Durability test reveals weakness in Pixel 7 Pro's metal visor

2023-10-13

While the overall design of the Pixel 7 series is the same as the 6-series, Google did make one important change – the camera “visor” is now covered with metal instead of glass. That should make it more durable, right? Well, as JerryRigEverything found out, the answer is actually the opposite.

The durability test of the Google Pixel 7 Pro starts with something basic – how quickly the phone start suffering cosmetic damage? The metal band of the camera assembly lasted only a few minutes before the first visible marks appeared. Now, Zach’s workbench is a minefield of things that can scratch up a phone, but even then this was quicker than expected.

The worst is yet to come, however. Google didn’t just make the camera bump metal, it extended it to the side. And this has compromised the rigidity of the phone – while the Pixel 6 Pro survived the bend test, the 7 Pro fared worse when applying pressure from the back.

Check out the video to see how the Gorilla Glass Victus performs – it guards the 6.7” display on the front as well as the back panels. Well, except for the camera bump. As this video shows, metal isn’t always better than glass.

Moving the antenna line against the camera bump may have been a bad decision as well as it created a weak point, so the metal doesn’t get all of the blame here. Still, you should put your Pixel 7 or 7 Pro in a case if you don’t want it to get scuffed up quickly.

Source