New tests question the purity of Apple's sapphire used in its iPhone cameras

UPDATE 1:30 p.m. ET: An older version of this post indicated that Apple might be using a sapphire laminate over plain glass, but that is false. A spokesperson from Apple clarified that "the iPhone 7 camera lens is sapphire, and under proper testing conditions achieves the hardness and purity results expected from sapphire." This post has also been updated with comment from JerryRigEverything.

A new video posted by YouTube technology reviewer JerryRigEverything calls into question Apple's use of pure sapphire crystal in the camera lens of its iPhone.

Since it debuted the iPhone 5S in 2013, Apple has claimed that its camera lens is made of a synthetically produced material called sapphire crystal. Because it's so hard, it's almost impossible to scratch.

In his video, JerryRigEverything tests the material used to make the iPhone camera using different kinds of equipment, including an electron microscope. He compares the purity of the sapphire in the camera to a Tissot watch with a sapphire display.

What JerryRigEverything concludes from his tests is that the iPhone camera's sapphire content "appears to be not as pure as the Tissot," he told Mashable over Twitter.

By his own admission, JerryRigEverything is not an engineer or scientist and it is unclear whether or not he is trained on how to properly use the test equipment.

"How impure can your sapphire be, and still call it sapphire?" JerryRigEverything asks in the video.