Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

There's an art to the modern gadget torture test, particularly if you only have one brand new iPad Air on hand to attempt to destroy. You don't want to completely put the device out of its misery until you've had a chance to make it suffer a little bit and then finally end it in a grand finale that involves hot lava or a large vehicle of some sort.

Richard Ryan of RatedRR on YouTube had just such a plan to obliterate a new iPad Air with BBs and bullets, but found some of the drama of his torture test sucked away when the tablet's screen shattered upon being dropped from a height of only a few feet onto the loose-dirt ground.

The next round escalated the pain with a drop on pavement that warped the already spidered screen, and then a quick drop into water completely killed the iPad even before Ryan brought out his big guns... literally.

Nonetheless, it's worth watching the full video below to see some serious sharp-shooting skills completely take apart Apple's new slate.

Let us know in the comments what you think of this demonstration of the iPad Air's durability, or lack thereof.