Is iPhone 6 bent problem serious?

cap2 wrote:

The "Genius" who helped me today replaced the phone free of charge. Thank you Apple! I'll say again: I had a case on it, it was never in my pocket but in a purse or on a desk, it had not been dropped. I'll be getting a more protective case for this one, although the case I have (Pong) was more than adequate for previous iPhones. I still like it overall, but be careful with your iPhone 6.

No device, iPhone or otherwise, will bend on its own. It requires quite a bit of pressure. Consumer Reports tested and confirmed that the iPhone 6 is just as sturdy as any smartphone on the market. The iPhone 6 Plus is slightly less sturdy because of its size but still beats other manufacturers’ phones of the same size. So you have to excuse us when we are skeptical that you did nothing to cause your phone to bend. It just does not happen all by itself. Excuse us if we surmise that some people are influenced by alleged reports on the Internet and YouTube and are not objective in their logic.

josephine280 wrote:

"there was some form of external excessive pressure applied... And none of them bent all by themselves." And then, despite acknowledging there is a debate, you followed with "The vast majority of 'bent' iPhones had pressure applied that exceeded normal tolerances." How would you know? That's what the debate is about. You said there was a debate about whether the pressure exceeded normal tolerance and then assumed that it didn't.

Because objects don't bend by themselves. Some form of external force must be applied. Call it a paraphrasing of Newton's First Law, or just common sense. Some form of energy/force must be applied to cause an object to change status.

Additionally, independent, unbiased testing by organizations like Consumer Reports have shown that multiple test devices have not had an issue with normal usage, and that there is not a significant percentage of defective devices that would incur damage if subjected to normal tolerances.

@maysamsh

The Consumer Reports link that @roaminggnome posted suggests that "bend-gate" is "a bit overblown". But they also provide evidence that at its weak point (just below the volume buttons) the iPhone 6 requires only about half the amount of stress to cause a permanent deformation as the iPhone 5. And there's no information about variation between different manufacturing runs yet.

So you have hard information, and you have people saying, "you'll be fine". Take your pick.

@josephine280's comments are also very much relevant to your decision. If your phone bends and you don't have Apple Care, it's a crap shoot whether Apple will replace it. Apple has not admitted to a manufacturing defect, and they have not informed their customers what their policy is for handling this issue. Those are also facts.

So while some people would like to accuse users of "ranting" and "not being able to read", those people have not presented any evidence and have not said how answering the question that was asked in the thread is inappropriate.

@petermax87

Your link reiterates the same Consumer Reports information that was already linked earlier. It also doesn't prove anything about the prevalence of the problem. All we see there is that it takes approximately half the stress to deform an iPhone 6 as it does an iPhone 5.

So besides being a cad to @josephine280, who experienced a bent phone, you aren't really contributing anything.

I'm seeing a lot of pictures of bent iPhone 6s, and a lot of them are bent at this same spot, right underneath the volume buttons. There are also a lot of reports of people with bent phones who have no recollection of subjecting the phone to any great amount of stress. That, combined with Apple's silence on the issue, combined with their handling of previous manufacturing defects (e.g. the antenna problems), makes it reasonable to suspect that there may actually be a manufacturing or design defect.

But I guess keep on being a cad if it makes you feel good.

Think what you want. As I mentioned, I was skeptical too. And I'd heard that it was only a problem on the 6 Plus. The bulk of the media attention occurred before I was able to pick up my backordered iPhone6 and I still decided to get it. I haven't watched any youtube videos related to iPhones bending. I'm not interested in watching anyone purposefully cause damage "for fun." Certainly I agree that some amount of force must have been involved in my phone warping. Whatever force I exerted during the course of use couldn't have been much though and there was no obvious event that caused damage. I should also mention that it wasn't bent in 2. The glass wasn't damaged at all and the phone was fully functional, but after 2 weeks it was slightly curved near the lower volume button. Any amount of bending on an electronic device is alarming to me. When the Apple tech removed my sim card, the sim card tray was also bent, which surprised me and the tech. The pressure tests done in the middle or one end or the other of the phone may pass with flying colors. But it seems possible that there is a lack of reinforcement around the cutouts in the frame where the buttons are, allowing some flex in that area. Or maybe I just got a bad one. Either way, I'm handling the new one like fragile crystal until I get it into a heavy duty case... and I kind of miss my old iPhone.

I took good care of my iPhone 6. Never put in my back pocket and kept it in a sturdy case. Occasionally put in my front pocket, but not in tight pockets, nor did I go for long drives with it in my front pocket. I've had iPhones going back to the 3GS. Never broke one or had any issues with them. Mine also bent at the volume buttons, as do most. Go to the website oneofthenine.com and you'll see that the decision to replace a bent phone is arbitrary. The staff at the Genius Bar are supposed to do a visual test on a bent phone to determine whether to replace it. Mine failed the test because it is bent -- not because they found other signs of trauma or an accident. Just because it is bent, and they claim that bending must be due to accidental damage. I even sent it into Apple and got the same response. Yet if you happen to hit the right Apple Store, some of them replaced bent phones...And the manager at an AT&T store recently told me that they got one at the store that was bent when they took it out of the box. It's a manufacturing/design issue and should be covered by warranty. If it were really such a small problem, they'd issue an update from the ridiculous "nine" number and compare it to previous phones. It will take a class action lawsuit to get them to reveal those numbers. I pay a premium to get Apple phones because of their quality. If they can spend $10 million on free U2 albums, I think they can stand behind their products and honor the warranty.

