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iPhone 6 Plus Bending Limits Tested in New Video

If you're going to "test" this things rigidity "in the name of science", and trash a functional device worth more than the annual salaries of most of the worlds people, you could make effort to perform an actual quantitative test that gives us some idea of how much load to avoid putting on it.

This video tells us nothing useful, only that you bent your phone with some unknown amount of hand strength, set to a snappy little song.

Aluminum alloys can be formed in just about any way imaginable; cast, forged, stamped, you name it. Without knowing the properties of the "liquid metal" alloy, or of the alloy they're currently using, we have no idea which is stiffer or stronger or more fatigue resistant or anything. All we know is you can pour "Liquid Metal" into a mold as a casting. ...which isn't a problem, since you can already do that with plenty Aluminum alloys, or spend a few cents extra and just near-net forge a hundred per second and get a stronger blank with optimal density and grain to perform some finish machining on and get the best of all possible worlds.

Clearly the iPhone requires a little structural work yet. It will be easy enough to do without losing volume for the battery. They'll get it in the next revision.
 
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iZac said:
Apple seriously need to get on with this liquid metal development.

Aluminium had its decade, time to move on to a smarter metal that you can injection mould.
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You're exactly right. Aluminum has been used for almost everything apple has released recently. Stylistically it's great, but for a device like this which is in your pocket and goes with you everywhere it isn't the ideal choice based on strength.

I wish the guy in the video did a more realistic test on the phone like bending it slightly at first or twisting it to simulate it's realistic strength.
 
Kebabselector said:
Thin metal things bend - wow - and in other news bears continue to do business in woodland areas.
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With that argumentation you can justify anything.
Truth is, this just shows how stupid Apple was to use thin aluminum.
They always talk about perfection and their incredible ways of producing their phones.
And then their stuff gets easily bent while in someone's pocket for a day.
Ridiculous.

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iloveiphone6 said:
[/COLOR]

They need stop obsessing about thinness. the iPhone 4 was thin enough.

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I just showed this video to my students just before lunch.

They sat there with their jaws opened. I asked them if they thought that was good quality. They screamed NO.

Kids are brutally honest.
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Although I agree it's a bend-gate: kids may be honest but they are not always right.
 
ThunderSkunk said:
If you're going to "test" this things rigidity "in the name of science", and trash a functional device worth more than the annual salaries of most of the worlds people, you could make effort to perform an actual quantitative test that gives us some idea of how much load to avoid putting on it.

This video tells us nothing useful, only that you bent your phone with some unknown amount of hand strength, set to a snappy little song.

Aluminum alloys can be formed in just about any way imaginable; cast, forged, stamped, you name it. Without knowing the properties of the "liquid metal" alloy, or of the alloy they're currently using, we have no idea which is stiffer or stronger or more fatigue resistant or anything. All we know is you can pour "Liquid Metal" into a mold as a casting. ...which isn't a problem, since you can already do that with plenty Aluminum alloys, or spend a few cents extra and just near-net forge a hundred per second and get a stronger blank with optimal density and grain to perform some finish machining on and get the best of all possible worlds.

Clearly the iPhone requires a little structural work yet. It will be easy enough to do without losing volume for the battery. They'll get it in the next revision.
Click to expand...

Whilst I only know as much as the next layperson on here that's seen Macrumours articles about the mysterious "liquidmetal" is that it's key benefit is that it can be injection moulded - which makes it much more versatile in manufacturing that casting.

I believe it also has much higher elasticity as well, so when someone bends it out of shape, it's more likely (dependent on forces involved) of snapping back into place - like a plastic material. Whilst all phones this thin will bend - the problem is that this thin aluminium frame is deformable and retains that bent shape.

Yeah, like you say, it needs work. With the highly exposed glass front, bigger surface area and thinner profile making it quite fragile along with ugly antennas and projected camera - this generation of iPhone is (in my opinion) turning out to be a bit of a lemon. Still selling millions though.
 
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Oh I'm getting this rush of creative ideas like

Me and iPhone and steamroller and YouTube

Me and machine gun and iPhone and YouTube

Me and iPhone and YouTube and jackhammer

IPhone and me and YouTube and Mac Truck

IPhone and hydraulic press and YouTube and me

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iZac said:
Whilst I only know as much as the next layperson on here that's seen Macrumours on the articles about the mysterious "liquidmetal" is that it's key benefit is that it can be injection moulded - which makes it much more versatile in manufacturing that casting.

I believe it also has much higher elasticity as well, so when someone bends it out of shape, it's more likely (dependent on forces involved) of snapping back into place - like a plastic material. Whilst all phones this thin will bend - the problem is that this thin aluminium frame is deformable and retains that bent shape.

Yeah, like you say, it needs work. With the highly exposed glass front, bigger surface area and thinner profile making it quite fragile along with ugly antennas and projected camera - this generation of iPhone is (in my opinion) turning out to be a bit of a lemon. Still selling millions though.
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Spring steel. Stainless variety. Like 200 year old tech.
 
You can watch twenty different drop tests of the same device and get 20 different "results". I am going to assume the same is true for bend tests.

As much as I love to make far reaching conclusions from a singular data point with no controls.....Oh wait, I dont love doing that at all!
 
