Last week has been tough on Apple. There was the iOS 8.0.1 debacle where several users lost their TouchID functionality and cellular services and there was the notorious Bendgate going viral all over the internet. Some tests conducted by Consumer Reports claim that the Bendgate has been blown out of proportion.
It all started with the Unbox therapy video which went viral and revealed that you can actually bend iPhone 6 Plus without much force and thus crediting the possibility of it bending in minor day-to-day accidents. This resulted in everyone taking pot shots at apple including other smartphone manufacturers.
Apple recognized the issue and stated that bending iPhone 6 in day to day is extremely rare. Only 9 users had reported accidental bending issues in iPhone 6 Plus. Apple also invited selected journalist in its testing labs to demonstrate all the tests iPhones have to go through to ensure there durability.
Unbox therapy later went on to publish more such videos checking if other phones bend too when similar amount of pressure is applied. The results were not in favor of iPhone 6 Plus yet again. Now the folks at Consumer Report have tested iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, HTC One M8, LG G3 and more. Turns out, iPhone 6 Plus isn’t that fragile after all.
“All the phones we tested showed themselves to be pretty tough. The iPhone 6 Plus, the more robust of the new iPhones in our testing, started to deform when we reached 90 pounds of force, and came apart with 110 pounds of force. With those numbers, it slightly outperformed the HTC One (which is largely regarded as a sturdy, solid phone), as well as the smaller iPhone 6, yet underperformed some other smart phones.”
As you can see from the tabular result, iPhone 6 Plus ranks low in terms of tensile strength but that is in no way a measure of its day to day durability. Surprisingly iPhone 6 Plus scored better than other Aluminum phone HTC One M8, which proved to be pretty durable in Unbox Therapy’s analysis. Even more interesting is the fact that Apple’s arch nemesis Galaxy Note 3 turned out to be the strongest of all.
What we think? Well it’s a phone and it’s meant to be used as a phone. The issue does seem blow out of proportion, but can’t deny that #Bendgate humor cracked me up pretty solid. Take a look at some of the jabs internet took at Apple:
Of course there was the Beckham thingy..
The Accessory jokes..
Brands just had to step in