How tough is the sapphire edition HTC U Ultra? See it scratched and tortured in this video, then compared to other products

Earlier this year, HTC launched an oddball of a premium phablet — the HTC U Ultra, with a 5.7-inch main display and an extra ticker screen on top (a la LG V20), super-shiny finishes, and a missing 3.5 mm headphone jack (despite the device being quite large). To top it off, the company also announced that there will be a special edition of the phablet, which would rock a sapphire glass screen — allegedly the most unscratchable material for a screen that you can make.

Now, as we know, sapphire glass panels are super-hard to make — a couple of years ago, Apple hired a 3rd party company, which was allegedly going to make sapphire screen covers for the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but the task proved to be so hard and the yield was so abysmal that the company went out of business.

However, companies continue to try and improve the process for making sapphire displays, and it appears that HTC may well be among the first ones that have achieved any form of success there. Now, the U Ultra sapphire edition is quite expensive, and we'd assume that there's a good reason for that — it costs a good $160 more than the already pricey ($750) regular model. But is the glass really as scratch-resistant as advertised, or is HTC just trying to bank in on some buzzword marketing?

Well, YouTuber JerryRigEverything, well known for putting the "science" in "phone torture" took his famous Moh's picks to the glass of the HTC U Ultra and compared its durability to the glass of a premium Tissot watch. It seems like HTC was pretty serious about that sapphire screen!