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Internal Documents Show Apple Knew the iPhone 6 Would Bend (vice.com)
In 2014, multiple users reported that their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets were bending under pressure, such as when they were kept in a pocket. As a byproduct of this issue, the touchscreen's internal hardware was also susceptible to losing its connection to the phone's logic board. It turns out, Apple was aware that this could happen. Motherboard: Apple's internal tests found that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are significantly more likely to bend than the iPhone 5S, according to information made public in a recent court filing obtained by Motherboard. Publicly, Apple has never said that the phones have a bending problem, and maintains that position, despite these models commonly being plagued with "touch disease," a flaw that causes the touchscreen to work intermittently that the repair community say is a result of bending associated with normal use. The information is contained in internal Apple documents filed under seal in a class-action lawsuit that alleges Apple misled customers about touch disease. The documents remain under seal, but US District Court judge Lucy Koh made some of the information from them public in a recent opinion in the case. The company found that the iPhone 6 is 3.3 times more likely to bend than the iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 6 Plus is 7.2 times more likely to bend than the iPhone 5s, according to the documents. Koh wrote that "one of the major concerns Apple identified prior to launching the iPhones was that they were 'likely to bend more easily when compared to previous generations.'"
It is a $700-$900 phone with a defect. The only solution to this defect was to get a new $700-$900 replacement. Did you think Apple fixed or replaced it for free?
Overall, what Consumer Reports found was that while all of the phones they tested would eventually bend or break with the application of enough force, âoeit took significant force to do this kind of damage to all these phonesâ and every model tested (including the iPhone 6) should hold up fine under ordinary, everyday use.
Turns out you can break any phone if you try hard enough. Who knew!