Mrwhosetheboss (Arun Maini) built a 6.74-foot (roughly 2.05-meter) fully functional iPhone 15 Pro Max replica in 2024 to celebrate surpassing Apple’s YouTube subscriber count. He collaborated with Matthew Perks from the channel DIY Perks, who is known for his extreme hardware engineering.
Here is the “blueprint” of how they did it:
1. The Screen (88-inch OLED)
The biggest challenge was making a TV behave like a phone.
* They used an 88-inch LG Signature OLED TV as the base.
* To make it a touchscreen, Matthew Perks had to custom-laminate a massive touch-sensitive digitizer layer over the TV glass. This was the most nerve-wracking part—if the glue leaked or the glass cracked, the multi-thousand dollar TV would be ruined.
2. The Internals (A Gaming Supercomputer)
Since they couldn’t just put a tiny phone chip inside a giant box, they built a high-end PC to run the “phone”:
* CPU: Intel Core i9 (24-core).
* RAM: 128 GB.
* GPU: AMD Radeon 6950 XT.
* OS: It actually runs Android (with a heavy custom skin to look like iOS) and Windows. Apple does not license iOS for non-Apple hardware, so they used the flexibility of Android to mimic the “patti” and icons you mentioned earlier.
3. The Cameras (Better than Pro)
A tiny smartphone lens would look ridiculous on a 6ft phone, so they used professional photography gear:
* Main Camera: A Canon EOS R5 (a $3,500 full-frame mirrorless camera) that shoots in 8K.
* Zoom Lens: To mimic the iPhone’s zoom, they used a Sony RX10 IV. Because the lens was too long to fit “pointing out,” they mounted it sideways and used a tilting mirror system (like a periscope) to reflect light into the lens.
4. The Hardware Details
* The Frame: Made from CNC-milled aluminum to match the “Natural Titanium” finish of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
* The Buttons: They used air pistons behind the volume and power buttons so that when you press them, they have a heavy, tactile “click” feeling rather than feeling like a hollow toy.
* The Flash: They used massive high-intensity LED panels that could light up an entire room, far more powerful than a real iPhone flash.
5. The World Record
To qualify for the Guinness World Record, the phone had to be “fully functional.” This meant it had to:
* Send and receive texts/emails.
* Charge via a (giant) USB-C port.
* Run apps like YouTube and Flappy Bird.
* Make actual phone calls.
> Fun Fact: The charging cable they built for it is likely the world’s largest functioning USB-C cable, and it actually plugs into a massive port at the bottom of the frame.
I am not debating or policing whether it is a necessary promise that needs to be fulfilled at the expense of environment, as activists might argue.