iPhone 6 Plus bending in pockets
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Though who knows, maybe some folks have had problems with these devices and it's just not widely reported. Given the high profile launches and expectations of flawlessness from Apple (rightly or wrongly), it may well come under increased scrutiny.
I think we're at least going to have to put an asterix on the tale of the guy that bent his phone in his pants pockets. Until it's been reliably reproduced, I for one won't be jumping to any conclusions.
But surprisingly they didn't test bends.
As for your second point, fair enough, I'd like to see more testing, too. But it's already been replicated numerous times, even on unedited video. All looks pretty reliable to me.
This is like antenna gate-- typical Apple bashing pretending like there's some sort of defect when there isn't. And like antenna gate, if you analyze other phones on the market, you'll find they too don't have super human strength.
In fact, the fact that they bent, instead of breaking, is pretty strong evidence that they are the best built phones on the market.
Subject any competing phone to 300pounds of force differential between the center and the edges (or whatever they used to get these to bend) and I'm pretty certain they will be destroyed.
One of the reasons I buy Apple products is that they are built to be durable in a way that very few of their competitors are.
This video says different:
And what about antenna gate, did that turn out to be false? I'm genuinely curious, as all I've seen is that it was a serious issue that was later corrected by Apple. i.e. these people had all the right to complain. Let me know if you've seen other info.
Based upon, apparently, your opinion?
they are built to be durable in a way that very few of their competitors are.
Material porn has absolutely nothing to do with actual suitability to purpose. iPhone devices are absolutely wonderful devices, but the narrative around the build materials, which people wrongly conflate with built "quality", is detached from reality.
Well, given how Apple consistently said people didn't want bigger phones because they weren't suitable for pockets, its not entirely implausible that when they finally bowed to the sales numbers that showed the first part of that was wrong, they might have gotten the wrong message and thought that the second part was still basically right -- that they believed that people wanted bigger phones even though they weren't convenient for keeping in pockets, so that pocket suitability wasn't an issue for bigger phones.
Admittedly, its inconsistent with the myth of Apple's near-prescience when it comes to consumer preferences, but that myth seem to me to be as much a product of people misreading the high-profile cases where Apple marketing has been very good at creating consumer demand for whatever it is Apple is making as anything else.
Correct. And for, hm, probably 99.98% of the 10m iPhone 6 users created over the weekend, that isn't an issue.
You're drawing a misleading comparison between putting your iPhone in your pocket and it becoming bent out of shape. What happens when you put your phone in your pocket is crucial: exerting sufficient pressure to bend (as opposed to flex) the phone.
This is a problem with any object of similar proportions and rigidity when sufficient pressure is applied.
Tl;dr: if you sit on something, it might break.
Well they need to change their design then. It's a design flaw.
Uh, what? You really think that because of an edge case outside of intended use (again: not just putting the phone in the pocket, we're actually applying significant pressure to it in order to accomplish this) Apple should design a thicker phone?
There are 5.1 million car crashes in the US per year which result in damage, dents, and bends to cars. Maybe we should redesign all of them too?
You're suggesting that because the material is not impervious to pressure they should augment the physical characteristics of the product to allow for an extraordinarily remote eventuality which is exhibited in a tiny number of devices which are used entirely outside of the normal conditions (i.e. they're under ENOUGH FUCKING PRESSURE TO BEND THEM.)
Get a grip.
Of course with enough pressure anything will bend or break, but consumers expect that with 'reasonable use' they can expect their device not to malform. And surprise, reasonable use for most people (particularly men) includes putting their phone in their pocket at least some of the time instead of in their bag/purse ALL of the time. That's a design flaw. Either change your material (not majority aluminium), or really change your communication (push it as a tablet or a phone for in your bag) and warn of the risks. Don't just push it like an ordinary larger phone and stay silent when people say it bends in their pocket days after release, and when people bend it with their fingers on camera. I don't see how people can deny this is an issue.
Obviously it's not a problem of people using their phone in an insane manner, as we simply didn't see similar bending problems with every iphone release before.
Incorrect. I saw reports of this with the 5S last year. Cult of Mac did a good round-up: http://www.cultofmac.com/297404/get-bent-shocking-history-be...
> Of course with enough pressure anything will bend or break, but consumers expect that with 'reasonable use' they can expect their device not to malform.
I'd say that if you're applying enough pressure to bend a slab of aluminium and glass, you're A) someone who should have to have a licence in order to safely operate it without injuring yourself and B) definitely using it outside of its intended usage.
> And surprise, reasonable use for most people (particularly men) includes putting their phone in their pocket at least some of the time instead of in their bag/purse ALL of the time. That's a design flaw.
No. You're misrepresenting the problem entirely. The problem is not "putting the phone in your pocket" as you state. The problem is putting your phone in your pocket and then applying enough pressure to the device to bend it, whether intentionally or not. If putting the phone in your pocket caused this, EVERYONE would experience it, and it would truly be a design flaw. As it is, a tiny minority of people have put the phone in their pocket, applied a huge amount of pressure to the frame, and bent it. I held one earlier today and I doubt I could apply sufficient pressure to permanently bend it with my hands. It's insane that people are blaming Apple for this.
> Either change your material (not majority aluminium), or really change your communication (push it as a tablet or a phone for in your bag) and warn of the risks.
Warning: if you drop your iPhone it's going to smash. Warning: if you set fire to your iPhone it's going to burn. Warning: if you put your phone in your pocket and bend the phone, it will fucking bend.
> Don't just push it like an ordinary larger phone and stay silent when people say it bends in their pocket days after release, and when people bend it with their fingers on camera.
