Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max Tops Consumer Reports' Smartphone Ratings

Apple says the iPhone 11 Pros are its most durable models ever, with a greater degree of water resistance and tougher glass.

All three phones passed our water-resistance tests, but the 11 Pro didn’t survive ride in our admittedly tough tumbler.

The tumbler is a rotating chamber that repeatedly drops a phone from a height of about 2.5 feet. The phone is checked for damage after 50 drops and then again after 100. The goal is to expose it to impacts from a wide variety of angles.

In the case of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Max, the phones we tested made it through all 100 drops with just minor scratches. But when we checked the iPhone 11 Pro after 50 drops, we found that its display was broken and not working. A second sample also broke. (Yes, Consumer Reports buys all our test samples at retail. Yes, phone testing is expensive.)

That said, if you buy any of these three phones, snapping on an inexpensive case is always a good idea. Even the best phones can break, and getting them fixed can be expensive.