iPhone 6 Plus outperforms HTC One in “bending” tests

Sep 27, 2014 11:37 GMT  ·  By

We can all agree that Apple, in typical manner for the once-secretive organization, has been very open about the way it manufactures and stress-tests the iPhone 6. So much so that it has actually let people inside its labs to see how they do it.

Consumer Reports, the nonprofit that caused the first PR debacle for Apple’s range of smartphones (Antennagate), agrees this time around that Apple has done well. In fact, they’ve even confirmed that the iPhone 6 is actually stronger than existing handsets that no one considered deliberately bending on camera.

“Both iPhones seem tougher than the Internet fracas implies”

The mag came to this conclusion after using state-of-the-art equipment to stress the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 plus applying forces as high as 25 kilos (55 pounds for our friends over in the US and the UK) using what’s called a “three-point flexural test.”

The numbers may not sound impressive, but it’s pretty obvious that the iPhone 6 is not as malleable as some YouTubers would have you believe. Your body weighs much more than that, granted, but the only way to apply that much pressure to it is to stand on it. Common sense will tell you that it’s ill advised.

They didn’t just test the iPhone

Consumer Reports put the LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and HTC One (M8) through the same ordeal. In case anyone needed context. Here’s what happened.

“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.”

While it’s not ideal, it’s certainly within the boundaries of acceptability. Which begs the question: how “perfect” does a smartphone need to be these days to avoid a debacle like the one Apple is facing right now? Perhaps this one time Tim Cook really should follow the late Steve Jobs footsteps and gather journalists to tell them to get their act together.

Half of the people opining about #bendgate haven’t even touched the iPhone 6 for Pete’s sake!

Good to go

The engineers operating the Instron compression test machine concluded, saying, “bear in mind that it took significant force to do this kind of damage to all these phones. While nothing is (evidentally) indestructible, we expect that any of these phones should stand up to typical use.”

If there’s something Apple should test more in the next iPhone, it’s the demographic. If the user-base has habits that will eventually lead to the demise of the product, then by all means they should make a dedicated version for every type of person. Either that, or just drop out of the race and start making cars or something.