iPhone 6 Plus Bending Limits Tested in New Video

[mdelvecchio]

The 4 and 4S had separate structure parts and they never bent.

gee, i wonder what could have been different about the 4-series? could it have been...they were 4.5" long and .37" thick, while the 6+ is 6.2" long and .28" thick? now, what do we know about length and levers.... oh yeah! the longer they are, the more force they generate when positioned against a fulcrum...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever

 

[richardsonrs]

RIGHT!

Now it's 10,000 out of 10,000,000 mass produced electronic devices made of metal bend in your pocket when pressure is applied.

Does anyone still get a device to actually use anymore? Instead of just look at and ogle while it's on a table?

I think my phone is in my pocket the least during the day. I pull it out and use it to do all sorts of things almost consistently. Then when I'm at home it's still out of my pocket. Then at night it's on the charger.


Maybe I'm the weirdo that does everything with my phone BUT make phone calls and leave it in my pocket all day. It's why the Note 2 was excellent save for iWork and why the 6 Plus is truly a phone I can live with.

I don't carry a purse and am a dispatched technician. I'm very mobile. If I'm not using it, it's in a pocket. Where else would it be? Who can walk around all day with a phone in their hand? I have had every single iPhone and have used the same uniform pants since I started working at Bellsouth/ATT and never had an issue. Until now, a day after getting my new 6+.

 

[iolinux333]

RIGHT!

Now it's 10,000 out of 10,000,000 mass produced electronic devices made of metal bend in your pocket when pressure is applied.

Does anyone still get a device to actually use anymore? Instead of just look at and ogle while it's on a table?

I think my phone is in my pocket the least during the day. I pull it out and use it to do all sorts of things almost consistently. Then when I'm at home it's still out of my pocket. Then at night it's on the charger.


Maybe I'm the weirdo that does everything with my phone BUT make phone calls and leave it in my pocket all day. It's why the Note 2 was excellent save for iWork and why the 6 Plus is truly a phone I can live with.

If I needed a phone just to get work done I'd spend $200 on a Moto G and be done with it. For $1000 damn right I'm gonna oggle it. All the time. And marvel at my insanity.

 

[tjlazer]

The direction of the bend would suggest that the phone would have to be sideways in a front pocket. Who wears tight pants that would allow a sideways i6 Plus in their front pocket? Also, it would have to be a LOT of thigh and tight jeans pressure, so I'm not buying the front pocket stories. Sitting down with the phone in the back pocket would produce the direction of the bend of the phone, And I don't know why anyone would put a $650-$1000 phone in their back pocket, and then sit on it.

Not true! You can have a phone vertical in a front pocket, and it can bend. Like when a chunky hipster tries to sit down to indulge that double cheeseburger and fries combo. lol

 

[2010mini]

Last I checked, all thin cellphones are prone to bending. But I guess because this is an iPhone then.....

holy crap Apple sux! The world is ending!

/rant

 

[richardsonrs]

Last I checked, all thin cellphones are prone to bending. But I guess because this is an iPhone then.....

holy crap Apple sux! The world is ending!

/rant

I always find people are much more flippant about this kind of stuff until it is there phone. I'm not saying apple sucks, I am saying they should have seen this as a possibility and they will need to fix it.

 

[2010mini]

I always find people are much more flippant about this kind of stuff until it is there phone. I'm not saying apple sucks, I am saying they should have seen this as a possibility and they will need to fix it.

Unless you can show this is a manufacturering defect such as cheaper metal than advertised. Or some kind of underhanded cost cutting. Then I don't expect Apple to design this phone for every conceivable possibility.

Just like I don't expect the manufacture of the rims on my car to design them specifically for the roads I drive on.

 

[MRI3T]

How exactly is this a "test"? Guy bends an iPhone and it bent. Wow :|

I guess I should be able to completely bend my iPad air in half???

