The phone is intact after falling from a height of more than 30,000 m

Interesting Engineering reported that the test of dropping a phone from the stratosphere, conducted by Taiwanese case manufacturer Rhinoshield in cooperation with British aerospace company Sent Into Space, achieved the Guinness World Record title for the highest fall of a case-covered mobile phone onto natural terrain.

Recovered on June 24 near Kiruna, Sweden, the iPhone 17 Pro remained intact despite falling from a height three times higher than the cruising altitude of a conventional commercial aircraft.

Theo NewswireRhinoshield came up with the idea for the test after launching its AirX case line, which uses a single-material structure to combine impact resistance and recyclability. AirX is inspired by automobile airbags and air cushioning systems used in footwear, integrating the structure to absorb impact energy.

Guinness World Records requires the phone to fall without a parachute and stipulates that the case must come into direct contact with the ground first. The challenge focuses not only on post-impact integrity but also on temperature and atmospheric pressure, which are significantly different from the ground.

Before setting the record, the company’s team tested the device in sub-zero temperatures and atmospheric pressure to simulate stratospheric conditions.

The process of sending the phone into the stratosphere by balloon took place near the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. The phone is dropped onto uninhabited terrain to minimize risk to people on the ground. After narrowing the potential crash area to about two kilometers, it took the search team more than 5 hours to discover the device in the wilderness.

Mujou Hsiao, brand manager of Rhinoshield, shared that the phone case industry generates a large amount of plastic waste because most cases use mixed materials that cannot be recycled. Rhinoshield uses single-use materials that have been 100% recyclable for many years, but people often think that this type of cover is not sturdy.

“The test of dropping an AirX-covered phone from the stratosphere proves that the durable design can withstand the harshest conditions on Earth,” said Mujou Hsiao.