Which phone should you buy?
The Pixel 11, for most people. It survived 270 drops in the EU's standard drop test, the top class, and its EU repair class is B, a step ahead of the Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 18 Pro. Google promises seven years of updates and spare parts, through August 2033. - Price: ~$999 · Check price on Amazon
Skip the Pixel 11 Pro if toughness is the point. It costs more and survived only 180 drops, a B. Google hasn't said why. The bigger Pro XL got the same A as the Pixel 11.
If you'd rather fix your phone yourself, get the Fairphone (Gen. 6+). It survived the most drops of any phone here, 300, it's the only one with the EU's top repair class, and a new screen costs US$89.95 from Fairphone. It's sold in the US, not Canada.
How do they compare?
| Pixel 11 | Fairphone (Gen. 6+) | Galaxy S26 Ultra | iPhone 18 Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU drop test | A, 270 drops | A, 300 drops | A, 270 drops | B, 180 drops |
| EU repair class | B | A | C | C |
| iFixit score | None yet | 10/10 (Gen. 6) | 5/10, provisional | 7/10, provisional |
| Battery you can swap yourself | No | Yes | No | No |
| Battery keeps 80% after | 1,000 charges | 1,000 charges | 1,200 charges | 1,000 charges |
| EU scratch rating (Mohs) | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Water | IP68, 1.5 m | IP55, splashes only | IP68, 1.5 m | IP68, 6 m |
| Updates guaranteed on the EU label | 5 years | 7 years | 5 years | 5 years |
| Updates the maker promises | 7 years | 6 Android versions | 7 years | Nothing more |
| Warranty (US) | 1 year | 5 years | 1 year | 1 year |
The drop test is the closest thing to a durability score that every phone gets. Makers run it to rules the EU sets and count how many drops the phone survives still working. The repair class goes from A to E. It scores how far you have to dig for each part, the screws and tools involved, spare parts, repair information and software updates.
EU figures come from each phone's entry in EPREL, the EU's product database: Pixel 11, Fairphone (Gen. 6+), Galaxy S26 Ultra, iPhone 18 Pro. They describe the European models. The label's update years count from when the model leaves sale. Mohs 4 is the lowest scratch rating the EU allows. iFixit calls a score provisional while it's still checking parts and software.
Which phones last?
Google Pixel 11. Our Pick - EU drop test: A, 270 drops · EU repair class: B · Durability: 9/10 - Price: ~$999 · Check price on Amazon
It matched the Galaxy S26 Ultra's 270 drops in the EU test, 90 more than the pricier Pixel 11 Pro, and its repair class is a step ahead of Samsung's and Apple's. Google promises seven years of updates and seven years of spare parts, screens and batteries included.
We haven't found a teardown or torture test of this exact model yet. The closest is its bigger sibling: JerryRigEverything found the Pixel 11 Pro XL barely flexes and called it "one of the easiest phones to repair of 2026" (Android Authority).
Trade-offs: Its screen has the lowest scratch rating the EU allows, Mohs 4, so put a protector on it. You can't swap the battery at home. And it's water-resistant to 1.5 meters, not the iPhone's 6.
Fairphone (Gen. 6+). Most Repairable - Repairability: 10/10 (iFixit, Gen. 6) · EU repair class: A · Durability: 9/10 - Price: ~$1,291 · Check price on Amazon
The phone you fix yourself. Fairphone's US store sells the battery for US$39.95, the screen for US$89.95 and the USB-C port for US$19.95, and you fit them with a screwdriver. iFixit gave the Gen. 6 a perfect 10 (The Register), and the 6+ is nearly the same phone, with a newer chip and more memory. It's also the toughest here on paper, at 300 drops in the EU test, and its five-year warranty is the longest here.
Trade-offs: It's rated IP55, so it handles rain and splashes, not a dunk in the pool. In the US it works on AT&T and T-Mobile, not Verizon. It isn't sold in Canada, and amazon.ca doesn't carry it: the price above is amazon.com's. On Amazon it comes from third-party sellers, and Fairphone's own US store was out of stock when we checked.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. If You Want a Samsung - EU drop test: A, 270 drops · Repairability: 5/10 (iFixit, provisional) · Durability: 8/10 - Price: ~$2,050 · Check price on Amazon
Built to take a beating. It matched the Pixel 11's 270 drops, its battery is rated to keep 80% of its capacity for 1,200 charges, the most here, and Samsung promises seven years of updates. JerryRigEverything's bend test left it with no cracks or major bending (Android Authority), and its screen held up to his scratch test noticeably better than the S25 Ultra's (Sammy Fans). When the battery wears out, it comes out with pull tabs, which iFixit called extremely easy.
