OnePlus 11 finally survives a bend test, but just barely [Video]

Ben Schoon | Feb 28 2023 - 7:32 am PT

The past couple of generations of OnePlus smartphones have proved to be structurally flawed, with the OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T able to be broken in half with someone’s bare hands. But, finally, the OnePlus 11 has been able to survive a bend test.

In his latest durability test, Zack from JerryRigEverything put the OnePlus 11 through the usual set of torture tests. Scratches, fire, and more, and the phone holds up quite well overall. The front glass holds up to the usual scratch tests, and the rest of the phone continues to be up to par. The display even holds up to the burn test for more than 50 seconds with no damage, which is impressive. The only real flaw seems to be in the fingerprint sensor, which stops working after scratches measuring level 7 on the Moh’s hardness scale are made above that area. This is a test that phones don’t often fail.

But the Achilles’ heel for OnePlus over the past couple of years has been the bend test.

The OnePlus 10 Pro first showed a problem when, when pressure was applied, the phone would snap in half with relative ease. The same was true of the OnePlus 10T released later in the year. With a similar design on the outside, and a new antenna line added right where those phones broke, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the OnePlus 11 would also succumb to the bend test.

Thankfully, though, OnePlus appears to have made some major improvements.

While there are some uncomfortable creaks and cracks during the bend test, the OnePlus 11 comes out the other side still intact and working. The damage seen is to the back of the device, where the rear glass panel sees a very deep break almost immediately, and the video goes on to see the glass then able to break in more areas with simple pressure from a finger. While your phone won’t often be subject to such an intense bend test, it is concerning that the rear glass panel cracked so easily.