iPhone 6 Bentgate
 

Bent iPhone claims put Apple under pressure to respond

Several members of the public have postedphotos to the Macrumors site that appear to show the problem. A reporter for the Geek.com news site also reported his phone had warped. It is not yet clear if the new iPhones' aluminium shells make them particularly vulnerable. Even so, the claims have been reported across tech blogs as well as mainstream media including the Independent, the Washington Post, India Today and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Twitter users have also posted thousands of comments about the claims, using the hashtag Bentgate.....

One industry watcher said the company should investigate the complaints and issue a statement as soon as possible. "I think initially they should acknowledge the situation," said Jasdeep Badyal, an analyst from the telecoms consultancy CCS Insight. "Then the second step will be to take action by providing cases or replacements." He added that even if it emerged that there had been a "faulty batch" or there was only a minor risk of damage, the firm should still issue a statement to make this clear.

But Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the advisory service Davies Murphy Group, thought that Apple should take a different tack. "This is not an issue that Apple - or other phone companies - need to be compelled to respond to or fix. If anything this is a reflection of how people have started to use devices beyond what they were designed for," he said. "Even the most recent smartphones are not designed to be put in pockets where they are going to be under the most chassis strain. And this just illustrates the fact that the public's desire for manufacturers to strive for ever thinner and lighter devices means that we are getting ever more fragile devices.

"Just casually sticking a £700 smartphone in your pocket is an increasingly reckless thing to do."........

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So according to Chris Green, principal technology analyst, it's the consumers fault that manufacturers makes devices that can't tolerate everyday use.

I suspect Chris Green couldn't analyse his way out of a paper bag.

It's sold as a phone therefore it should have been designed to take the stress of being in someone's pocket, I admire Apples products but they've dropped a bollaux on this one.

Manufacturers can't help it if consumers are going to be utter morons and put the phone in their back pocket and sit on it !

Just as you can't blame the sunglasses manufacturers for the millions of frames that get broken every year by utter twats, you can't blame Apple for the consumer's own negligence !

You are absolutely right, superq7. But as always the apologists pop up like a jack-in-a-box, with ridiculous comparisons and the usual users-are-morons mantra.

I sat on my glasses once.
Had to get a new pair.
I should have started a 'broken glasses complaint on social media', but there was no facebook or twitter at the time...

Too bad you broke your glasses, otherwise you might have been able to read that it has nothing to do with sitting on things.

Glasses are designed to be worn on the face and put into a case when not in use.

A phone is designed to be used to make calls, text and many other features these days, and stored about ones person when not in use, usually in a pocket, sometimes even a trouser pocket. As many models of phone have managed to survive being in peoples pockets for 20 something years, then yes this is a design flaw. (which could have been foreseen a while ago with other manufacturers http://www.xperiablog.net/2014/01/13...by-some-users/)

I've always carried my phone in my shirt pocket.
Just so I don't sit on it.
Besides, it's easier to get it out when I'm driving.
(sarcasm)

Yes, and I regularly keep my iPhone in my trouser pocket......

IN A SIDE POCKET

The iPhone remains as flat and un-bent as it was on day one.

People are nothing but utter morons if they stick anything fragile in their back pockets.

Looks like a lot of morons are buying the iphone 6 then.

As an aside, half of all water damaged iPhones are caused by prats keeping them in the trousers pockets and forgetting them as they go to the toilet I presume the difference between M&F is due to only a percentage of women wearing jeans/trousers with pockets and the rest keeping them in their purses.

Apple added water sensors and makes them pay for repair - they didn't make them waterproof......

Orac, on holiday earlier this year, my other half dropped her 5s into the sea when bending down to pick up a shell . It was under water for a few seconds at most but survived the ordeal completely intact. I expect most people don't want to grab a phone out of the loo in a few seconds though!

Who's the moron? Those yapping on about back pockets or those who have bent phones after keeping them in their front pockets?

Apart from the unknown danger of having an 'always-on' transmitting/receiving device pressed up against one's body for long periods of time, I too have wondered about the wisdom of having phones in places where when moving they are at risk of being pressured (front pocket/back pocket). Even my old Nokia 6310i wouldn't stand up to any bending forces for too long, so I keep it in a side pocket/jacket pocket/bag/hand.

The iPhone 6 is larger and thinner than previous examples, so these heated bending spaces (trouser pockets) will have a greater effect than before and the photos in the media seem to support this hypothesis. I don't think that Apple should be berated any more than the several other smartphone makers who use the same suppliers for their hardware, but they should be rightly castigated for NOT extensively testing their latest offering in every likely real life scenario before release to the public. Or perhaps making it clear that the iPhone is in reality a small computer that you can make and receive telephone calls with and to treat it accordingly :hmm:

Huh ?

KBPsen I've no idea what you are on about other than you're desperately trying to clutch at straws......

If a certain young lady of my acquaintance was to put an iToy phone in her shirt pocket whilst seated leaning forwards, then stand up suddenly, the resulting strain load would undoubtedly exceed the phone's bending moment tolerance.....:ooh:

If her t-shirts are anything to go by.....:E

I know.

With a product life of between 6-12 months and appearance and form overruling practicality, durability is never going to be of any great concern to manufacturers beyond any statutory warranty period. Most phones are probably spec'ed to have a finite life.

When will people learn that iPhone hardware (camera and performance aside) is garbage? :yuk:

• 1: Easily scratched powdered aluminium back
• 3G/3GS: Easily cracked plastic on the corners (especially the white one). Otherwise not bad. Easily the toughest models of all
• 4/4S: Glass on the back? great idea! Let me just put it down on my handy VELVET CUSHION!
• 5: Powder-coated side bits easily scratched, and the home button assembly often stops working (they had ONE BUTTON to get right.)
• 5s: See #1, but worse
• 5c: Plastic not very tough, although far better than anything since the 3G/3GS. Only one I would ever consider buying.
• 6/6+: Structural rigidity of a soggy tissue, because instead of adding structural strength and more battery life, Apple like to shave 10ths of mms off the "thinness", because... er... must be a reason, right?....

It's ridiculous to see people forking out for cases to protect their precious fragile iThings. When did you last see an iPhone or iPad without a case? I'll tell you, it's when you saw a fairly old one that looks like junk and is scratched / cracked to hell. And if you have a case then you have the extra size, weight and cost of having 2 exoskeletons for your phone.

BUT: even a case may not work! Plenty of iThings in cases get broken, because the bloody thing is a piece of ultra-delicate jewelry that needs cotton gloves and is not suitable for actual day-to-day use.

Why don't they just sell the guts without a case, so you can buy a proper case that does the job of protecting it?
End of rant :mad:

These phones were bent after being in side pockets, not just back pockets. They should be able to survive this OK especially within a few days.