#Bendgate debunked: Force to ‘break 3 pencils’ will not bend iPhone 6 Plus

Week 2 into the Apple iPhone 6 Plus “bendgate” controversy and a couple of independent parties have now weighed in on the issue of whether or not Apple’s new phablet is prone to bending under normal use.

“Normal” use here is defined as something like stowing a big phone in the pocket of your tight skinny jeans and sitting for a couple of hours. According to the Washington Post, reporting after phone warranty provider SquareTrade got a staffer to do just that, the results were anticlimactic…

SquareTrade sought out an employee wearing skinny jeans — in this case, Pourmeh Sarram, who is 5′ 10″ and helpfully told The Post that he has a 31-inch waist. Sarram wedged the phone in his jeans pockets. Then SquareTrade had him sit in an office chair for 30 minutes with the phone in his front jeans pocket — mirroring a situation that a user described in a widely-circulated MacRumors post.

Sarram said this was “very uncomfortable.” SquareTrade also asked Sarram to do 10 squats with the phone in his pocket. But none of these situations managed to bend the phone in any way.

But by far the most scientific test was performed by Consumer Reports which revealed that the iPhone 6 Plus deforms under 70 pounds of pressure applied on one point in a “three-point flexural test” wherein “the phone is supported at two points on either end, then force is applied at a third point on the top.”

The iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 are, by comparison, built like bricks, flexing under 130 and 150 pounds respectively. 70 pounds pressure applied this way is more than “the force required to break three pencils,” according to the report.

benign0

benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.