Bendgate issue in the iPhone 6 Plus / Credit: Unbox Therapy
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About a year ago, it was discovered that the Apple iPhone 6 Plus was relatively easy to bend — which is an issue that became known as “bendgate.” After Unbox Therapy posted a video of an Apple iPhone 6 Plus bend test, the term “bendgate” flooded social media and went viral.
“Bendgate” eventually became a PR nightmare for the Cupertino giant. So Apple addressed the “bendgate” issue by releasing a statement saying: “With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus.”
To prevent another “bendgate” from happening, Apple bumped up the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to 7000 series aluminum from 6000 series aluminum used in the predecessors. The aluminum upgrade was a great decision because the iPhone 6s Plus survived a bend test performed by YouTube channel FoneFox. Below is the iPhone 6s Plus bend test:
In the video, Christian of FoneFox gripped the device and slowly increased the pressure to see if the iPhone 6s Plus would bend. Christian was not able to get the iPhone 6s Plus to bend at all and he said his fingers became sore. He also said his thumb felt like it sank into the back of the phone, but there was no physical damage caused by the pressure.
However, FoneFox wanted to see what it took to bend the iPhone 6s Plus so Christian asked a friend to help put more pressure on it. As the two of them pushed very hard on the iPhone 6s Plus, it slightly bended. But the iPhone 6s Plus still remained fully functional after the two of them applied a lot of pressure on the device. That kind of pressure on an iPhone 6s Plus would not happen in everyday normal use so you should not have a bending issue with your iPhone 6s Plus.
The original Unbox Therapy video of the iPhone 6 Plus bending has been viewed over 67 million times on YouTube. Here is that video:
You will notice that the iPhone 6 Plus easily bended after a few seconds in the Unbox Therapy video. That means that the strength of the enclosures is significantly better in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices compared to the previous line of iPhones.
SquareTrade, an extended warranty service provider for consumer electronics, followed up the Unbox Therapy video by performing a “single bar flex” test on the Apple iPhone 6 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. In its test, SquareTrade determined that the iPhone 6 Plus and the Galaxy S6 edge both bended at 110 pounds of pressure. But the S6 edge screen actually cracked at a lesser pressure than the iPhone 6 Plus:
The 7000 series aluminum used in the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus enclosure is made from the same grade used in the aerospace industry, according to Apple’s iPhone 6s design website. And the new glass on the iPhone 6s is created using a special dual-ion exchange process, which makes the device stronger at a molecular level.
What are your thoughts about the iPhone 6s Plus bend test video? Please leave a comment!
