iPhone 6 Plus takes on liquid nitrogen and a sledgehammer

The arrival of a new iPhone always signals the arrival of a new set of torture-test videos where creatively destructive people try out various ways of damaging the smartphone for entertainment purposes.

A few of the tests are practical (like dropping a phone onto pavement), but most of them are concerned with outdoing each other. To that end, YouTuber Richard Ryan pulled out an arsenal that includes liquid nitrogen and a sledgehammer.

The unsuspecting victim of Ryan's video is a brand-new iPhone 6 Plus, a device that costs a minimum of $299 with a contract. The process involves some sturdy sets of gloves and a container full of liquid nitrogen. The iPhone gets submerged and removed from the liquid. For a brief glorious moment after emergence, the iPhone continues to work, but then quickly shuts down.

The next step involves a rather large sledgehammer. The phone is propped up and receives a blow to the top. The liquid-nitrogen pretreatment leaves the phone brittle, providing us with a very satisfying slo-mo video of destruction. Little pieces fly off, like a car window shattering.

"Out of all the devices I've tortured-tested in the past, this one has definitely held up the best," Ryan said while examining the busted remains of the iPhone's case. He can still identify the SIM card and a few other internal components as intact.

The liquid-nitrogen experiment is just one of a series of torture tests conducted by Ryan. Other tests include a drop test, blender test, and shooting the iPhone 6 Plus with a 50-caliber bullet. These are all situations iPhone owners fervently hope their smartphone will never be faced with. At least we've learned something. If you should accidentally drop your 6 Plus into liquid nitrogen and then hit it with a sledgehammer, there's a chance you might be able to recover your SIM card.