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

[Max(IT)]

It is all about levers and fulcrums, IOW physics.

Consumer Reports did not report that the applied force relative to the distance from an end was considered. A smaller phone should be more difficult to bend. (Ever try to bend anything that is short / small?)


Patient: Doc, I have a pain in my arm when I do this.

Doctor: Then don't do that.

Anyone bending his expensive phone must have plenty of money but not very much gray matter.

My HTC One M8 is in a case to protect it from being damaged if it falls out of my pocket. I never get to the point that I would sit down with the phone in my pocket, although I am sure some people get their brains to that point.

Well posted

 

[redshovel]

2000 posts on this thread. Getting so bored of bendgate now

 

[Max(IT)]

Even consumer reports video confirmed that new iPhones are almost 2x less durable vs. iPhone 5/5s and most of the competition.

As much as I like "SOME" Apple products, I am happy that they are getting all this negative press. It will only force them to think twice about putting all this crap on shelves.
They could have made those iPhones 1 mm thicker, make them as durable as previous 5's and make the camera lens not stick out, put even bigger batteries and perhaps do something about those ugly antenna bands. No one would give a darn thing about new phones being 1 mm thicker

Most of the competitors? Actually only TWO of them (Note 3 and Moto X), while a third very famous is even weaker... And a bend test says a little about durability of a phone, since only torsion resistance is involved, and torsion is the less likely solicitation a phone is going to receive, unless you are doing it on purpose.
That, and your words about how happy you are about negative press, classify you for what you're...

 

[nouspa]

Unfortunately not, as I don't go bending phones, unlike this guy:

It always starts like this

 

[MarcelEdward]

I can't believe this is an actual "issue". I think if my car got hit by a truck and bent, clearly the manufacturers problem. I mean aren't cars designed not to bend?

I think when a truck hits your car, the least of your worries will be if you car bent. You will be lucky if you survive that at all !

 

[Max(IT)]

He did not say it bend itself, he said he put it in his front/deep pocket of his "not skinny jeans"... So you don't have to try to ridicule his argument.

If you really think you could bend a phone by keeping in your front pockets you don't need me to ridicule Your argument: you are doing a better job by yourself

 

[Kissaragi]

The never ending thread.....

 

[Max(IT)]

No one claimed the iPhone 6 Plus bends at its center. There are reports and proof in internet that the iPhone 6 Plus bends at the upper top.

Now we have a report that the Plus does not bend at the center. That's hillarious.

I am a very happy 6 Plus owner and I love this phone. But you have to test against the claims.

I can basically proof everything on a YouTube video.
The only things I saw on that ridiculous videos are idiots trying intentionally to destroy an expensive device.
That proofs nothing.
The only scientific and controlled test I've seen so far is the CR test and what it said? IPhone 6 is weaker than iPhone 5S but still strong enough for daily use of a normal people.

----------

I completely agree that it is blown out of proportion. With Apple, consumers expect the absolute best. In this bending test (topic of this thread), Note 3 withstood 150lb compared to iPhone 6's 70lb and 6 plus' 90lb. I am not saying that Note 3 is the better product, it's just a much stronger phone.

First: Note 3 is thicker and made of plastic. It doesn't surprise me that a test based on torsion would be better on that device.
Second: since when the bend resistance is a factor for judging which phone is stronger? A phone could most probably drop or be scratched, but very unlikely bent. So resistance should be judged by others factors.

Proof me that you can actually bend your iPhone just by keeping it in your pockets, without sit on it, and I'll be the first to say there is a design flaw.
But this isn't the case.

 

[Splendrick]

Just ordered an iPhone 6 plus and I dont intend to bend it....

 

[Max(IT)]

I adore your logic

Premium means a more delicate device, like a delicate flower that must be treated with care.

And yet, we all know, without shadow of ANY doubt whatsoever, that if, after this test the Apple was the strongest in this test, and not 50% weaker than Samsung you would be SHOUTING.

Apple is premium, look how much higher quality it is that that cheap Samsung junk that broke 50% quicker.



Amazing, I love the logic that's twisted around in any directions desperately trying to show Apple is best, regardless of where it comes in a test.

If Apple was in a race and they came last, I guess you would say, it's not about who came 1st, Apple may of come in as one of the last in the race, but they ran the race in a more quality way.

There are literally hundreds of Samsung models on the market, and maybe some are weaker than the iPhone in this kind of stress test, but you know, I don't care at all.
I would buy an HTC M8 over a galaxy Note 3 every day, because I don't care if one require 70 lbs to bend and the other 150. I use my smartphone without trying to destroy it and surely I don't take a seat on a 5" piece of glass.

