a disassembled iPhone, and I make a quick assumption about what I’m about to see.

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Apple likes to talk of its devices’ durability, how long the software support is and how well they keep their value in the secondary market. But, of late, it’s also been talking more about repairability. It’s making concerted efforts to have repairs cheaper and easier, as well as getting tools and manuals to independent repairers. You could be cynical and say it’s getting ahead of inevitable regulation, but it’s a value-add for consumers regardless.

I’m right about the kind of thing being demonstrated, and I’ve seen this specific process before online, but it’s still fascinating in person. The iPhone 16 has an electrically debondable battery, meaning the unit won’t rattle around inside the device (which is an important safety concern), but it also doesn’t need glue or stretchy adhesive. There’s a tab on the battery that you need to apply current to (for example, by attaching a nine-volt battery), and the phone’s battery slips right out.

With the help of some pressure, the new battery can bond right into that same spot and be just as stable as an old glue-adhesive battery. Secure enough to go another few rounds with the phone-dropping robot.

The author travelled to California as a guest of Apple.

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