Just like the 5S did. Just like the Samsung Galaxies do. Why don't people understand how this works? If you bend something, it will bend.
> I don't see how people can deny this is an issue.
Because 9.9 million people have the phone and no problem. Because they're not idiots who put a phone in their pocket, apply pressure to it somehow, and bend the phone.
> Obviously it's not a problem of people using their phone in an insane manner, as we simply didn't see similar bending problems with every iphone release before.
How many reported instances of this versus iPhone 6 users who have managed to not bend their phones? It's definitely an edge case of people using their phone in an unusual way (if it was the usual way it would be bending more phones). It's that simple.
Especially for varying definitions of "sitting", which may involve constantly jittering on one's chair or being in a habit of regularly hurling oneself into a sofa.
Just like the claim that the finger print scanner didn't work, the entirety of antenna gate and, naturally, all the pictures of shattered glass we see every time a new model comes out.
"oh, it was just sitting on the night stand and fell about 6 inches into a pillow and the glass shattered!"
I predict we'll get "my iPhone caught on fire!" and "man in china electrocuted by genuine apple power adapter[1]!" stories in the next couple months.
[1] Actually cheap poorly made knockoff but the press won't mention that.
We'll see how this claim holds up, but look I'm an iphone user, not anti-apple at all, and not hysterical. It'd be pretty hysterical for me to deny what I'm seeing with my own two eyes.
It is a brand new, $1000 consumer device. As haughty and rich as we all present ourselves, it really supremely sucks if you're the person whose brand new device got bent -- regardless of your available spending cash, it's a major bummer, moreso if you have a 2 year contract ahead of you and a dead device. That is why there is a "hysteria".
Gorilla glass (not sure if the iPhone uses that brand specifically, but they use ion enhanced glass which is what it is) famously bends.
This story got knocked back to page 3 for having too many comments to upvotes, as an aside.
If this turns out to be a major problem that doesn't happen to me initially, I'll return the phone. If it's not that widespread but I'm among the unlucky ones who ends up with a bent phone over the next 2 years, Apple will replace it for free (or worst case charge me $79 if they think it's my fault).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znK652H6yQM#t=34
I can't understand how having the same happen in your pants wouldn't indicate that maybe you should take your phone out or adjust your trousers.
And I will beat you to the you are wearing your pants wrong joke.
The phone bent, but the glass did not break and the phone is still functional. That surprised me. It's actually quite curved. I'll try to get a photo of it later, not near my computer with a webcam at the moment.
I kind of lost the point I was trying to make. Mostly just posting to say, I bent my phone but it took a lot of force.
"This is not an issue that Apple - or other phone companies - need to be compelled to respond to or fix. If anything this is a reflection of how people have started to use devices beyond what they were designed for,"
What kind of absurd industry apologist do you have to be to assert flatly that there's no reason people should be expecting their phones to hold up to pockets? I thought the whole reason people want thinner phones in the first place was so they fit better in their pockets.
In all seriousness. Why do people stand in those lines? What can you do with the phone that you can't do with another phone? Is it just a material thing?
Its kinda like going to a convention except much smaller, and far more jam packed.
I wouldn't have believed if someone claimed my plastic-glass phone wasn't perfectly straight when in my pocket, because I'd never witnessed it bent, and truly believed it sturdy enough to not easily bend.
I guess Apple's miss was that aluminium is less elastic, and the larger/taller your phone the more linear deflection it suffers.
Tighter pants would lead to more force being exerted from multiple angles.
Nowadays people complain something will bend when you apply a lot of force to it.
That said, the Galaxy Nexus would probably break, before bending, which is what you'd expect. You'd also expect that for a Galaxy Nexus to break, a lot of pressure must have been applied.
Large and flat will bend, break or crack. It's just the nature of things.
> Clearly if I got the plus I'd never be able to sit at a table with it. This is bringing back the holster.
This should be the preferred way for hipsters to wear their apparel.
I currently have a Galaxy S4 - no problems. Previous phone was a whopping-big, first generation Note - ditto. Both live/lived in my front trouser pocket.
The only device I have managed to break while in my pocket was an HP/Compaq iPaq, about 10 years ago, when I sat on a child's swing next to my son in a playground - the metal 'rope' went taught against my side and the pressure cracked the screen.
Edit: For a bit of objectivity, what was the last phone that received this level of attention for being prone to bending in tight pockets - has there been one?
No, they will automatically add the new Justin Bieber album to every iTunes user's profile.
Like an iPad, it's better placed in a bag. With everything else, really. Carrying stuff in your pockets is a pain in the arse and a great way to lose stuff.
Does each cheek identify to different naming conventions?
Plus carrying a bag everywhere seems somewhat impractical. (Ok, most girls I know do carry a bag everywhere, most guys I know don't).
I carry a messenger bag with my phones, pens, pills, and go knows what else everywhere and don't really give a crap if anyone accidentally thinks I'm female or whatever.
Maybe you just carry more than me (I see you say phones, plural). I don't have a problem with stuff falling out, and I use my front pockets. If I am somewhere crowded and expect pickpocketing is a risk, I put my hands in my pockets.
It's a fair point if actually true, but I've seen people bend this iphone with their fingers. I haven't seen anyone break a flagship android phone with their fingers.
In any case, it's not relevant to me to do a competitor comparison, as when you make the comparison to the iphone 1,2,3,4,5, it's obviously worse.
edit: video of a note 4 bend test, seems the 6+ has a unique problem.
"No Jacket Required."
"it's just one of those things that comes as a given when you've been making mobile phones for over 30 years."
Yes, these devices are made to withstand rough conditions, and each generation seems tougher than the last. But cases exist for a reason; no phone is indestructible.