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A secret tour of Apple's product durability testing labs! 🔍📱 See firsthand how Apple ensures the durability of their products through rigorous testing methods. From water ingress tests to drop and shaker tests, discover the high-tech processes behind making iPhones incredibly durable.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Introduction to MKBHD's secret tour of Apple's durability labs
0:05 – Access to Apple's exclusive testing facilities
0:33 – Water ingress testing methods
1:50 – Interview with John Ternus on durability vs. repairability
2:40 – Robot drop tests and different surface impacts
3:49 – High-speed camera analysis for drop tests
3:56 – Shaker test for real-world vibrations
5:01 – Production and testing of 10,000+ devices before release
Explore the fascinating world of Apple's product testing and learn why their devices are built to last. Don't forget to subscribe for more behind-the-scenes looks and tech insights! 🚀🔔
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0:00
yeah yeah so this is cool uh Marquez
0:01
brownley YouTuber guy you know fantastic
0:04
uh videos very popular he did this uh
0:07
some kind of got some kind of secret
0:09
tour of the Apple product durability
0:11
testing Labs of course he and uh of
0:15
course he did he's got access man he's
0:16
like I know man he's got so much access
0:18
access at Apple they would never let
0:20
anyone else do this no way so uh so he
0:25
went in and looked at uh some of the
0:27
things they used to test for water what
0:30
water Ingress that's what they call it
0:32
yeah uh it's pretty awesome really uh
0:36
this is one of those I I was really I
0:37
was thinking about this like wow this
0:39
this seems like apple is so amazing with
0:41
their ability to do this stuff but I I
0:43
think a lot of companies do this but
0:45
Apple's just finally gotten hip to like
0:47
oh we we show people a little bit of
0:49
this stuff it's it's kind of like what
0:51
they used to do when uh when Johnny I
0:53
would come on and and explain you know
0:56
orology or whatever right like they they
0:59
just show some of the work that they do
1:01
and it's like it's fascinating it's like
1:03
that video from uh from the production
1:05
of the Vision Pro which was just
1:07
gorgeous to watch so anyway what they
1:09
did is they so he goes in like like the
1:12
video I don't know if you could show
1:13
people this but the video of like uh the
1:16
the thing the way that they test for
1:18
water it's got like a sprinkler almost
1:19
looks like you know some super high-tech
1:21
version of a lawn sprinkler that you
1:23
might have had in the 70s or whatever
1:25
and then it cuts to another shot and
1:26
it's like a literal fire hose like
1:28
shooting water like 50 ft across at a
1:30
poor little iPhone on the opposite wall
1:33
that one made me laugh oh that one just
1:35
came
1:36
up they had another one where they put
1:38
it like underwater under pressure you
1:41
know to see how long it how much it
1:42
could take and you know one of the
1:45
things that uh in addition to these
1:47
these robots and things that they were
1:49
the tests that they were showing off
1:50
they also he talked with John turnis
1:52
their Apple's Hardware Chief and he was
1:54
talking about the whole like
1:56
repairability versus durability thing
1:59
and and he one of the things he was
2:00
talking about was how like you know back
2:03
in the old days you get an iPhone you
2:05
you spill your drink on it it's done uh
2:08
and and they had like you know so much
2:10
problem with inability to to to to deal
2:13
with liquids right and and now it's you
2:15
know people drop phones in lakes and
2:18
find them two weeks later and they work
2:19
just fine so he was talking about the
2:22
whole thing like how Apple gets kind of
2:24
dinged for things are hard to repair
2:25
he's think well you know one of the
2:27
reasons they're hard to repair is
2:28
because they are incredibly durable and
2:30
they last a long time uh kind of got
2:33
sidetracked there the so there two other
2:35
things that two other videos he had
2:37
aside from the interviews and the water
2:38
test he had a a robot drop test did you
2:41
guys watch this one uh
2:43
