Zack put the device through his usual rigorous torture, starting with the scratch test. Like most other smartphones with a glass display, the Pixel 6 Pro starts scratching with the Mohs level 6 pick, with deeper grooves at level 7. Google is using Gorilla Glass Victus for the display, as well as the rear glass panel. So you can rest assured that coins or keys will not scratch your phone’s display. The 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display of this phone though didn’t perform as well in the burn test. The pixels go red, and then black after only about 15 seconds under Zack’s flame. And they stay that way. Some phones show no damage under the flame, while some others return to the original state after pixels turn red initially. So, just so you know, you’d want to keep your Pixel 6 Pro away from fire. The under-display optical fingerprint scanner, however, works as fast even after deep scratches with the Mohs level 7 pick.
The Pixel 6 Pro uses less plastic and is quite strong
Last year, Google strangely used a plastic coating over the aluminum frame of the Pixel 5. That’s not the case this year, though there’s still an unexpected layer of plastic here. For the most part, the Pixel 6 Pro has its frame fully built of metal. We have metallic left and right edges, as well as the bottom. The SIM tray, volume rockers, and power button are also made of metal. But at the top, we have the entire edge made of plastic. “This is something we have never seen before,” Zack notes. “Usually, all the sides on a smartphone are made from the same material”. He speculates that this is due to the 5G antenna location on the inside. But we will have to wait until his teardown video for confirmation. The horizontal camera bridge on the back also gets glass protection but its ends are made of plastic. The raised camera bump is about 2.5mm thick. However, the phone sits perfectly on its back, with “zero rocking.” Despite one edge being made of plastic, and a rather unusual camera bridge on the back, the Google Pixel 6 Pro is quite strong. The device doesn’t show any “cracks, bends, or kinks” when bent from both the front and the back. “It did get burned easier than most smartphones and has the weird plastic rail up to. But other than that, I’d say the Pixel 6 Pro is a solid phone,” Zack concludes. You can see the device going through all those tortures in the video below.