If it comes out of the box like that, it needs to be immediately returned/exchanged. If it did not come out of the box like that, then there was some form of external excessive pressure applied. Whether the amount of pressure in a specific situation exceeded normal tolerances is debatable for that specific situation. The vast majority of 'bent' iPhones had pressure applied that exceeded normal tolerances. And none of them bent all by themselves. That's not how physics works.

josephine280 wrote:

I am NOT arguing that objects don't bend by themselves. I'm not sure why you think you need to explain laws of physics to me -- just to sound belittling in general or because my handle name is female? I put the quote in to demonstrate what you asked me to demonstrate. You claimed to have never said that I claimed no pressure was involved, so I showed you the quote and THEN you did it again. You attempted to make my position sound ridiculous by arguing against something I never argued in the first place. That's an oldie. You should consider finding new argumentative fallacies.

Thanks for reminding me why I never reach out to people on forums. I'll leave now, and you can reclaim your throne. Go ahead and post about how I'm ranting, or deluded, or uneducated about physics. It doesn't change the facts. Consumer Reports said that there was much less pressure required to bend the phone at the volume buttons. As for a significant percentage, we'll never know about that, since Apple has refused to update the actual numbers. You have no idea what the percentage is.

I could not care less what your gender is. Ignorance and irrationality are not confined to any specific gender. The fact that you're choosing to focus on that as a possible issue is a problem on your side, not on mine. I never made any reference to your gender. Therefore, your comment about your gender shows more about you and your preconceived notions and expectations than it does about me.

And no, Consumer reports said that while there was less pressure needed to cause damage on an iPhone 6 than on a previous model, it was still within acceptable tolerances. And they even acknowledged that a large surface area, using the same materials, will be relatively weaker. That's like saying that steel is less durable than diamond. Technically true, but that doesn't make steel a weak material.

Consumer Reports found no construction design flaws or manufacturing defects in the units they tested. They simply found that older models were more resistant.

A M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank is more durable and resistant to damage than a semi-truck. That doesn't mean the semi-truck is a 'weak' vehicle in terms of structural integrity.

chrisdelozier wrote:

How is "the phone magically bent itself" and "the phone bend under considerably less than reasonable use would suggest in a short amount of time" the same thing? Like not one person has said "the phone bent itself" but I see this over and over and over again. Saying "your complain is invalid because we'll just claim you are lying" is a terrible way to help anyone.

Except nobody is asking for help as you claim. They are complaining that they have to pay for repairs caused by their misuse of the phone. All this “I use it rarely” and “I’m very careful” is the same thing as saying, “I didn’t do anything. It just bent.” It is a physical FACT that it takes considerable force to bend an iPhone 6. It is a physical FACT that other brands of phones bend under the same considerable pressure. There have been scientific tests by unbiased third parties to show how much force is required to bend the device and it AIN’T “the phone bend under considerably less than reasonable use would suggest in a short amount of time” The fact is people have read nonsense on the Internet and believed it was true when tests say otherwise.

There will be no recall. There will be no free repairs for customer caused damage. Individual exceptions can always be authorized on a case by case basis by local managers. Live with it.

Yes, it's true.

The bend on my iPhone 6 is directly under the volume buttons. I noticed it today. I didn't believe this was a common problem. I thought it would only happen if abused. But my iPhone 6 is now bent. I have a case on it. I kept it in my purse, in it's own pocket, or on my desk at home. Now I've got to take it to the Apple store and hope for a nice "Genius." The idea of having to pay for the damage, after taking good care of it and only owning it for 2 weeks, is really frustrating.

So before you are critical of another iPhone owner, please know that your phone might be the next one to bend.

I hope everyone with this problem makes it known somewhere online because Apple ought to be responsible for the design flaw. Maybe they could reinforce that area in future production.

The "Genius" who helped me today replaced the phone free of charge. Thank you Apple! I'll say again: I had a case on it, it was never in my pocket but in a purse or on a desk, it had not been dropped. I'll be getting a more protective case for this one, although the case I have (Pong) was more than adequate for previous iPhones. I still like it overall, but be careful with your iPhone 6.

Hello

i have an iphone 6 for 3 weeks now and I have treated it with care and using a case as well.

I use it the same way I used my iPhone 4 for 4 years. Putting it in my back pocket when I walk around but because of the larger size I mostly carry it in my jacket pocket or in my hand.

Yesterday I noticed that the phone is now slightly bent. I am taking it to Apple tomorrow as I think that a £629 device should have some sort of solidity to it.

Other problem: the microphone quality is vdry bad on loudspeakers mode. People really struggle to hear anything.

I have add countless Apple products and iPhone 6 is clearly the worse I ever had.

shonpatillo wrote:

This is a real issue! My phone bent after 7 weeks of use. This is not my "main" cell phone. I use the phone very rarely, almost never carry in a pocket. It is either in my purse or on my desk.

The phone has never come against 80 pounds of pressure. Unlike several other people, when I went into the store, I was told that "I damaged the phone" and would have to pay $299 to replace the phone!

I expected much more from Apple! The numbers are not there because the stores are not adequately reporting the problem. They send you away with an enormous bill hoping that the consumer will not press the issue.

Who buys a phone thinking that it would bend? Who makes a phone that "can" bend?

Do you really expect us to accept the “I didn’t do nuttin” explanation? The phone just bent itself?

It won't bend unless you try to. If you have either a case or a brain you will be fine.

I don't believe anyone when they say they did "nothing" and it bent on its own. Did it literally just warp in front of you?

So just like Pogster said, treat it with care and common sense, just like you would do with any other electronic device and you'll be fine. I promise!