That's a shame, and not something I've experienced with my Galaxy Notes of various generations. You'd think it would be tested for this sort of thing.
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.
Did you read the article or the headline? It doesn't mention any bending tests, but does mention tests with spills and scratches explicitly. In other words, it seems like the article has zero relevance to this particular issue.
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.
Fair enough. Of course there's a bunch of us for whom the 6+ is simply too large to be putting into front pockets whether we want to or not. For us this is a total non-issue :)
> That's a shame, and not something I've experienced with my Galaxy Notes of various generations. You'd think it would be tested for this sort of thing.
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.
The galaxy note is made out of plastic, it wouldn't bend, it would break, if subjected to the same forces.
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.
Can you bend a flagship plastic phone with your hands though? Cause I just saw someone doing that with an Apple 6 plus.
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.
With 'antennagate', there was an issue where holding it would bridge the specific antenna areas which would cause a signal reduction. It was an issue, but it was also overblown because to get it to kill the signal you had to hold it very, very specifically, and it seemed mostly to effect the US market more than others. Also, quite a few other devices suffer from it but Apple was the highlighted case because the device was brand new.
Pretty sure a pants pocket doesn't exert the kind of force required to break a plastic phone. Bend slightly - sure, but fortunately plastic returns to it's original shape once the tension has eased. Metal... not so much.
The galaxy note is made out of plastic, it wouldn't bend, it would break, if subjected to the same forces.
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.
The mild level of hysteria over this has been interesting. It's a slab of thin aluminium that has a large surface area, a consistent amount of pressure is going to cause bending. I'm personally surprised that the glass didn't crack on some of the pictures.
True, but I would assume that most people have a reasonable expectation that their phones will not get damaged in typical usage scenarios. And yes, I do think that putting your phone in your front pocket is typical. In my view that means that there is a design flaw.
This. I've had several smartphone devices over the years and not one has been bent in my pocket, even when I sit on it. I don't expect it to happen, even on a premium device.
Assuming accuracy of reports, etc. But, yes, if it's relatively easy to bend a phone even slightly by putting it in a normal (for reasonable tightness values of normal) front pocket, that's questionable. Though--I would add--not because as many regurgitated articles suggest because Aluminum is a "soft, bendable metal" or because the heat in one's pocket softens the metal.
> I do think that putting your phone in your front pocket is typical
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.
If you compare the 6 plus to the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and even the 6, it doesn't seem as if any of those phones have a problem. In or outside the pocket.
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.
> 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.
> 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.)
Not if it's a matter of a persons typical usage patterns exceeding some sort of structural limit. If 0.02% of people typically put too much pressure on the phone in their pocket, and 99.98% of people do not, then the 0.02% will have any iPhone 6 rapidly fail, and the 99.98% will see failures only after an unusual incident or after receiving a weaker than normal phone, and thus at a much slower rate.
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.
Sure, but it's not a normal phone, it's essentially a mini-tablet at that size. Yes, there's a pervading sense of 'you're pocketing it wrong', but there's been a few photos dug up and Apple will have sold somewhere between 1-3m iPhone 6 Plus' so far. Either it's limited to very specific circumstances, or they've got devices that have a specific structural weakness, or we've yet to hear the full extent.
These are not typical usage scenarios. These are standard issue "put it in a bench press and pretend it happened in my pocket" anti-iphone hysteria.
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.
Funny I've never seen someone bend an iphone 1,2,3,4,5,6 with their fingers on camera, but the 6+, days after release on the first try.
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.
While there is some level of faking in this world, I do not think that all claims are fake. Your absolute denial of every claim ever reads suspiciously like conspiracy theorism.
I'd be mildly hysterical too, the 6 is a phone that'll sell 100m units within its first six months and already sold 10m in its first weekend. If some of those units are based on a faulty design, that's a really big deal affecting tens of millions of people and tens of billions of sales.
It's a bit of hysteria, as like you've pointed out they sold 10m units and so far about a dozen people have had issues with bending. There's an issue yes, but it doesn't seem to be as widespread as the news reports seem to want it to be. It's the same as when one Tesla caught fire, the news reports covered it like there was going to be a full recall and much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The mild level of hysteria over this has been interesting
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 the glass bends, and they marketed it right, it could have been a cool feature. It is Apple, they managed to market the Shuffle for basically having almost no user interface and complete lack of features compared to anything else on the market.
