Consumer Reports: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Not as Bendable as Believed

[clibinarius]

I don't get how the 6 Plus was stronger in their test the the 6? Surely being longer it would be weaker?

On a side note... I bet the iPhone 4 would have taken 200Ibs of force!

Because there's more ability for the aluminum supporting itself. Longer objects have a way of diffusing forces.

 

[nia820]

Please tell me you are joking/exaggerating.

Well not physically ill. But it is mentally distressing to see an expensive gadget purposely dropped on a concrete ground.

 

[Max(IT)]

Normal usage would be putting it in your pocket (perhaps a pair of jeans) and sitting down (to drive for extended periods of time). The pressure on the phone doesn't have to be enough to break it, just enough to deform it so it never lays flat again.

If the iphone was sitting sideways in your pocket (assuming they were large enough to do so) then I can easily imagine the force would be applied at each end of the phone and not in the center, as in Apple and Consumer Report's case.

Do you really consider as NORMAL to sit on something that basically is a 7 mm piece of glass and aluminum/plastic?
Well, the problem is you, not Apple or HTC......

 

[H2SO4]

There are plenty of established users who are critical of Apple. A brand new anonymous account should always be viewed critically...why do you think ere are rules to be established in order to be able to post to specific forums, etc?

There are. But. Where are you most likely to find an Apple aplogist, please pick an answer from the below choices?

1. Here on MR or a similar Apple centric forum.
2. On a Microsoft or Windows centric forum.
3. On a Samsung or Android centric forum.
4. On a Toyota forum.
5. Don’t know, I need another way to evade the question.

 

[gnasher729]

Prediction: The iPhone 7 will be triangular since it is the strongest geometric shape.

Nobody will sit on it twice.

 

[linuxcooldude]

First, I would prefer the iPhone 6 / 6+ Is proven to have no structural issues. I have a financial stake in Apple as I invest heavily in it via stock and options (make my living doing this).

I watched the video and reports from CNBC reporter John Fortt from the tour at Apple. John Fortt asked whether sustained tests from a phone being under stress for a longer time period such as a couple hours were performed. He did not get a response from Apple (at least not yet). All the tests shown were for short duration, repetitive tests. However some of the reported bent phones were under more prolonged stress - such as in a snug front pocket with bending / twisting pressure applied during a 2 hour car ride.

I had this happen to my iPhone 5. Had it in my front pocket that was too snug. Was sitting for a long time. The phone had a slight bend in it. The phone worked fine, but with my new iPhone 6 being 46% weaker in Consumer Reports testing I am concerned there will be increased incidents of bent iPhones.

Again, no one would be happier for this bending issue to be done and over with. Maybe consumers are more intelligent and will not subject their new iPhones to situations where it could be bent. My confidence on that is just not very high.

Considering the speed of the testing machines were pretty slow it would take hours to do a 15,000 cycle.

 

[Max(IT)]

I like all the September 2014 Join Dates from the haters in here.

Anyone that actually owns a 6 Plus knows it is a solid device. Honestly, there shouldn't be any problem for the life of your phone.

When did withstanding abnormal abuse from a person purposely trying to bend a phone become a requirement, or even a desired feature of a phone? If I wanted a phone that could withstand such abuse, I would have bought an old Nokia.

For reasonable users, the phone will be fine.

Oh it was the same for the antenna gate, the same for the iPad discoloration and so on.... Apple haters are a very vocal community

 

[0xyMoron]

So your phone is not really bent

You just have OCD

I duno which one is the bad news for him.

 

[OregonDuck28]

I was never bending towards not getting a 6+! Common sense kept me straight! Treat it like it costs. There will be not one problem with its durability. It's not a set of keys. Man people can be moronic.

 

[H2SO4]

I think the story that broke was that an IP6+ was in the front pocket.

I agree with you entirely that when it comes to applying force that it would be less noticeable with the leg/lower limb area. After all these are the bodies largest muscle groups.

What needs to be added to the definitive you put together Is the following. The available material space in the garment. Fitted clothes will have considerably less space particularly for an IP6+. You've already mentioned that the pocket will be another consideration.

So overall I agree with your view.

Why thankyou. All we need now is for someone respected, (I get the impression he needs to have in excess of 2 million posts and have been a member here for 100 years or more), to put forward some sensible answers to them.

 

[ReddestDream]

Better Testing . . .

As new iPhone 6 Plus owner, I would like to see this theory "scientifically" tested: http://imgur.com/gallery/FBegH

This discussion suggests that all iPhone 6 Pluses are defective by design in a way that Apple's stress testing could not detect.

