iPhone Duo tested to destruction, including removing nanotexture layer

It’s kind of wild that there’s an entire YouTube niche in which people buy the latest expensive gadgets and then find creative ways to destroy them. JerryRigEverything is one of the bigger names, and he didn’t hold back when it came to a destruction test of the iPhone Duo.

In addition to subjecting the display to everything from a knife to chainmail armor, he removed the nanotexture layer and said that it kind of looks better …

The first piece of bad news he discovers is that the inner display begins showing scratches at just level 2 hardness on a 10-point scale. You can even create visible grooves with a fingernail. The good news, however, is that the nano-texture display does an excellent job at hiding imperfections when the screen is on.

The iPhone scratches at a level two with deeper grooves at a level fingernail. While the screen is on, these scratches just magically disappear, just like that center crease disappears. It’s like in the construction industry. It’s very common to paint hallways and big rooms in aneggshell or satin finish instead of gloss because the non-shiny finishes hide imperfections really well. The keys and coins are leaving marks along with the medieval chainmail armor as one often has. And with the screen on, the imperfections are just totally disappearing. It’s an incredibly brilliant move on Apple’s part to have a matte display on the iPhone Duo, but when the screen turns off, those imperfections do come back.

While the iPhone Duo has a dust and waterproofing rating of IP68, theoretically meaning that it’s completely dustproof, the extreme testing used here shows that there are limits. While dust may not enter the casing, you can pour over about a beach’s worth to get enough of it trapped in the hinge mechanism that the device no longer closes.

Apple warns against removing the nanotexture layer yourself, as you can easily damage the display beneath it, but of course that didn’t stop Jerry. He found that while the display is much more reflective without it, it kind of looks better.

Yeah, the glares are back, but so are the colors. One looks like a vibrant, fresh AMOLED display, and the other looks like it has Vaseline smeared all over the top. It’s a tough trade-off, and I’m by no means telling people to take off the nanotexture layer. To be honest, you’ll probably end up breaking it, but personally, I think now it kind of looks better.

Of course, in addition to glare, the crease becomes much more visible alongside all of those scratches.

Finally, by exerting a huge amount of force to bend the hinge the wrong way, he damages the screen in the same way we’ve seen with the cracking issue in a small number of Duos.

Mostly the video is just a bit of fun, but while the dust test was certainly an extreme one, I would certainly be cautious using the Duo on a beach; best keep your chainmail armor away from it too.

You can watch the whole thing below.

• iPhone Duo cases
• Beats Woven USB-C cables
• Certified refurbished Apple products 15% off at apple.com
• Discounted AirPods Pro 3
• Wireless CarPlay adapter
• 10-year AirTag battery case
• Logitech MX Master 4 for Mac