Stress tests reveal structural weakness in Google Pixel 4

What you need to know

• YouTuber JerryRigEverything stress-tested the Google Pixel 4.
• The phone cracked in multiple places.
• The structural weakness is in the frame near the antennae.

Professional phone destroyer JerryRigEverything has conducted his durability test on the Google Pixel 4, and the device did not impress the handheld demolition expert.

After chipping away a distressing amount of paint, Zack bends the phone and hears a snap, a sound he says he hasn't heard on a flagship phone in a long time. The Google Pixel 4 is shown with a crack running the width of the side of the phone.

Further bending produces three more cracks, laterally on each side, about a fifth of the way from each end of the device. By scraping away more of the flaky paint, Zack shows that the cracking coincides with antenna lines on the device. Because of the nature of the metal frame of a smartphone, device makers need to leave room to expose the antenna past the edge of the metal box. The lines you see on older iPhones and many smartphones today are often design treatments that hide these antenna breaks.

As Zack points out, most phone makers reinforce the frame at these break points so that bending the phone won't actually crack the frame. While the phone in Zack's video still has an active screen and OS, it is doubtful the radios would function properly after such damage.