The iPhone 6 Plus can be bent by torque appropriately applied by hand to a particular "weak spot" of the phone, but it is not bend as easily in "overall" stress testing.

If a group like Consumer Reports or SquareTrade could re-do the test by applying force to the "weak spot" rather than the back of the phone as a whole, that would put this whole thing to rest.

Based on this theory, I would expect to see much easier and more extreme bending . . .

 

[MyopicPaideia]

How about hanzoh - the guy that started the iPhone 6 Plus slightly bent after 2 days-thread on this forum and documented it with a photo where you clearly see the bend from the side.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1785905/

He has been a member since August 2005.

That is around 6 years longer than you have been a member by the way

I am not saying he's not legitimate, but he has 54 posts in 9 years and every one seems to report a problem with every product he's ever touched, from yellow screens to weird CPU behavior, you name it.

Yes he could easily just be extremely unlucky, he could be one of those ultra sensitive paranoid consumers who see a problem in everything they buy, or he could just post only when he has a legitimate problem, which is equally likely.

I'm not saying anybody with a former Apple CPU for a member status is canonical and nobody else is, I'm just saying that it is extremely easy to create an anonymous online account and spread crap, and that a skeptical and critical view should be taken in context to who is posting and their reputation and known credentials, just as you would, or even more so than you would, in person in a real life situation.

I mean somebody like Arn coming on and posting information about his own bent phone would obviously have more credibility than someone who created both their MacRumors and Twitter accounts today just to post abouth their bent phone.

There are infinite grades in between...

 

[Dorje Sylas]

As much as I think things got blown out of proportion, I don't think this test by consumer reports actually tested "real life" conditions.

There are indeed critical flaws I the design of the iPhone 6's structure made for the sake of the thin design.

This test did NOT examine or investigate those structural weakness, and under what "every day" situations forces would be applied to those weak points.

A structure is only as strong at its weakest point. This 3-point test doesn't test for those.

The design is still flawed and Apple's (Ive's) obsession with thinnes is hurting the product more and more in the long run.

 

[H2SO4]

Fess up to what? I told you all already. I won't be in front of the bent phone until Monday. Taking a photo of mine will do nothing because, as I've said from the beginning, mine isn't bad at all and I pretty much took the bend out of it myself, by bending it the opposite way. If I use a metal ruler against *my* phone and put them up to a bright light you can barely see a little light coming from between the ruler and the phone at the top corner. Showing you a picture of this is pointless. The one you want to see will be posted Monday, so you can go on thinking I'm lying until then.

They’re like pirhana aren’t they?
Look, take a photo of both phones side by side if you can with a third instrument in good light. Write your forum handle on the paper upon which both phones rest. I’m not busting your balls, I’m just trying to head off the inevitable kick backs. This forum and these posters will still be here when you return.

----------

Well not physically ill. But it is mentally distressing to see an expensive gadget purposely dropped on a concrete ground.

That’s more like it. I must be strange. I feel no distress or remorse at all for that.

 

[Max(IT)]

Guys as Apple fan I have to admit, Apple ****ed up this time.
Live with it, the iPhone 6 plus bend, period.
Stop defending apple, the real life test show that this phone have weak spot, all the high tech machine in the videos doesn't check this spot.
People ask why should I care, I never bend it, well it seems super weak in this spot and it will bend in this spot after regular use in a year or two.

Where are the "real life test"?

 

[D.T.]

i wonder if all those bent fone cases popping up, if those owners have real nice firm full butts?

Tina would like to know too ...

 

[rsocal]

How much do you weigh? If I lean into it with less than a third of my weight, it'll bend. My legs can generate enough force to propel my 5'6, 238 lb frame high enough in the air to grab a regulation-height basketball hoop.

Our bodies can easily generate that amount of pressure, especially in the lower extremities. When confined to tight jeans pockets, the scenario of the phone bending is very, very plausible.

That said, for me it'd be a non-issue. I just wouldn't put my device anywhere where that kind of stress is caused esp. when knowing this can happen easier than before.

I don't wear skinny jeans neither.

Then we need much more then 160lbs.....

 

[Max(IT)]

That's stupid.
6+ has an obvious structural weakness near the volume buttons - that's why given certain circumstances it deforms around that point. But they're testing it in 3-point setup, applying pressure to the MIDDLE! Do you know how leverage works? This test makes only academic sense, but not a real-world-usage one.

Wow it's amazing how many "September 2014" analyst are joining the forum. Administrators should be happy.

