Testing has iPhone 12's Ceramic Shield significantly tougher than the iPhone 11's glass screen

Iphone 12 Ceramic Shield (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

The new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro both ship with a Ceramic Shield coating on the front.
Apple says it has 4 times better drop protection than iPhone 11.
A new YouTube video aims to put that to the test and things are looking good.

The release of the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro also sees the debut of the new Ceramic Shield display. Apple says that the new screens have up to four times better drop protection than iPhone 11 – but does it stand up to that claim? YouTuber MobileReviewsEh decided to find out.

Spotted by MacRumors, the video sees an iPhone 12 being put through some tests involving a force meter. As the tests showed, the iPhone 11 was able to withstand 352 newtons of force before it cracked. The iPhone 12 that was tested could withstand 442 newtons of force before showing any signs of damage.

It was a similar story in the scratch tests, too. The iPhone 12 was able to hold up to scratching by coins, keys, and more without showing any wear and that was repeated when some more scientific tests were carried out.

You can watch the full video to see how it all went down, but it's summed up pretty well by the YouTuber.

This Ceramic Shield is definitely tougher on the ‌iPhone‌ 12s. Quite a bit, over 100 newtons. It took a lot of effort to break this screen. The remainder of the ‌iPhone‌ in terms of scratch protection is similar to the ‌iPhone 11‌. Screen is a little more scratch resistant.

This is certainly a good start for the iPhone 12 lineup but we'll need to see how these things hold up out in the real world. Now more people have their own iPhones we'll see soon enough whether they're as tough as they first seem.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.