Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has responded swiftly to the firestorm of reports about the iPhone 6 Plus bending in owners’ pockets. Dubbed “Bendgate” by the media, the issue involves multiple reports and photos from iPhone 6 Plus owners who said their new phone bent while just riding around in their pockets all day.
Apple’s bendy iPhone 6 Plus
According to The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, Apple said that it has received only nine complaints from people who said their iPhone 6 Plus was too flimsy. The company also said it uses the “strongest glass in the industry” and that the new iPhones have steel and titanium inserts to provide reinforcement for “stress locations.”
Apple did not deny the reports about the iPhone 6 Plus bending, but the company did say that in “normal use,” this bending is “extremely rare.” Also the company said that both of its new iPhones passed some tests designed to check their “strength and durability to withstand every day, real-life use.”
The company also said it would replace iPhones that bend through normal use.
Videos show iPhone 6 Plus bending
Reports of the bendy iPhone 6 Plus have been doing the rounds of social media. There’s even one video that shows someone actually bending the iPhone 6 Plus in half with their bare hands. Wired also published a review of the phablet, with reviewer Mat Honan saying that it warped slightly and that when placing the iPhone 6 Plus down on a table, “it wobbles.”
Of course there have been reports of larger smartphones bending in the past, so Apple isn’t alone in this battle. However, the company is taking far more heat than, say, Samsung. BGR suggests that this may be because the iPhone 6 Plus has an aluminum frame, which means if it bends, it is much less likely to bounce back into shape than the plastic-backed Galaxy Note 3 is. Also several of the videos that show how easily the iPhone 6 Plus bends demonstrate that it does so more easily than other devices.
And Apple didn’t do itself any favors with the release of the botched iOS 8.0.1 update, which pretty much destroyed the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The update, which supposedly fixed some bugs, ended up requiring owners to roll their devices back to iOS 8 and was such a disaster that Apple pulled it back quickly.
