Users Report Warping of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus

MojoKid writes: Apple's iPhone 6 Plus weighs six ounces, and it's a scant 7.1mm thick. As an added bonus, according to a number of users, it has a hidden feature — it bends! And no, we don't mean it bends in a "Hey, what an awesome feature!" sort of way. More like a "Hey, the entire phone is near to snapping" kind of way. What's even more troubling is that many of the users who are reporting bent devices also claim that they were carrying it in front pockets or in a normal fashion as opposed to sitting on it directly. Either some of the iPhone 6 Plus hardware is defective (the vastly preferable option) or it's because the tests run by other venues are putting different kinds of stress on the chassis. It's not clear what the story is. Hopefully Apple will clarify it soon.

Comments

Let me guess...

[Anonymous Coward]

They weren't holding it in the pockets of certified apple jeans!
WTF do they expect.

Re:is that an iPhone in your pocket?

[pushing-robot]

I hate it when my Schwartz gets all twisted.

The Reality Distortion Field is leaking out

[enjar]

Better get that checked out at the Apple Store!

Re:is that an iPhone in your pocket?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're bending it wrong

Not just iPhone

[SternisheFan]

Other phones are prone to bending also... http://www.cultofmac.com/29740...

Perhaps Apple had planned to have the stronger SapphireGlass for their large phones, which would have mitigated this problem. But to release a high end phone with this obvious engineering deficiency is like a smack in the face to loyal Apple consumers.

Re:Not just iPhone

[rezme]

Other phones bend, but the issue here is that with the iphone's metal case, it doesn't bend back. Plastic, unless subjected to extreme amounts of stress, tends to return to its original shape. Aluminum not so much. The problem isn't the glass, as the phones I've seen bent have glass that is still intact (strangely enough), but rather the metal chassis that Apple has always been so proud of.

Re:Not just iPhone

[Sockatume]

Sapphire glass wouldn't have solved the issue - by the time it was thick enough to make an appreciable difference to the phone's mechanical performance, the screen would look pretty dim. Steel would've helped (there's a reason the iPhone 4 is made out of it) but would've increased the weight markedly (there's a reason the iPhone 6 isn't made out of it). It's a difficult engineering trade-off when you're selling what amounts to a thin aluminium sheet with a cover glass on it, and I'm honestly surprised it took so long for people to notice.

I'm going to sit here smugly with my steel-bodied phone crammed into my jeans, safe in the knowledge that while it might make sushi of my legs if I sit wrong, it's not going to deform on me.

Re:Not just iPhone

[OzPeter]

Plastic, unless subjected to extreme amounts of stress, tends to return to its original shape. Aluminum not so much.

That's why they should have gone with Aluminium instead.

I know, I know .. Apple was trying to be hip and trendy in its minimalist way by leaving out what it thought was a superfluous vowel [1], but in this case it crossed the line and ended up leaving out an important structural element. This would never have happened at Microsoft, where all products have to be engineered to survive being thrown at brick walls (for the well noted use case of not meeting users expectations).

[1] Perhaps Bono might have been better utilised for his English rather than musical skills?

Re:Not just iPhone

[Dan East]

Did you even look at the URL in the OP? It shows several phones that are permanently bent - some plastic, some metal. It shows plastic phones, like the Galaxy, with a cracked display from where it was bent, plastic phones that are permanently bent (BlackBerry Q10, Oppo) as well as other phones with metal frames like the Sony Xperia Z1 and HTC EVO. It also shows various other older models of iPhones that are bent.

No phone is immune to this, and just because it's plastic and kind of "bends back" does not mean the screen or plastic won't crack, etc.

I'll tell you exactly what this is about. Millions of existing iPhone users now have a larger phone in their pocket, and because the previous models were smaller, they were just under the bending threshold (due to the weight of the person, size of pockets, whatever) and they didn't have a problem. Now with the larger phones there is more leverage to exert more force (plus being thinner might make them weaker as well), and suddenly the bigger phones can't handle the stresses that the smaller phones could handle. If these people were to stick a Samsung S5 in their back pocket bad things would happen too (and it just so happens that the older, smaller iPhones were tough enough to handle that).