 

[richardsonrs]

Unless you can show this is a manufacturering defect such as cheaper metal than advertised. Or some kind of underhanded cost cutting. Then I don't expect Apple to design this phone for every conceivable possibility.

Just like I don't expect the manufacture of the rims on my car to design them specifically for the roads I drive on.

Yes you're right. Who would have ever thought of someone pocketing their phone. Just nuts.

But you would expect the rims to not get damaged during normal use. Like sitting there, on the road or in a parking lot. Or rotating.

 

[aolbites]

Sitting on a pair of sunglasses not part of what they are designed for...

But i think most if not all people think that a common idea of a mobile phone is to transport it around with you in a pocket. If the product is not able to withstand the stress which is applied to it during the means of transport which it is commonly understood to be the norm, then the product is indeed flawed.

Issue it's transport, it's sitting and dummies having it in their front pocket and not in line with their leg, or even worse, having it in their back pockets and sitting on it.

I wear skinny jeans a lot and when I have no jacket on I put my iPhone 5 in my jeans pocket. My iPhone is in perfect condition aka straight as an arrow. Naturally I wouldn't be sticking iPhone 6 in my pockets but nonetheless iPhone 5/5S are seriously robust phones. Unfortunately Apple's everlasting chase for thinner and thinner phones has lead to a situation in which thicker phone is more versatile then a thin phone.

Yes, because Apple is the only company going for thinner...

So much Kool-aid drinking fanboys here at MacRumors. This is a huge design flaw. This isn't necessarily the outcome of hipster jeans or sitting on phones in the back pocket.

I had an iPhone 5 that bent after two months of wearing in loose-fitting scrubs or white coat pocket. Never the back pocket, never sat on, never fell once, kept in a case. First I got sim card errors, and then the phone just stopped working. Apple Geniuses refused to accept that this was the product of casual usage.

After being without an iPhone for the past year, my 6 finally arrived. An Otterbox couldn't arrive sooner. Let's hope that keeps my phone straight for longer than two months this time around. Let's also hope Apple addresses this, and gives up the silly quest of achieving the thinnest phones.

I highly doubt that nothing happened to it. Metal doesn't bend on it's own and I have tons of friends who have theirs for a year or more and it hasn't spontaneously bent.

I love how putting a 6+ in either your front or rear pockets is against "common sense" around here.

I'm not sure it should be qualified as a "phone" if you have to transport it in travel luggage.

Yeah...putting a device that could be damaged through pressure into an area that experiences pressure is dumb...Yup. Plus, I doubt many people who keep their phones in their pockets where the material isn't pressing down on it at a weird angle is an issue. It's more the off angle, or the smart folks who put it in their back pockets and then don't expect 50-100 lbs of pressure to do anything to it.

 

[cfedu]

gee, i wonder what could have been different about the 4-series? could it have been...they were 4.5" long and .37" thick, while the 6+ is 6.2" long and .28" thick? now, what do we know about length and levers.... oh yeah! the longer they are, the more force they generate when positioned against a fulcrum...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever

Just like the wings on a airplane are levers. The longer the wings the stronger and more flexible the design has to be!! You don't see Boeing putting in thinner and thinner spars as they increase wingspan!!

Maybe you should send that wiki link to apple engineers. They seem to be doing it backwards, the longer the lever they make, the more inferior a design they use.

 

[Mak47]

Aliminum is a relatively soft metal. Soft metals bend easily. Every single adult on the planet should know this. The larger the flat surface, the more leverage there is when pressure is applied, making bending easier. This is also something that every single adult should know.

Any grown adult that is surprised by this occurrence should not be angry with Apple. They should be angry with educators who left them without a basic underatanding of the physical world.

Obviously, when combining the two factors, you will end up with a product that can be bent.

For those that watched the Note 3 video, you'll notice that that device bends just as much as the iPhone. The difference is that it bends back, because it is mostly plastic. Aluminum doesn't work that way. The "tester" also didn't show us what the inside looked like after his test. All the creaking and popping he mentioned hearing cannot be without consequence.

