If you’re one of the lucky few to have scored an iPhone 6 Plus this past week, then you’ll want to be especially careful with how you carry it around. A number of owners are reporting that their new iPhones have bent after being stowed away in pants pockets. But the most shocking part of this news may not be that phones are bending – it’s how easily and significantly the metal exterior warps with pressure.
The issue was first reported yesterday by the blog MacRumors. A number of its readers had taken to its message boards, complaining that their brand new iPhone 6 Plus phones had bent after just a few days of regular use. Bendgate (as its being called) went viral shortly after when YouTuber Unbox Therapy recorded and uploaded a video where he physically bent an iPhone in his hands.
Why are these phones bending so readily? Part of the problem is their aluminum construction – it’s one of the most malleable metals in existence. The other issue is the super slim, larger design of the iPhone 6 Plus. When pressure is applied unevenly to a thin piece of aluminum with a large surface area, warping is all but inevitable.
Because most of these bends have happened as a result of the phone being stowed away in owners’ pants pockets, you’ll want to avoid carrying yours around the same way. Don’t put the phone anywhere it may be subject to pressure, uneven or otherwise. And you should definitely protect your investment with a solid protective case. Apple iPhones do look really sexy outside one, but there’s nothing sexy about a brand new $749 phone that doesn’t lay flat anymore. (Good thing the phone is reportedly easy to repair!)
You can see just how easily the iPhone 6 Plus bends by watching Unbox Therapy’s video, embedded below. For more information on the phone itself, check out our full iPhone 6 coverage. And don’t forget to check out our need-to-know guide on the new iOS 8 operating system, too.
Update (9/27): The folks at the Consumer Reports Lab recently put the new iPhone 6 through a scientific bend test to calculate exactly how much force is required to deform it. They found that the iPhone 6 deforms at 70 pounds of pressure, while the larger iPhone 6 Plus deforms at 90 pounds. Case separation happens at 100 and 110 pounds, respectively. By comparison, it takes 130 pounds of pressure to deform an iPhone 5 or LG G3, and 150 pounds to deform a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
[Bent iPhone 6 Plus via Unbox Therapy]
