Apple has been fitting its iPhone camera lenses with sapphire glass since the launch of the iPhone 5S, but the material might fall short of its purported scratch resistance.
Due to a new video that verified the scratch durability of the latest iPhone camera lens, the quality of the sapphire glass that Apple claims it is using is put under question. The company says that the iPhone 7 camera lens is covered with sapphire crystal, but tests done by YouTuber JerryRigEverything show otherwise.
According to the tester, Apple might be putting sapphire laminate on top of regular glass, which would lower the costs of manufacturing for the camera. Cutting costs is nothing new to tech companies, but some of them are more transparent about cutting corners than others.
Cheaper materials mean that the handset's camera is more prone to scratching than the company would want to admit, and the problematic vulnerability applies to the recently launched iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
JerryRigEverything conducted a test right after the latest smartphones from Apple reached the shelves, showing that the camera lens scores about the same as hardened glass in scratch tests. Apple's rivals are using Gorilla Glass that ranks a 5 or 6 in the Mohs scale of durability. The camera on the iPhone 7 scratched at 6.
However, Apple claims that its phone cameras feature a layer of protection made of sapphire glass.
JerryRigEverything was determined to find out the truth, so he set out to conduct a number of tests that regular users cannot do. The result was that the camera on the iPhone 7 does have lens manufactured out of sapphire glass. The detailed analysis showed traces of aluminum oxide (a staple of the durable material) in the lens' composition.
However, the purity of Apple's sapphire glass is lackluster. For good measure, JerryRigEverything tested another product that claims to sport the durable material, a Tissot watch. What he found was that the watch scratches at an 8 on the Mohs scale.
An answer for the hefty durability difference comes from the detailed analysis of the iPhone 7's rear camera glass. According to JerryRigEverything, Apple's sapphire crystal is loaded with carbon and silicon contaminants, causing it to lose durability.
No traces of the contaminants are present in the Tissot watch.
"How impure can your sapphire be and still call it sapphire?" tester rhetorically asks at the end of the test video.
Check out the full video below to see the scratch tests for yourself, and listen to JerryRigEverything's humorous comments.