While the Note 3 retains its original appearance, its internal components will actually suffer greater stress because they are repeatedly bent back and forth as the device shifts positions and regains its shape.

Perhaps these large, thin phones are not ideal for everyone. Perhaps other design choices should have been made. Perhaps there are multiple factors at play that are going unmentioned.

I'm not convinced that all of these phones were kept comfortably in front pockets. I suspect that most bent iPhones were kept in back pockets (as is popular) and the "victims" are being disingenuous. Even in a front pocket however, if external pressure is applied--leaning against hard surfaces, bumping into things, even leaning your hands or elbows against the device--can all provide adequate stress to bend or even break an object like this.

If one's pants are so tight that they bend an iPhone, I do think new pants are in order. It's not 1985 and it's a phone, it won't impress anybody when you cram it in there.

 

[cfedu]

Yes you're right. Who would have ever thought of someone pocketing their phone. Just nuts.

But you would expect the rims to not get damaged during normal use. Like sitting there, on the road or in a parking lot. Or rotating.

No need to use pockets for a phone. Just balance it on your head like I do!!

 

[2010mini]

Yes you're right. Who would have ever thought of someone pocketing their phone. Just nuts.

But you would expect the rims to not get damaged during normal use. Like sitting there, on the road or in a parking lot. Or rotating.

This just in:

ANY smartphone made of metal will bend! http://www.cultofmac.com/297404/get-bent-shocking-history-bent-smartphones/

Nothing new.

 

[H2SO4]

Unless you can show this is a manufacturering defect such as cheaper metal than advertised. Or some kind of underhanded cost cutting. Then I don't expect Apple to design this phone for every conceivable possibility.

Just like I don't expect the manufacture of the rims on my car to design them specifically for the roads I drive on.

No but he will tune the suspension to the roads you drive on. Don’t discount everyting so easily.
A device manufacturer will cut cost everywhere they can. Everywhere. Then they will toy with the idea of cutting costs in areas that you can’t see and proceed to do so if they think they’ll get away with it.

 

[iHEARTcartoons]

This is why "skinny" pants are stupid.

 

[bradl]

Bendghazi.

BL.

 

[Redneck1089]

This is why "skinny" pants are stupid.

Skinny jeans have nothing to do with this.

I wear "regular" jeans and with several of my pairs I wouldn't want to store the phone in their pockets for too long, especially once I start moving around. The phone has a weak point, which is right around the volume buttons and the sleep/wake button. It's a design flaw. There is no way around that fact.

The phone is so large that there are bound to be pressure points on its structure that the older smaller iPhones never had. Apple should have reinforced the structure of the phone. They didn't for whatever reason; most likely because Jony Ive wanted the phone as thin as possible, and also to save money.

Regardless, the bending of this model of phone from being pocketed is ridiculous. Fan-boys can defend all they want; I just hope it happens to their expensive phone sooner or later.

----------

This just in:

ANY smartphone made of metal will bend! http://www.cultofmac.com/297404/get-bent-shocking-history-bent-smartphones/

Nothing new.

Compare those models to the size of the iPhone 6 Plus. Most of them are substantially shorter in length. So yes, while they will bend (and plastic will eventually break), because of their smaller size they will still be sturdier than the humongous iPhone 6 Plus. The 6 Plus just has so much surface area that there are bound to be new pressure points, and the curved design of the phone is much more conducive to bending than the old candy-bar style frame (which, as you've shown, can still bend given the right circumstances).

The 6 Plus should have been reinforced internally around the volume buttons and the sleep/wake button.

 

[melendezest]

This whole "bend-gate" thing could have been avoided if Apple weren't so averse to plastic, for some reason, as well as their predilection for thinness.

Plastic is more flexible, is lighter, absorbs impact better, etc. If the phone bends in your pocket, this is bad design and Apple's fault, period. EDIT: Front pocket! If you put a phone in your back pocket you're asking for it.