yeah more interesting ones goes and
2:46
picks up the phone and jerks it over to
2:49
a certain thing sets to a certain angle
2:51
and drops it at a certain thing and this
2:53
is it looks like the kind of robot that
2:55
would like you would see on a Manu
2:56
you're just trained like when you see a
2:57
robot like that it's on a manufacturing
2:59
line and it's like positioning these
3:00
chips like within a micrometer but now
3:02
this one just like throws it on the
3:03
ground it's hilarious flings it flings
3:05
it in a very specific way and it looked
3:07
like apple had I didn't hear any video
3:09
in this part of that video or any audio
3:10
on this part of the video but looked
3:12
like apple has like uh piles of
3:15
different um like slate or concrete or
3:19
steel or whatever so that they can drop
3:21
it on different surfaces is what it
3:23
looked like I I'm not 100% sure that's
3:24
what it was but uh man that thing was
3:26
just flinging and the other thing was
3:27
fascinating about that is you know Brown
3:30
points out Apple not they don't just
3:32
drop it and see how it does but they
3:34
they shoot blast it with this High light
3:37
you know so they and they film it in
3:38
slow motion so they can watch this all
3:41
this stuff happen in slow motion and see
3:43
exactly what happened and exactly what
3:45
went wrong or what worked um and then
3:50
the craziest one I thought was this the
3:52
Shaker test did you guys see that one um
3:54
I got a plan right now I didn't see this
3:56
one so so this is strapping an uh iPhone
3:59
or uh Vision Pro right there's a Vision
4:02
Pro on there they put it on this shaking
4:04
table and they shake it at at at certain
4:06
frequencies or whatever so the video
4:08
like like brownley points out the video
4:10
is maybe not that amazing or whatever it
4:12
just looks like you got the Jitters
4:13
right but uh he said that they can for
4:16
instance set that thing so that it
4:19
vibrates like the exact way that a
4:21
specific motorcycle would vibrate when
4:24
you're driving down the road on it so I
4:27
mean my like I said my first thought was
4:29
maybe Apple's is not doing that much
4:30
different maybe they're just they're
4:31
doing the stuff that everybody does but
4:33
it also sounds like they're kind of
4:34
taking it like to the next level I mean
4:36
some of this stuff that's crazy oh I
4:39
wanted to vibrate like a 1986 Sportster
4:42
you know that's nuts one of the details
4:45
they said is that in testing before
4:47
before an iPhone is released they they
4:50
they make up to 10,000 or more devices
4:54
that they that they just used to go
4:56
through these tests which is crazy like
4:58
an order of magnitude higher than
4:59
thought they
5:00
would I mean that is Bonkers I mean if
5:03
you just do the math on that I mean what
5:04
does an iPhone cost them let's just say
5:06
500 bucks they're going to spend $5
5:09
million just destroying devices you know
5:12
I actually thought the part with John
5:13
turnus talking about
5:15
why they glue things together and why
5:18
they're difficult to repair yourself I
5:21
that was kind of the first time I'd
5:23
heard Apple speak out about this and I
5:24
was like you know what man yeah like the
5:27
reason that they're hard to repair
5:29
yourself is because they have to go
5:31
through all these crazy steps to make
5:33
them so waterproof and so durable and so
5:36
reliable and there is this vocal
5:38
minority of people and no shade toward
5:41
towards those people that want to fix
5:42
things themselves most of us don't most
5:44
of us want our device just to be
5:46
reliable to not break in the first to
5:48
not break in the first place exactly and
5:50
I I don't I don't like would it be nice
5:52
to be able to swap out the iPhone's
5:53
battery on my own yes I think that would
5:56
actually be a convenient thing to do
5:59
aside from that though I don't really
6:01
care to do any of those repairs myself
6:02
and I think most people
6:05
99.57 8% of people do not care to do
6:07
those those things themselves and they
6:10
would make the tradeoff to have their
6:11
phone be resistant to damage to be
6:14
waterproof in extreme conditions every
6:16
single time and and and this is the
6:19
first time I've I've really heard Apple