----------

Strength and durability of a product are important to me in a premium product - especially in a portable electronic device. I respect if that is not as important to you. I was not asking for stronger - in fact the iPhone 6 I bought is 46% weaker than my iPhone 5 it is replacing. I will make adjustments to how I have carried it in the past due to this design change so the phone works fine for me.

My point is I don't like to see Apple products at the low end of any comparison that may matter to consumers. Some will gladly prefer the thinnest phone possible and they will treat it more delicately. But a phone selling tens of millions units needs to target a broad range of buyers who use it under varying circumstances. The new iPhones are near the bottom of phone durability results - not what I like to see.

Again, a TORSION test says a little about how strong and durable your phone is. Solicitations that your phone is going to receive in its daily use are others.

 

[yansun]

If you really think you could bend a phone by keeping in your front pockets you don't need me to ridicule Your argument: you are doing a better job by yourself

I was speaking of a user of this forum (77CAR). You tried to ridicule him by implying his phone must have bent by itself...

As I said several times, it bent by itself. It's absolutely credible. It happens.
Maybe...

...while he did not say that. He said the phone bent in his front pocket (not back pocket), what means he thinks he accidentally bent it by putting it in his jeans front pocket and "using" it like he "normally" would do with a phone. How do you know it did not bend that way through the pressure on the iPhone inside his jeans while e.g. sitting down or kneeing like the user richardsonrs said in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQxX_x3HTXQ (at 0:34)? You can completely rule that out? Because you say so? Without any tests? And please don't say "but the CR test..."

I used common sense and put it in my deep pocket of my non slim fit jeans and it bent after 4 days. No keys. No change. No jumping jacks and/or other out of the normal physical activity.

I think people here need to acknowledge there's an issue.

Bent magic

I didn't put it in my back pocket and it bent.

I don't know if it's possible that way, but then I also cannot rule out the possibility that it's possible under certain circumstances. Do I ridicule myself with that?
There are users claiming that its possible and happend like that with their phones, and not only the user you were refering to (77CAR), but also e.g. the user richardsonrs who posted a video (see above) and pictures. In addition there is a hypothesis about a "weak spot", where of course absolute coincidentally the iPhones of 77CAR and richardsonrs bent too slightly.
That's why this is an "issue" (or non issue you would say...?) I'm very interested in and I'm concerned about. Not because I hate Apple or I'm a part of "the paid army of Apple bashers" as someone else here were referring to people who dare to be critical in this thread, but because, as I said before, I actually plan to buy the new iPhone since my iPhone 4 is dying slowly and I need a replacement soon...

 

[Max(IT)]

It seems to me nowadays in this forum at least is that "premium" just means a metal casing which is maybe 5% of the total cost of the phone. That's too pathetic.

To me premium means having 3gb of ram, infra red port or having functionalities that the other phone doesn't have.

IR port in 2014 are so important....

 

[62tele]

All of this commotion and hang wringing. I just checked the availability of any iPhone 6 or 6+ model within an approximate 350 mile radius of Jacksonville, so it would include major cities like Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta. Two stores have a few iPhones.

Apparently the buying public doesn't give a flip what this backward hat wearing buffoon posted on his youtube site or about "bend-gate". It's a non-issue except for Apple haters.

I am going to acquire one of the models when my contract allows in about 3 months and I won't think twice about it's durability. It's a great device. I won't purposely try to bend it with my hands, teeth or by placing it in a vice. It won't bend in my front jeans or pants pocket either. I'll take care of it as I would any expensive piece of gear. I don't throw my custom shop Fender guitars around or step on the neck to see how durable they are and I won't do anything as foolish as that with a piece of high-tech gear like an iPhone.

Do you think Apple is going to add the pounds of force needed to bend an iPhone to their spec sheet? Samsung, Moto, HTC etc are free to add that to their spec sheets if they choose. I DGAFRA.

As for the youtube buffoon, Bugs Bunny would say "what a maroon"!

 

[Max(IT)]

Because for those who refuse to believe, even a full-length, single-cut documentary of a phone being manufactured at Foxconn, packaged, shipped, unpacked at an Apple store, same phone being unboxed and bent would not be enough proof. That's why.

It still would be a pointless video, since real users aren't going to take the phone with two hands, put their thumbs on a particular spot near the volume buttons and then apply full force to destroy the phone....

 

[CB1234]

I can basically proof everything on a YouTube video.
The only things I saw on that ridiculous videos are idiots trying intentionally to destroy an expensive device.
That proofs nothing.
The only scientific and controlled test I've seen so far is the CR test and what it said? IPhone 6 is weaker than iPhone 5S but still strong enough for daily use of a normal people.

----------



First: Note 3 is thicker and made of plastic. It doesn't surprise me that a test based on torsion would be better on that device.
Second: since when the bend resistance is a factor for judging which phone is stronger? A phone could most probably drop or be scratched, but very unlikely bent. So resistance should be judged by others factors.

