Galaxy S22 Ultra Stress Test Backs Up Durability Claims

Among other things, JerryRigEverything uses Mohs’ hardness scale picks to scratch at the S22 Ultra, marking each scratching tool with a number. Ideally, scratches won’t start appearing until he moves toward the higher numbers that indicate a greater resistance against the sort of scratches one’s phone may acquire from things like rubbing against keys in a pocket or bag.

That’s the case here, with notable scratches appearing on the S22 Ultra’s display at a hardness level of six and getting pretty deep and prominent at level seven. That’s about what we’d expect from the handset, which was still able to read fingerprints with the under-display fingerprint sensor despite a bunch of scratches on the glass over it. Samsung used the Gorilla Glass Victus+ material for its latest flagship on both the display and the back panel. Beyond that, Samsung also boasts that the S22 Ultra packs its “strongest” aluminum frame thus far, not to mention the IP68 water resistance.

That aluminum frame, of course, can be heavily scratched with enough effort, though based on the stress test video, it looks like it would take more than accidentally running the phone against a set of car keys to see any sort of damage (a utility knife blade is used to get down to the bare metal in the video). Beyond that, the back panel appears particularly resistant to the sort of scratches likely to happen during daily use, as do the rear camera lenses.

Then there’s fire. JerryRigEverything put a lighter against the S22 Ultra’s display for around 20 seconds, which resulted in a permanent white blemish roughly in the shape of the flame. Despite that, the phone itself remained functional and, though it would be annoying, the device could still be used after such an encounter.