I'm not worried. 14 day return policy + AppleCare = no risk that that I'm stuck with a bad/dead device.
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).
Notice the bending in OP's video isn't the same level of bending in the pocket-bend claims. The latter is much more subtle, yet still noticeable. I'd say any kind of permanent bend from just being in pants' pockets is a design flaw.
I have a bent iphone 5. I bent it by accidentally dropping it, having the back of the phone land perfectly on the small ledge leading into the doorway of my home, and then stepping on the phone (I weigh about 200lbs.)
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.
If they do in fact bend in tight pants it won't be a joke. Apple will not be afraid to tell people that they need to use a case or that they're wearing their pants wrong.
He doesn't have to use much force to get the kind of bend that would be noticeable when the phone is put down on a flat surface. I can easily see that being possible in a fitted pair of jeans.
I'm skeptical about the reporting, but the quotes are choice:
"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.
Think about the person that waited in one of those long lines that I dont understand and now their walking around with a warped cell phone.
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?
I've stood in lines for books, when I could have just as easily purchased it online. Its more of a social thing, you get to interact with other fans, have fun with strangers, bond over a shared interest.
Its kinda like going to a convention except much smaller, and far more jam packed.
So I just tested this on a few non-aluminium bodied phones, i.e., plastic and glass bodied phones. Plastic is more elastic (etymological irony) than aluminium and returns to its original shape.
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.
It's almost like they'd be better off making the glass less flexible so it would just crack when people bend it too much, and then they'd know they did the wrong thing. The fact that the phone can bend like this without breaking might mean they don't realise that they've subjected it to an unreasonable amount of force.
It's amazing that people think nothing can happen to a phone.
Years ago I sold phones. People wanted money back because they drowned a Nokia in the toilet. Or complained the device stopped working after they dropped it from a great hight.
Nowadays people complain something will bend when you apply a lot of force to it.
We're talking about keeping a phone in your pocket. The pressure test was just that, a test. Because if it doesn't bend with that amount of pressure, it's probably, no, definitely not going to bend in your pocket.
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.
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?
It's not really a pocketable phone. Even in my sweatpants (trendy!) it proved so heavy it ended up dragging them down past my ass in the style many kids are rocking nowadays, except I don't rock the underwear or have the ass definition to pull off the look.
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.
I have never lost my phone, or had it stolen. I put that down in part to the fact it always stays in my pocket. Unlike many friends who put their phones / wallets on a bar table as soon as they sit down. That seems to be asking to get it stolen in certain places.
Plus carrying a bag everywhere seems somewhat impractical. (Ok, most girls I know do carry a bag everywhere, most guys I know don't).
See, I credit the same thing to not carrying stuff in an open pocket but in a bag that has a strap going round my neck and shoulder. Stuff doesn't fall out of it, I don't have to keep checking some git has pickpocketed me..
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.
The female comment was an observation, not a dig at you.
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.
really?
Where do people find out about the algorithms, etiquette and other unwritten stuff about this site. Often people seem to make claims about certain aspects of HN, like you did above, but I can never find anywhere to either prove or disprove it or understand what the 'rules' are.
He is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Using words I don't know (sockpuppeting) and telling everyone else off for their conduct without actually explaining what or why it is the way it is.
Maybe the bending is a consequence of a better than average shock proof design. Not an apple fan boy here but I find hard to believe that a top selling phone would go on the market without extensive mechanical testing.
Mine, I got it when it came out in 2010, used it every day since end of 2013 when I got the 5s. Screen is still in perfect condition, so is the back side.
Already heard one today: 'Apple phones at this pressure bend, Android phones at this pressure break'. i.e. it's a feature.
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.
It is sort of parody for antenna gate. Motorola responded to Jobs that they do integrated antennas for decades and do not have signal issues. Also there was ad campaign:
"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."
A coworker just got that new waterproof Android phone from Kyocera. For some reason he thought waterproof == indestructible, so he never got a case for it. Two weeks later it ended up with a cracked screen. He cracked it when he had it in his pocket and leaned against a table.
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.
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.