Consumer Reports finds iPhone 6 Plus less bendable than perceived

BY Joe Rossignol

Published 27 Sep 2014

CR iPhone 6 Bending

Almost simultaneously with a new video surfacing in which Unbox Therapy performed a bending test of the iPhone 6 Plus uncut on video in downtown Toronto, Canada to prove that it was not faked, Consumer Reports is out with its own video that finds the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to be less bendable than has been portrayed by the media.

The newly releases Consumer Reports test shows that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are tougher than has been portrayed online. Based on a three-point flexural test of both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, alongside competing smartphone models from Samsung, LG and HTC, the smartphones were found to be quite robust under 55 pounds of force.

“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.”

Consumer Reports rounded up the results of the bending test for each smartphone based on deformation and case separation, and the iPhone 6 Plus wasn’t even the worst performing smartphone under the stress test. That position belonged to the HTC One M8, which buckled under the least amount of force.

Take a look at the chart:

Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 9.44.28 PM

Watch the video to see the test and analysis in action:

All in all, this largely non-issue has been blown way out of proportion this past week. Apple reports that it has received only 9 incidents of users that have bent their new iPhone 6 Plus, and it has promised to replace bent units following a Visual Mechanical Inspection.

If you have experienced bending issues with your iPhone 6 Plus, let us know in the comments section below.

Are you surprised by the results of this test?

[via Consumer Reports]