Proof me that you can actually bend your iPhone just by keeping it in your pockets, without sit on it, and I'll be the first to say there is a design flaw.
But this isn't the case.

Hello Max mate... Hope you are well... I hope you don't wear yourself out, proving the bozo's wrong.... Whilst they are bitching about 'bent' phones with their bent minds, people are snapping up stocks faster then you can say 'bendgate'...

iPhones launched on 27th in Dubai and within 45 minutes each and every piece was sold out in every store across Dubai.... Most retailers don't even have one single piece to show off at the biggest electronics exhibition GITEX which is on at the moment in Dubai!!!

Some of these morons will put a banana in their pocket and then complain how easily squashed they are, when they sit in it.....

Stay well...

 

[Max(IT)]

I can't believe members are defending apple on this.
The company has made a lot of terrible decisions recently and this is one of them.
A phone that cost me £619 and another £100 for AppleCare+ and leather case shouldn't need treating with kid gloves. It should be something that I don't have to worry about where I place it or treat it.
Mine will be going back for a refund before the fourteen days end.
Apple made their decision on engineering and design and what they feel is best but I'm making my decision on what I feel is more important on a mobile device and engineering should always be over design.

You don't need gloves. You just need not intentionally trying to destroy it.
And frankly I just don't believe someone taking the phone back because he saw a YouTube video of a troll destroying a phone for fulfill his agenda.

----------

Closed for thinking people maybe, but the genie is unleashed and now, millions of people who barely know what an iPhone is, thinks its a bending joke. The damage is done.

But we know the iPhone 6 was too successful for certain elements to just let it go.

Bad press.
That was the agenda of those YouTubers since the beginning. Sponsored by other companies or just being fandroids, it doesn't matter. The final objective was bad press.
And they succeed.

----------

I really want to know when Apple fanboyism turned into a cult, with the cult members making up wild conspiracy theories and refusing to accept simple facts. This is getting fairly absurd.

24 posts in several years.
20 of them are just Apple bashing.

I really want to know when Apple hatred turned into a cult. This is getting fairly absurd.

----------

Every single model of phone that Consumer Reports tested deformed at a certain amount of force. However, it's not whether it was going to deform that was the issue, but whether or not the amount of force required to deform was acceptable for a consumer product. They concluded that every phone tested was acceptable and structurally sound for consumer use. THAT is what many people are intentionally ignoring here.

You are right. They are INTENTIONALLY ignoring that conclusion.

----------

I think that's one of the 6 Plus's primary problems. Apple's design, with its large top and bottom bezels, does not work as well for large "phablet" style phones as Samsung's Note design, which is not as tall and narrow.

Actually, considering the presence of the TouchID home button, the bottom bezel isn't large at all.

----------

Sorry to break this news to you, but that means NOTHING.

I can make a phone in my garage.
I can make a rig to test my phone.
I can set my rig to a level I think it acceptable.
I can subject my phone to tests on my rig and it will pass my tests I have created.
I can call you in to see my phone not breaking on my rig and passing my tests.

It will mean NOTHING.

Without any standard, or any comparison it's all worthless.

Anyone can make anything that will stand up to their own testing on their own rigs.

I don't expect there is ANY standard set up for phone strength, it's totally down to the maker of the product to decide how strong they want their product to be, and whatever they decide whilst sitting around the table, is what the product will be.

Unlike crash tests in cars, or motorcycle safety helmets or ratings on other electronic goods that inform you the buyer, a phone can be anything.

The ONLY way a consumer can know anything is for either there to be fully independent testing, like we have seen in this video, but which runs more tests, or for there to be an international standard set in place, which a manufacturer can test to, and perhaps get a rating. So you would have say 1 - 5 ratings.

Apple testing their own products in their own way on their own testing rigs to their own level of satisfaction means nothing.

Samsungs phone of the same size is 50% stronger.
So Apple's phone would have been a fail for Samsung on Samsungs testing rig to Samsungs Standards, but a Pass for Apple on Apple's lower standard of acceptance.

You understand now?

I love your "logic".
So 15.000 units tested for months under controlled and scientific environment means nothing, while a couple of YouTube videos by people with an agenda are "a valid fully independent test"?
And even a fully independent test by CR stating that the iPhone 6 is strong enough for daily usage of a normal human being doesn't mean nothing because, you know, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (the only Samsung phone tested here) is stronger in this particular test.

I love your "logic", and Samsung love it too....

 

[mcapanelli]

All of this commotion and hang wringing. I just checked the availability of any iPhone 6 or 6+ model within an approximate 350 mile radius of Jacksonville, so it would include major cities like Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta. Two stores have a few iPhones.

