If there's a trend emerging in the early days of 2025, it's that the best smartphones are becoming more durable — and a lot more durable. In just a few short weeks, I've seen phones put in dishwashers, used as cutting boards, and run over by moving vehicles. That's only the tip of the iceberg.
Honor sent me to its Magic 7 series launch event in Slovenia this week, and the company encouraged myself and other reviewers in attendance to push the Magic 7 Pro to its limits. That comes shortly after OnePlus invited my colleague Nicholas Sutrich to watch the OnePlus 13 survive a dishwasher run, too.
You might be wondering what all this is about, and whether you should care — after a few days of putting the Honor Magic 7 Pro to the test firsthand, I think I know the answer.
The crave for extreme durability protection for smartphones started a long time ago, when phones first began supporting IP ratings against dust and water ingress. That's a fancy way of saying that phone brands wanted to keep dust and liquids from getting inside smartphones. Premium materials, like titanium, stainless steel, and hardened glass helped fortify phones against hard drops and scuffs.
If you've ever dropped a phone on the beach or in the pool, you'll understand why. But the first Android phone to feature some degree of water resistance was the Motorola Defy about 15 years ago, so why is this extreme durability push happening now?
The truth is that new processes and innovations have enabled phones, such as the OnePlus 13, Motorola Moto G Power or Honor Magic 7 Pro, to withstand situations that were once inconceivable. For starters, the first wave of IP69-certified smartphones are hitting global markets. Previously, IP68 was understood to be the highest level of protection against dust and water ingress. That's changed with the advent of IP69, which represents an extra degree of protection against extreme pressure, temperature, and steam.
In essence, devices with IP68/IP69 ratings can survive even the toughest challenges, like being placed in the dishwasher. The photos above show Honor putting the Magic 7 Pro in a countertop dishwasher with the display still running, and it's something that felt surreal in person.
That wasn't all. Honor touted the Magic 7 Lite's "Anti-Drop Display," which it says is made out of ultra-tempered glass. To put it to the test, the brand put the phone under the knife, using it as a cutting board to chop up a banana. They offered to let me try it for myself, and I winced at the idea of purposefully putting a knife against a phone screen — as a tech journalist, it feels like that should be against my religion.
But that just about sums up how confident companies are getting about their phones' durability. It's easy to make claims on spec sheets and press releases. It's a lot more brazen to conduct real-world tests in front of reporters, where there's always a chance of disaster, like the infamous Tesla Cybertruck reveal.
Things once again took a borderline insane turn when Honor let the Magic 7 Lite get run over by an ATV, and then get casually dropped off an ATV driving at speed on a rocky dirt road.
It's absolutely impressive that the Honor Magic 7 Lite, a phone that costs under €400 in Europe, can survive these kinds of tests. It's also quite nice that the Motorola Moto G Power, soon to be available for under $300 in the U.S., supports IP68/IP69 durability ratings. But how much should this matter to a normal person like you and me, who uses their phone for normal tasks?
I think that depends. After I saw what the Magic 7 Pro and Lite could do, I also became a little brazen while testing out my loaner device. While using the phone caseless, I recorded videos of myself sledding and driving my own quad bike with the Honor Magic 7 Pro. Maybe you don't need a dedicated action camera or a rugged case if these are the kinds of extreme situations that your phone is tested to survive.
With that being said, the Honor Magic 7 series isn't indestructible. It's going to break, scratch, and crack under the right conditions. While I watched the Magic 7 Lite survive roughly a four-foot fall at speed in Slovenia, it's possible your phone falls out of your pocket at the dinner table and cracks. Sometimes, there's no rhyme or reason to when phones fail, no matter how durability standards they meet or how many real-world tests they survive.
So, I won't go out and say that buying a OnePlus 13 or a Magic 7 series phone is a must if you care about durability. However, I will say that from what I've seen, phone brands are getting more confident than ever about their devices' durability.
Whether you use your smartphone to go to the office and back or take it on extreme excursions, that's good news. Anything that can be done to make phones tougher to crack and prevent water or dust from entering is a solid step in the right direction. With the advent of IP69 smartphones, it's possible that phones like the Honor Magic 7 Pro, Moto G Power, Oppo Find X8 Pro, and OnePlus 13 aren't just taking a step — they could be taking a leap.
