The OnePlus 10T can be ripped apart with your bare hands, durability test shows [Video]

The OnePlus 10T left a decent first impression with us earlier this month, but it was a phone that was a questionable upgrade from the OnePlus 10 Pro. Now we’re learning that, like the OnePlus 10 Pro, the durability of the OnePlus 10T is not exactly at the top of the class.

JerryRigEverything today posted one of his classic durability tests in which smartphones are subjected to scratches, flames, and most crucially a bend test. Most devices usually survive these tests without many issues, but the OnePlus 10 Pro was a massive exception to that rule earlier this year.

When the 10 Pro was subjected to a bend test, the phone snapped in half in mere seconds due to what appeared to be a structural point of failure beneath the camera module. While it’s generally not encouraged to put any phone under that kind of stress, it stands to reason that a well constructed smartphone shouldn’t be able to snap in half using just your bare hands.

Through a durability test on the OnePlus 10T, the story is pretty much the same.

The phone’s display scratches as level 6 on the Moh’s hardness scale, with deeper grooves at level 7, and the back panel acts like sandpaper on a razor blade due to its unique glass construction. The flame test leaves a permanent mark on the FHD OLED display, but that’s not particularly uncommon. And the frame is definitively made from plastic as this test shows, despite some confusion on whether or not it was made from metal. The plastic frame assists with OnePlus’ specialized 360-degree cellular antennas.

But the real kicker here comes down to the bend test where, again, the OnePlus 10T snaps in the same way as the OnePlus 10 Pro.

Right beneath the camera module, the frame cracks and shatters the camera module under relatively light pressure. Bending it further past that point breaks the glass even more, and the damage only gets worse from there. In the video, Zach is able to quite literally tear the phone apart with his bare hands, separating the display from the chassis and even removing the cameras from the device.

While again, this sort of torture isn’t something any phone is designed to be subjected to, it’s exceedingly rare that smartphones fail this test so spectacularly. The Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn’t break when subjected to this. Neither does the Pixel 6 Pro. The Nothing Phone 1, which is cheaper than the OnePlus 10T, also easily passes. Even the foldable Galaxy Z Flip 3 fairs far better – because it didn’t crumple like a dried leaf – in the same test.

More on OnePlus:

• OnePlus 10T brings 125W charging to North America, after OnePlus 10 Pro snub
• Hands-on: The OnePlus 10T is a Pixel 6 where performance matters over everything else
• OnePlus hopes to bring back the Alert Slider in future smartphones