Apparently the buying public doesn't give a flip what this backward hat wearing buffoon posted on his youtube site or about "bend-gate". It's a non-issue except for Apple haters.

I am going to acquire one of the models when my contract allows in about 3 months and I won't think twice about it's durability. It's a great device. I won't purposely try to bend it with my hands, teeth or by placing it in a vice. It won't bend in my front jeans or pants pocket either. I'll take care of it as I would any expensive piece of gear. I don't throw my custom shop Fender guitars around or step on the neck to see how durable they are and I won't do anything as foolish as that with a piece of high-tech gear like an iPhone.

Do you think Apple is going to add the pounds of force needed to bend an iPhone to their spec sheet? Samsung, Moto, HTC etc are free to add that to their spec sheets if they choose. I DGAFRA.

As for the youtube buffoon, Bugs Bunny would say "what a maroon"!

Thank you. The whole thing is moronic. I wouldn't expect an Android user to abuse his phone either. I don't treat my high ticket items with kid gloves, but I certainly don't go around abusing them either. I keep my phone in my front pocket and take it out when I sit. I also keep it in a outer box like I did my iPhone 5s and 4 before that. If I had a galaxy note I'd treat it the same as well.

 

[iceperson]

omg. it amazes me how people in the third world kill/stab people to get their hands on an iphone. and in western countries people are breaking them for just to see what happens! if only they knew how valuable that commodity is in other parts of the world.

What's amazing is how some people don't understand that the people who are "testing" these phones and making these videos are making enough from advertising to cover the cost of the phone several times over.

 

[Max(IT)]

The point is that this "amount of force" was directed at the exact center of the phone. They should have applied the force at the point higher up which is assumed to be the weak spot, where all the known cases have bent. Which means that the iPhone may be less "structurally sound" than what consumer reports say. Cult of Mac have a really good article on this: http://www.cultofmac.com/297938/weakspot-theory-shows-bendgates-quite-dead-yet/

Is it so difficult to understand?
This:

isn't something you are supposed to do with a frakking phone! There is nothing in real daily usage similar to that silly maneuver. Nothing.
Even when you sit on the phone, that is a very stupid move since it is made of glass and aluminum, you aren't pushing on a single spot.
Keep going on with your bashing if you wish...

 

[osofast240sx]

What's amazing is how some people don't understand that the people who are "testing" these phones and making these videos are making enough from advertising to cover the cost of the phone several times over.

Yes they actually make a living off of their videos

 

[fmcarv]

What's amazing is how some people don't understand that the people who are "testing" these phones and making these videos are making enough from advertising to cover the cost of the phone several times over.

Unbox Therapy is clearly being "sponsored" by Motorola cos every time he goes out being an iPhone he proceeds to telling his audience that he has a Moto X and its indestructible....

 

[sbailey4]

I'm with you man, I'm a huge apple fan but they blew it. My advice to you would be to return the phone and get a 5S or get your money back, or do you think these bending phones were just a bad batch?

Good advice. Get something else and save the iPhone 6 's for folks with enough common since to take care of them. That will help with the backlog too!

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Well I would like to try again with a new of the same and just adjust the way I use it in my pocket. Now that I know this is a possible problem. I didn't know before because none of the other 8 iPhones I have had have done anything like this, in the very same uniform pants I have been wearing for 9 years.

Yes because none of the other 8 phones you had for those 9 years were as thin or large as this one. That changes things. Not sure how people cannot understand that. Mind boggling.

 

[Piggie]

Correct, it means nothing.

Let me explain in a fashion you may understand and I shall keep it simple.

Say I make a phone.
I personally decide how strong it needs to be.
I may a few rigs to test that the phone passes what I consider to be strong enough.
I sell it and people say it bends when they use it.

Someone independantly takes my phone, that only I consider is as strong as I think a phone needs to be, and tests it against other phones.
My phone proves to be weaker than other phones.

So does that mean I'm right?
Does my opinion of how strong I think a phone should be mean anything?

Unless I work up to some standard set, then my feelings on how strong something I make should be are meaningless, as they are just my opinion.

 

[bmt134]

Unbox Therapy is clearly being "sponsored" by Motorola cos every time he goes out being an iPhone he proceeds to telling his audience that he has a Moto X and its indestructible....

Also clearly sponsored by HTC, Samsung, Nokia and every other company he tested that don't have bendable phones.

 

[Max(IT)]

Others have posted this man's calm common sense explanation of this whole iPhone Bend hype:

YouTube: video


This should explain everything without the hype. I swear all you kids believe everything you see on the Internet. I bet if you saw a video of bridge to sell you would believe it and try to fund the purchase.

I like his explanation. Calm common sense. I like it.