{
  "id": 893187,
  "title": "★ You Don’t Need to Worry About Scratching Your iPhone Camera Lenses",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/you-dont-need-to-worry-about-scratching-your-iphone-camera-lenses",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-14T17:16:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Daring Fireball",
    "slug": "daring-fireball",
    "url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/iphone_camera_lens_scratch_resistance"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "After discussing the scratch resistance of modern iPhones in my previous post, I received numerous inquiries from individuals who were hesitant to place their iPhones lens-down due to concerns about damaging the camera lenses. These lenses are indeed made of glass, which is prone to scratching, and a scratched lens could potentially ruin photos and videos captured with the camera. However, there are several misconceptions surrounding this issue.\n\nFirstly, the circular openings on the back of your iPhone are not the camera lenses themselves. These openings are actually protective covers over the smaller, recessed spherical lenses. These covers are made of sapphire, which is significantly more scratch-resistant than glass. In fact, I have never personally noticed any scratches on the lens covers of my iPhones, even after frequently setting them down on hard surfaces with the lenses facing down.\n\nZack \"JerryRigEverything\" Nelson, a popular YouTuber known for testing the durability of various products, conducted an experiment on the iPhone 17 Pro where he attempted to scratch the sapphire lens covers with a razor blade. The result was no effect, demonstrating that sapphire is highly resistant to scratches. It's important to note that sapphire is more likely to shatter than scratch due to its hardness, although using a diamond-hard pick to scratch the lenses is not recommended.\n\nAdditionally, even if a fine scratch were to occur on the lens cover, it is unlikely to have any noticeable impact on image quality. A video from DPReview in 2020 illustrates that the extent of damage to a lens caused by dust or scratches is greater than what is typically encountered. The actual area where light is focused is the sensor inside the camera, not the surface of the lens itself.",
  "summary": "The exposed lens covers are made of sapphire, not glass, and are thus incredibly scratch resistant. And even if, somehow, do you pick up a scratch on a lens cover, it almost certainly won’t affect image quality at all.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}