Is the iPhone 6 as tough as the smaller previous generations of iPhone? Almost certainly not. Is it as tough as other phones the same size like the Samsung Galaxy? Probably so.

Don't worry

[Anonymous Coward]

Just put it in your microwave for a minute and it will all be fixed!

Headline reads...

[drfishy]

Apple's race for thinner phones bites users in the ass.

Until we have independent testing...

[pushing-robot]

I'll assume option '3' for the moment:

Out of a sample size of ten million people, chances are very good that some of them will do very stupid things (and then claim they didn't).

Mind you, I'm perfectly willing to accept that the phone has a defect in design or construction, but I've had enough experience in troubleshooting and repair to lose all trust in humanity.

Re: is that an iPhone in your pocket?

[jd2112]

Obviously the iPhone was designed by men because the 6+ is only 5.5 inches...

Samsung should hire Uri Geller

[JoeyRox]

For a commercial where he bends an iPhone 6+. Now that would be funny.

Re:Third option

[plover]

Not sure what the solution is but I'm sure Apple will have a fix out in no time.

I doubt that very much. I doubt they'll even acknowledge it.

If they say "oh, yeah, sorry, our phones bend", what can they do about it? They don't have a solution coming out of the factories. Since the problem is mechanical with the case and chassis being too thin to ever be reliably durable, that could mean a complete redesign of just about every component, including the circuit boards, glass, buttons, everything. (Although they might be able to replace the current aluminum chassis with titanium. That could make the phones strong enough, but way more expensive.) Next, they'll have to ramp up production of the new model and get a few million into the pipeline. That could take a year. Meanwhile, do you think they are going to pull the current phones off the shelves, so they have less to replace?

No, I would bet that the lawyers are advising them to silently let this go forever, hoping the bending problem doesn't catch on in the mainstream media, or picked up by the late night comedians. They'll wait for it to blow over like they did with the antenna problems on the iPhone 4, because ultimately that proved to be nothing to them.

Look to them to remain silent right up until some unlucky people bend them in the "wrong way" causing a short, burns, and or fires. That's when there will be a shitstorm of a recall.

Re:is that an iPhone in your pocket?

[msauve]

It's obviously their new, patented, "bend to unlock" feature.

good luck with that

[slashmydots]

"Hopefully Apple will clarify it soon."
Oh you cannot be serious. Who wrote that? They haven't admitted anything EVER when it comes to defects. You're holding the antenna wrong. You're lighting the camera wrong. You're downloading iOS7 wrong. You're driving down an airport runway because we said it was a road wrong.
This is such a classic example of Apple's new style of function design style, which actually isn't all that new. Remember the 1980's Apple that overheated constantly because Steve Jobs didn't like fans? Remember the 2008 Apple that overheated constantly because Steve Jobs didn't like fans?

Re:Third option

[Ash-Fox]

what can they do about it?

They could release an iOS update that prevents bending. They already released iOS updates for fast recharging via microwave and waterproofing support.

Re:Third option

[mrchaotica]

It's (mostly) not the material, it's the geometry. The bending modulus of any material depends on the cube of its thickness. Making something both thin and rigid is disproportionately hard, no matter what material you make it out of.

Re:Typical Engineering mistake

[Sockatume]

1) Why would you put the volume button on the top of the phone?
2) Wouldn't it make more sense that it's bending around the volume cut-outs because they're a big void in the side of the phone? No matter how tough it is, if it's going to yield anywhere, it'll yield there.

Re:Third option

[swamp boy]

Kindly do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts.

Re: Third option

[jackspenn]

Spot on commentary.

You are saying what many Android users are saying around the virtual water cooler ... aka Google hangouts.

"So how the hell did Apple release a phone with the camera sticking out the back, especially when increasing the thickness would have allowed for bigger battery and stronger case?"