When Apple announced the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus just a few short weeks ago, they talked up many back of the box features. The phones would be bigger, have better battery lives and would be more powerful than their predecessors. What Apple didn’t say, however, is that the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus would bend.
So it was terrifying news for iPhone owners to hear that the iPhone 6 Plus could bend with normal usage. Dubbed iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate, it has been reported by many iPhone 6 Plus users that not only are the phones not as sturdy as you’d like, but that the device can also bend just from putting it in your pocket.
For a phone that costs hundreds of dollars, no one wants to hear this. But is iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate realty as big a problem as we thought? And can Apple fix it? We tackle this and more below.
To answer the most important question, yes iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate is real and from the look of it, it can happen to any iPhone 6 Plus handset. Apple claims that only 9 people have made official complaints about the device bending but online it appears that that’s not the case. Hundreds of reports are coming in – substantiated with images and videos – that the iPhone 6 Plus bends, so there’s no shrugging this off as a rare manufacturing issue.
Rather, iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate is being chalked down to the phone’s body. As demonstrated by Lewis Hilsenteger of YouTube tech show UnboxTherapy, any iPhone 6 Plus can be susceptible to the bends, specifically at the top region of the phone, near the device’s camera. Hilsenteger explains that due to the iPhone 6 Plus’ ginormous size, the big piece of aluminium of its body makes it more likely for the phone to lose its shape.
Aluminium is a very malleable material, which he notes, but with so many other phones using it as a build material, can the iPhone 6 Plus’ competitors suffer from bends too?
No, not really. Due to being asked this very same question multiple times, Hilsenteger took to his YouTube channel once again to conduct ‘bend tests’ on a variety of phones including the newly released Moto X, the HTC One (M8), a Nokia Lumia handset and, of course, the iPhone 6.
Exerting the same amount of force on each phone that he did with the iPhone 6 Plus, the results were quite conclusive. The normal iPhone 6, the HTC One (M8) and the Moto X are all made from aluminium yet none of these suffered issues as large as iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate. It’s unclear which Nokia Lumia handset was in the video (and therefore we can’t clarify the build material) but that only suffered minor issues.
What’s also clear is that none of these phones will bend with normal usage. iPhone 6 Bendgate was triggered by people just storing their phones in pockets of tight trousers, which is troubling given that that’s prime storage location. The iPhone 5S is also said to have suffered from similar issues (albeit, a good amount of pressure had to be placed on it) so it seems that this is a longstanding problem.
Alas, some customers are being told by AppleCare that Apple Store employees would do a “visual mechanical inspection” on the bent phones to determine if they can get a new one under warranty.
However, with no replacement guaranteed for those affected by iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate, it might just be wise to get a different phone in the first place.
Do you still want to get an iPhone 6 Plus or has Bendgate changed your mind? Let us know in the comments.