There's a reason the guy that proposed to Steve Jobs substituting cheap aluminum for the stainless steel on the iPhone 4 to save money was dragged out of the building and shot.
 
ThunderSkunk said:
If you're going to "test" this things rigidity "in the name of science", and trash a functional device worth more than the annual salaries of most of the worlds people, you could make effort to perform an actual quantitative test that gives us some idea of how much load to avoid putting on it.

This video tells us nothing useful, only that you bent your phone with some unknown amount of hand strength, set to a snappy little song.

Aluminum alloys can be formed in just about any way imaginable; cast, forged, stamped, you name it. Without knowing the properties of the "liquid metal" alloy, or of the alloy they're currently using, we have no idea which is stiffer or stronger or more fatigue resistant or anything. All we know is you can pour "Liquid Metal" into a mold as a casting. ...which isn't a problem, since you can already do that with plenty Aluminum alloys, or spend a few cents extra and just near-net forge a hundred per second and get a stronger blank with optimal density and grain to perform some finish machining on and get the best of all possible worlds.

Clearly the iPhone requires a little structural work yet. It will be easy enough to do without losing volume for the battery. They'll get it in the next revision.
Click to expand...

You don't have to test it, this was just a confirmation that the iPhone 6 bends. It is headline news at this point. No testing necessary.

Like every brand new Apple product, you are the beta testers.
 
So does this make Ive bad designer? In some sense it does. It seems Ive has higher and higher tendency of putting form ahead of function in his designs. iPhone is premium product far more expensive then say Samsung or HTC phones so one should also expect higher quality. However, apparently these brands have managed to create products that can take the daily abuse but Apple had failed in that task. What I really would like to see is comparison test between Apple, Samsung and HTC (full aluminum) phones. This would tell if Apple has really failed in what others have succeeded in or if this is common problem in all of the overly thin mobile phones.
 
MH01 said:
You sir win my Apologist award for today. Gold star for you.

How on earth did you reach the conclusion it was an alloy?

You do realise that you can have an iphone that is made of Aluminium as stated by Apple. An alloy is when aluminium is mixed with another metal. If it was an alloy Apple would have announced it, as a major feature.
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Ok, I can't argue with you anymore. You do know that aluminum in its pure state cannot be used like this, it is always an alloy. The more you know!
 
iVoid said:
I think the 'good news' part of these bending iPhones is that the glass isn't cracking and the phones are still working.
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I would say it's rather a bad news if you have AppleCare+. The fact that your phone is still working excludes bending from AppleCare+ coverage, since it says in 4.1 that it only covers damages that hinder the working of your work.

So, if a bent phone still works, you can't benefit from AppleCare+... Do benefit from it, you will have to wait till it's bent enough that your screen stops working, that the glass breaks or that the battery rips and explodes. Then, you will be able to apply for AppleCare+ (and a skin graft in the later case).
 
flottenheimer said:
And a follow up test – also from Unbox Therapy

Galaxy Note 3 Bend Test (iPhone 6 Plus Follow-up)
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In all honesty I didn't want to see that. I guess I was hoping to see all the big phones bend under pressure. I really wanted to get the new plus but now I need to see if this is going to be major problem. I honestly don't want a phone which breaks under normal use. Sticking with my old 5 for now.
 
nutmac said:
AppleCare+ for iPhone ($99) includes 2 incidents of accidental damage repairs or replacements for 2 years, after $79 + tax deductible per incident.

Replacing iPhone 6 Plus without AppleCare+ runs $329 plus tax.

I strongly suspect folks doing these drop and bend tests purchased AppleCare+ or similar insurance.
Click to expand...

They're scum if they actually send them in to get replaced on apple's dime after purposely destroying them.
 
All of the iPhone 6 devices seem to bend round the bottom of the volume buttons. Looking at the device I have here I can see that immediately on the other side of the device is the cutout for the sim card slot.

I'm not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination but is it likely that having 2 cut outs in the aluminium structure on either side of each other the cause of this problem as it weakens the strength of the device in a single horizontal cross section? I wonder if Apple had put the sim card slot maybe 1cm lower (like it is on the 5S) if this would still be happening so easily?
 
Finally reason to chance the design to be a bit thicker and more battery life without a sticking out camera.
 
TimWillz said:
6.9mm piece of aluminium bends when a large force is applied to it.
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You're right. It's just amazing that a company like Apple wasn't able to realise that simple truth... I think it's a clear hint of a dysfunction in the company since the death of Steve Jobs. It looks like the design department has taken over the company and completely ignored the people in engineering...
 
rdlink said:
Wait, what?!

And a car should not crumple when you run it into a wall?

Place force on thin aluminum object: Object bends. Make object thinner: Less force needed. Since when did the fact that you put the phone in your pocket and applied said force become a design flaw? For Christ's sake!!
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Driving a car into a wall is not the purpose of a car, if you build a car to withstand driving into a car wall because you thought that was the purpose of it, a car should not crumple...

This is a mobile phone, it is meant to be easy to transport and be able to withstand common stress.
Having the phone in a pocket and then have it bent due to normal activity is a design flaw.

Would be like your car starting to crumpling due to wind resistance when driving 90 mph, not intended!!
 
Matt Leaf said:
This is the first time an Apple product has ever looked tacky and cheap, imo.
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images
 
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