
Pixel 4 has a flaw that no software update can fix: It Bends - jaytaylor
https://bgr.com/2019/11/05/pixel-4-xl-bend-test-vs-iphone-11-google-has-to-fix-a-design-flaw/
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ponsin
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.

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rasz
>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...](https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/239746-apple-will-fix-touch-
disease-iphone-6-plus-not-free)

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

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acdha
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)

~~~
zamalek
> 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.

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aplc0r
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).

~~~
ssivark
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).

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

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

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jmull
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.

~~~
rasz
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.