6:21
talk about why the phones are glued
6:23
together and they're difficult to repair
6:24
like I've never heard that articulated
6:26
anywhere and and they've just let people
6:30
keep implying that Apple does it because
6:33
they don't want to let you repair things
6:35
and that narrative has just remained and
6:37
no one has H has said anything to uh
6:40
contradict that but John turnis for the
6:43
first time actually gave us a reason why
6:44
these things are difficult to repair and
6:46
I feel like they need to do a better job
6:48
getting that message out there or maybe
6:49
maybe it doesn't matter because most
6:50
people don't care but I was like yeah so
6:52
there actually is a good reason that
6:53
they glue stuff together I I never
6:55
really thought about that before
6:57
remember like 10 years ago how you would
6:58
always have like that you you 10 years
7:00
ago in 2014 you had like a few people
7:02
you knew who still had an iPhone 4 and
7:04
like half of the buttons were broken yes
7:07
you know like that the home buttons
7:08
broke on all those things and then like
7:10
you see the one person who has like the
7:11
accessibility feature with like the onc
7:12
screen home button that they tap instead
7:14
of like actually clicking it because
7:15
like oh it doesn't work ah the power
7:17
button doesn't work so I just you know
7:18
wait for it to turn off it by
7:20
itself I forgot about that that rings a
7:23
bell me too yeah and you you would see
7:25
those issues with phones all the time or
7:27
the speaker would just stop working
7:29
right and all of a sudden like your
7:31
phone was fine but there'd be one
7:32
annoying little issue like that and then
7:34
you would have to decide whether or not
7:35
you want to get a whole new phone so if
7:36
you haven't if you haven't watched this
7:38
thread just go through and check it out
7:40
I'll put a link to the show notes
7:42
because I for some of you you may not
7:44
use the all new X and that's fine but
7:46
you can go and and view it either on
7:48
Colac um or on X and watch all the
7:51
videos it actually really is interesting
7:52
and there's a bunch of videos here that
7:54
he posted on how the iPhones are tested
7:57
and why they do some of the things that
7:59
they do
8:00
and you know Apple being one of the most
8:02
valuable companies in the world maybe
8:03
not the top anymore and soon to be
8:06
unseated uh it it is interesting to see
8:09
what their testing methodology is and
8:11
like what kind of equipment they're
8:12
using because they have unlimited
8:13
resources to do these kinds of things
8:15
and no one's probably doing them as well
8:16
as apple is and so it's it's it's
8:19
interesting just to see how they do it
8:21
you know the other thing I thought was
8:22
weird about that was like that room
8:24
didn't look especially fancy almost
8:26
looked like you know a little torture
8:28
chamber you know like you might see in
8:31
Russia or something uh it it was it was
8:34
remarkably unapply looking that thing I
8:37
wonder where I I don't know if you ever
8:38
mentioned where these were are these in
8:40
in copertino
8:42
or I'm not sure undisclosed undis but my
8:46
sources tell me this is the same room
8:47
you end up in if you leak too many Apple
8:49
secrets and TC gets a hold of you put
8:52
you on the that water Canyon Cannon at
8:54
the same time there's a few journalists
8:56
who' have seen this water cannon with
8:57
Tim Cook at the opposite end you know
9:01
all right what do we got next I do find
9:03
that stuff fascinating I do too and the
9:06
whole the whole sort of manufacturing
9:08
aspect of this stuff I mean if you think
9:10
about what you're carrying around in
9:12
your hands or strapping onto your face
9:13
or you know tossing in your backpack
9:15
it's it's really kind of incredible the
9:18
the way that this stuff is constructed
9:19
and I mean that goes to anything I
9:21
suppose in the modern world but Apple
9:22
seems to do a very very good job at it
9:24
and I'm glad they're actually showing a
9:27
little bit of behind the scenes stuff
9:29
about what it takes to produce such a a
9:30
device you know plus put in turnus front
9:33
and center getting him ready
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