A structural weakness. Indeed. They should put a sticker on the spot saying "do not try to rip apart with two hands in this point: it could bend".

 

[JDookie]

No, the story never changed. I bought three phones, and two of them bent. That's exactly what I said in my first post. One of them bent a LOT more than the other, with the latter being mine which I was able to bend back to *almost* flat, but not entirely. My mother's phone is the one that is bent to the point of not being able to be fixed, and the screen is ever so slightly pulling away from the frame. That's the facts, and even though I was able to *fix* mine, the fact remains that it still bent under normal use. How and when it bent I have no idea because (again, like I said in my first post) we use cases which hid the fact that they were bent.

Now, even though I already said showing this photo would be pointless, you all want to see something *today* so here's my phone.....the FIXED one. You can see that the light just ever so slightly comes through more at the corner than it does the rest. I know this picture isn't perfect, and I'm already expecting the two non-believers to say something to the effect that I'm holding the phone wrong, the ruler wrong, or the light is the wrong color, etc. but this is the best I can do for today. The phone I'm going to show you Monday is night and day worse than this, and the pictures will be much better when I can get to a real camera and extra hands.

 

[linuxcooldude]

What is interesting here is that the Note 3 stands up better that all no one is talking about that here all phones are bendable at some point mass produced anything is possible. I still have to wait till nov for my 6plus not cool.

Also interesting is the Note 3 stopped working as soon as it deformed. Not so with some of the rest. I know what phone I want if I get in a car wreck to call for help...lol.

 

[ndpitch]

And there you have it. Bending phones in your hands only once, and then making conclusions without any data, is laughable.

The scientific method is cool. Stay in school, boys and girls. The internet is making the world less intelligent every day.

 

[hglk]

Guys check this video out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ3Ds6uf0Yg

I wonder if he does birthday parties. I have one coming up!

 

[cmaier]

No, the story never changed. I bought three phones, and two of them bent. That's exactly what I said in my first post. One of them bent a LOT more than the other, with the latter being mine which I was able to bend back to *almost* flat, but not entirely. My mother's phone is the one that is bent to the point of not being able to be fixed, and the screen is ever so slightly pulling away from the frame. That's the facts, and even though I was able to *fix* mine, the fact remains that it still bent under normal use. How and when it bent I have no idea because (again, like I said in my first post) we use cases which hid the fact that they were bent.

Now, even though I already said showing this photo would be pointless, you all want to see something *today* so here's my phone.....the FIXED one. You can see that the light just ever so slightly comes through more at the corner than it does the rest. I know this picture isn't perfect, and I'm already expecting the two non-believers to say something to the effect that I'm holding the phone wrong, the ruler wrong, or the light is the wrong color, etc. but this is the best I can do for today. The phone I'm going to show you Monday is night and day worse than this, and the pictures will be much better when I can get to a real camera and extra hands.

[url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/JDookie/DSC01920.jpg]Image[/URL]

Cool. Now just please photograph it with the code from the forum like you promised.

Also, I don't see any light?

 

[fmcarv]

No, the story never changed. I bought three phones, and two of them bent. That's exactly what I said in my first post. One of them bent a LOT more than the other, with the latter being mine which I was able to bend back to *almost* flat, but not entirely. My mother's phone is the one that is bent to the point of not being able to be fixed, and the screen is ever so slightly pulling away from the frame. That's the facts, and even though I was able to *fix* mine, the fact remains that it still bent under normal use. How and when it bent I have no idea because (again, like I said in my first post) we use cases which hid the fact that they were bent.



Now, even though I already said showing this photo would be pointless, you all want to see something *today* so here's my phone.....the FIXED one. You can see that the light just ever so slightly comes through more at the corner than it does the rest. I know this picture isn't perfect, and I'm already expecting the two non-believers to say something to the effect that I'm holding the phone wrong, the ruler wrong, or the light is the wrong color, etc. but this is the best I can do for today. The phone I'm going to show you Monday is night and day worse than this, and the pictures will be much better when I can get to a real camera and extra hands.



[url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/JDookie/DSC01920.jpg]Image[/URL]

Where's the bend exactly?

 

[apolloa]

Do you seriously consider what he's doing on that video as a normal usage behavior? Seriously?
Do you consider that similar to put a phone in your pockets?

This entire issue is just ridiculous.
I can't believe Apple haters could reach such a low level......

The whole point isn't to show normal behaviour, it is to show how easily it is to bend the iPhone 6 Plus. And as for us Apple haters, you mean us people typing replays and posts on our Mac computers and iPads Like myself? Or the person on the video?