Pixel 4 has a flaw that no software update can fix: It Bends | Hacker News Reader

Pixel 4 has a flaw that no software update can fix: It Bends

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24 pointsjaytaylor21 comments

Every phone, actually every solid, bends/breaks if given enough pressure. I can see the video of him bending the phone but I have no idea how much pressure he applied other than my seeing his thumbs shaking under the pressure. What would really be interesting would be for those reviewers to put all of the phones in a hydraulic press and measure how much force was needed to bend the phone.

>iPhone 6 buyers discovered an annoying problem. Apply enough pressure on those first-gen thin aluminum frames, and you could bend them without damaging the structure of the phone. Apple was quick to fix its “Bendgate” problem and made sure it never happened again.

1 you do get plenty of "damaging the structure of the phone" with touch dying first

2 "Apple was quick to fix" by never admitting any problems and charging users $150 repair fee https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/239746-apple-will-fix-tou...

How does this even happen? Do they not stress test this stuff before shipping?

I mean, it's not like there was not a "bendgate" precedent back in '14, so it's odd that this would slip into production like that.

They totally test this before shipping.

They probably decided the breaking force was sufficiently high regular customers wouldn't hit it. If it does break, they'll be paying out loads in warranty claims, so they have a financial and PR reason to do this stuff right.

Looking at the fact he has to practically break his thumbs to get that amount of force, they might be right.

It makes for a dramatic YouTube video, many add impressions will be sold with breathless headlines, but look at how much force he needs to apply and ask how often you do that to your phone? These flaps will lead to someone at that company making sure it’s harder to repeat but it won’t make a difference for almost anyone in normal life.

(“Antenna gate” was similar: lots of heated prose while affecting many orders of magnitude fewer people than AT&T skimping on their network provisioning but the “look at those tech company engineers thinking they’re so smart” angle distorts things)

> ask how often you do that to your phone?

Put your phone in your back pocket and sit down. This is exactly how bending became a big issue with the iPhone 6.

I've never understood putting your phone in your back pocket. Why sit on an $800-$1000 device? For me, it is not comfortable, and I would be paranoid about it falling out when sitting down or getting pick-pocketed. Can someone help me understand? I wonder if my front pocket preference stems partly from growing up with early cell phones that were much too thick to put anywhere but your front pockets (if even that).

As an example: women's jeans typically don't have front pockets large enough to hold contemporary phones. The solution is often back pockets, or carry it in hand (or in a bag).

It's called a mistake. People do things by mistake.

I carry my phone in my back pocket all the time, specialy in the office where I spend most of my non-home time. It's far more comfortable than cramming it into my front pocket.

Moving with a big phone in the front pocket is also annoying: my hip and leg bones make contact with the phone, and the pressure is noticeable. By contrast, my ass is soft.

Before sitting down, I remove it. Sometimes I forget and sit on my phone. And then I remove it.

Since my phone does not bend, nothing happens.

I sit on my phone all the time, take it in the shower, frequently drop it(on accident). So I guess the price of the phone doesn’t factor too much into how I physically treat it.

Regarding the back pocket, it’s just easier and a matter of personal preference.

I do not have front pockets in my female jeans :)

I buy $200 Chinese phones now with the same specs and more features than any US flagships. Not a worry if I bend it.

Do you do this regularly? Do you know anyone who does? I’m not sure I’ve seen it even once because it would be uncomfortable even if it wasn’t damaging.

iPhone 6 was designed badly, you have clear weak line going straight across the device starting with volume buttons and ending on sim tray and no bracing or even components on both sides of PCB in that spot. Apple knew about the faulty design before introducing the product.

It happens because building things to be completely indestructible is expensive and impractical.

Yawn. In other news, if you drop a laptop onto concrete, it will break.

You can see some of the tests here in this OnePlus factory tour: https://youtu.be/ES-s9KQrUTY?t=768 To summarize, thermal stress test, 1-8m drop tests, tumbler test, and various functionality/endurance tests. The cracks shown in the video probably would happen with a drop test at the right angle, but perhaps someone missed them.

Overall it seems like Google spent most of its budget on developing the screen and camera, and less on usability or design. Zack's bend test with his massive hands is probably obscure enough that nobody involved with the design considered it. And with the release of the Pixel 3a a few months ago I'm guessing there was also a lot of management pressure, teams split up etc.

I wonder if this is a fake bending problem, like iPhone 6, or actually a real issue?

It bends at the plastic antenna cutouts in the frame (so RF can escape) and it looks like it wasn't properly reinforced.

Are you saying Apple faked its internal documents stating 6 is ~3x more likely to bend than previous models?

Bends more easily doesn’t mean bends too easily.

Of course what’s too easy is a grey area. I do know as an owner (who’s generally rough on his stuff) of a 6 plus for four years that they don’t bend easily.

According to Apple internal documents "iPhone 6 Plus was 7.2 times more likely to bend" than iPhone 5. X times more likely means X times weaker. Aligning all the structural weak spots (sim tray, volume button, empty space on both sides of PCB) was a real stroke of genius.

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