Trade-offs: The screen. iFixit found it "practically impossible to peel away" and the selfie camera glued in, so plan on a professional repair if you crack it. In PhoneBuff's one-meter face-down drop against the iPhone 18 Pro Max, its screen shattered and the fingerprint reader stopped working. Its EU repair class is C.
Sources: iFixit's teardown, as reported by 9to5Google, and PhoneBuff's drop test, as reported by Geeky Gadgets.
Apple iPhone 18 Pro. If You Want an iPhone - EU drop test: B, 180 drops · Repairability: 7/10 (iFixit, provisional) · Durability: 7/10 - Price: not sold by Amazon · See it at Apple
The honest pick for iPhone people. Repair cafés fix iPhones more often than phones from any other brand we rank. The 18 Pro is water-resistant to 6 meters, the deepest here, and JerryRigEverything only scratched its screen with a level 7 pick and couldn't bend it (Android Headlines). In PhoneBuff's drop test, the bigger 18 Pro Max's screen survived a one-meter face-down drop that shattered the Galaxy S26 Ultra's. Apple sells its display, battery and camera parts through Self Service Repair.
Trade-offs: It survived 180 drops in the EU test, fewer than the other three, and its EU repair class is C. In iFixit's teardown, the plastic frame around the display cracked or pulled away on three of the four phones they opened, and nearly every repair goes in through the glued-down screen. Apple hasn't promised updates beyond the EU minimum, five years after the phone leaves sale. Neither amazon.com nor amazon.ca sells it, so we link Apple's store and earn nothing on it.
Sources: iFixit's teardown and PhoneBuff's drop test, as reported by Geeky Gadgets.
Our top picks are side by side on DurableFinds.
Durability scores are our editorial ratings, not measurements. Repairability scores are iFixit's.
Which phone brands get fixed most?
Apple. Repair cafés fix 61.4% of the iPhones they see and write off 10.2%, the lowest share of any brand we rank. Huawei, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung follow, between 50.6% and 54.2%.
So why isn't an iPhone our pick? A brand's record covers every phone it's made for years, and you're buying one model now. The iPhone 18 Pro's own EU results, a B for drops and a C for repairs, trail the Pixel 11's.
Google has too few repair records for us to rate, and Fairphone too few to rank against the big brands.
Brands need 100 or more records to be ranked: Apple has 1,370 and Samsung 1,066. Fix rates less than 3 points apart count as a tie.
What breaks on a phone?
Of the faults we can sort, screens are the most common, then batteries and charging. Damaged and dead phones are the likeliest to be written off.
- Screen: the most common fault, fixed 52% of the time.
- Battery and charging: fixed 46% of the time. On the Fairphone, that's a US$39.95 part you fit yourself.
- Broken or damaged (cracks, drops, water, buttons, or just "broken"): fixed 38% of the time, and 26% are written off.
- Dead, with no other clue: the worst odds. Only 19% get fixed, and 47% are written off.
So buy a phone whose screen and battery you can afford to replace, and put it in a case.
Fault types are sorted from volunteers' notes by keyword, so they're approximate. About half the notes don't name a fault we can sort. Screen covers any note that mentions the screen, cracked or not. Broken or damaged covers notes that don't mention the screen but say broken, damaged, cracked, dropped or water-damaged, or name the case or a button. Screen: 1,029 records; battery and charging: 789; broken or damaged: 241; dead: 68.
What we looked at
We don't drop-test phones ourselves. We used:
The EU label. Every phone that's gone on sale in the EU since June 2025 publishes the same test results, including how many drops it survives and a repair class from A to E.
Teardowns. iFixit's repairability scores and what its teardowns found, where they exist.
Torture tests. JerryRigEverything's scratch and bend tests and PhoneBuff's drop tests, credited where we use them.
Support. How long the maker promises updates and parts.
Repair records. How each brand's phones do at repair cafés.
Disclosure: Some product links on Sundr are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't influence our analysis. See our full affiliate disclosure.
What should you look for when shopping?
The EU label, even outside the EU. Look the phone up in EPREL, the EU's product database, for its drop test and repair class. It's the only durability data every maker has to publish.
Screen and battery prices. They're the parts you'll most likely replace. Check the maker's repair prices before you buy.
Years of updates. Once security updates stop, a phone gets riskier to use online, however well it's held up. Google and Samsung promise seven years.
A case and a screen protector. Cheaper than a new screen.
Before you replace one, check what broke. Repair cafés fix about half of the screen and battery faults they see. See if yours is worth fixing.
Compare Brands
See how these phone makers compare on repair records:
- Smartphone brand reliability rankings. Apple, Samsung, Huawei and more, ranked by repair success rate
- Apple vs Samsung phones: which brand is more reliable?
- Apple vs Huawei phones: which brand is more reliable?
- Huawei vs Samsung phones: which brand is more reliable?
- Motorola vs Samsung phones: which brand is more reliable?
- Should you repair or replace your phone?