That said, folks now may need a hard case (which will probably be made of plastic) to prevent this issue, if it is to be pocketed.

I still like the iPhone 4/4s design the best (the Sony Xperias are similar and equally nice) and that sucker didn't bend at all. A clear skin on the back, and I was good to go. Beautiful phone.

 

[rdlink]

What documentation??? Paper is way too expensive for Apple to provide a real documentation with his phones...
Besides, you're putting the burden of the proof on the wrong side of the argument. It's the burden of your documentation to list what you CANNOT do with your device.



Yes, indeed, it's common sense. How can you explain that the design team at Apple lacked even that little common sense not to realize that their device would not resist the most common use case for a phone ?



The 3G/3GS made of plastic sold very fine. The 4/4S made is steal which is much stronger than aluminum sold very fine too.

Wow. Unbelievable. So the documentation should say:

You can't put your phone in a situation that puts undue pressure on it.
You can't run your phone in a blender.
You can't spike your phone on the ground.
You can't put your phone in a microwave.
You can't <put whatever crazy situation in here>

The fact is, if you just watch the video of the "bend test" you'll be able to see that in order to bend the phone in your pocket you will have to put it under enough pressure that a reasonable person would feel it.

You're a plaintiff lawyer's best friend.

 

[Derpert]

Wow. Unbelievable. So the documentation should say:

You can't put your phone in a situation that puts undue pressure on it.
You can't run your phone in a blender.
You can't spike your phone on the ground.
You can't put your phone in a microwave.
You can't <put whatever crazy situation in here>

The fact is, if you just watch the video of the "bend test" you'll be able to see that in order to bend the phone in your pocket you will have to put it under enough pressure that a reasonable person would feel it.

You're a plaintiff lawyer's best friend.

Yea,

Lawyer: "What's your beef?"
Plaintiff: "My iPhone you sold me bent during normal use"
Lawyer: What normal use is that?
Plaintiff: "It was in my pocket. Like Steve showed us and like advertised as as suitable on the apple web site"
Lawyer: ...

 

[GuitarDTO]

Ive is not an engineer. there is an engineering department. Ive is design.

but i still disagree with your conclusions -- you have no idea what they tested for and what tools they used to complete those tests.

and if you arent going to keep this phone in your pockets, what are you going to do w/ it? will you get another phone, that is also susceptible to misuse?

Correct, I have no idea, but this is such a common sense problem to be checking for that either:
A. they didn't check for it at all
B. they did, and are bad engineers
C. they analyzed it, are aware of the problem, and didn't care (IE, still chose form over function).

None of those scenarios is a good thing. Your question about where I am going to keep my phone is the exact reason I am considering cancelling my plus order. I don't know where, but I know I don't want to have to worry about bending my phone if I need to store it in my front pocket occasionally.

 

[JS3]

If i bend my iphone 6 plus inwards does it technically become a lg flex phone?

 

[cdmoore74]

It's not the size of the phone it's a design flaw or manufacturing defect.

Length does play a role along with materials and construction technique. Would you rather get on a crappy 3 foot ladder or take your chances on a 6 foot crappy ladder?
This is why you’re going to see a greater number of bent 5.5” models vs 4.7” models even if the 4.7” outnumber the 5.5” 2 to 1. Both models will bend but because of the taller length of the 5.5” it has more opportunity to do so in a similar sized pocket. I don’t think people realized the sacrifices you have to make with such a long device that’s built from soft metal like aluminum. Plus I expect many more 4.7” users to rock a case because with a tall device like the 5.5” it’s going to make it even more unbearable and people will not enjoy it much. I speak from experience because I owned a Note 2 and 3; case selection makes a huge difference. I light duty case on this 5.5” model won’t stop it from bending .

 

[JS3]

Armbands because they are the only place your iphone 6 is safe from bends. lol