Building just one smartphone from scratch would be a huge undertaking, even if the world is full of them. Now imagine trying to build one that’s 100 times its normal size with nearly all the same forms and functions.
YouTubers Matthew Perkins (DIY Perks) and Arun Maini (MrWhoseTheBoss) did exactly that, building a working replica of an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The completed project measured 6.74 feet tall and 440 pounds, earning the pair an official Guinness World Record.
Perkins started his build with the screen, a massive undertaking that required converting a LG Signature 88-inch OLED TV into a responsive touchscreen. He commissioned a manufacturer to fabricate a piece of touch foil the size of the screen, which he fixed in place with an optically clear glue UV epoxy.
The next challenge was finding a way to fit oversized versions of the phone’s components in a frame: the speakers, three-lens camera array, the volume and power buttons and the special function button. He built a frame out of aluminum with a cross shaped support in the middle. The cameras especially weren’t cheap, as Perkins opted to use both a Canon EOS R5 as well as a Sony RX10 Mark 4 to mimic the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s telephoto lens. The frame was also designed to be permanently mounted to a similarly-scaled up phone stand so it could be rotated without giving the user a massive hernia.
The only major component they couldn’t recreate was the operating system, since Apple’s iOS is closed-source. But using Android had two major perks: the Bliss OS recreated the feel of an iPhone home screen using a themed skin, and they could install Flappy Bird — something actual iPhone owners haven’t been able to do in nearly a decade.
The phone may be big but it appears to be just as functional as a handheld iPhone. Maini and a group of friends took the phone into the real world to test it out, and apparently it can make tap-to-pay purchases, send emails and make video calls. Functional or not, it’s brave to bring a $70,000 phone onto the streets of London without a case.
