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Debunk: No, Apple didn’t change up iPhone 6 Plus internals to avoid bending

iPhone 6 Plus teardown via iFixit

Reports speculating that Apple has recently added a new reinforcement to iPhone 6 Plus units following a controversy over rare instances of the device bending under pressure aren’t true, according to a source close to the situation.

Earlier today users noticed an increase in weight for newly purchased units of the iPhone 6 Plus compared to the 172grams Apple quotes on its website. Repair guide website iFixit noted in a Reddit post that it tested a newly purchased device and found a weight difference of 172.7 grams to 173.5 grams. “We had a Day One iPhone 6 Plus, 128 GB, Silver, Verizon unit. I put it on the dealer scale we have on-premises, and it weighed 172.7 grams. It’s on the high end, but still within Apple’s listed 172 gram spec. I just went to the store and bought a brand-spanking-new iPhone 6 Plus, 128 GB, Space Gray, Verizon unit…It weighs 173.5 grams, a whopping 0.8 grams more than the Day One unit.” 

The reports have been widely picked up by several news sites and some are speculating that the weight difference could be due to added reinforcements to address bending concerns. We’ve confirmed, however, that the difference in weight is normal and that newly shipping iPhone 6 Plus units have not been silently altered.

A footnote on Apple’s specs website for iPhone 6 Plus notes that “Size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process,” and sources tell us a 1.5 gram weight variance between any two iPhone 6 Plus units is within what is expected.

Apple originally responded to concerns over bending by noting that the issue is “extremely rare” under normal use and that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature “stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high stress locations and use the strongest glass in the smartphone industry.”

Zac Hall contributed to this report. 

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Comments

  1. thisisasticup - 9 years ago

    Really? This is news?

    • #shugapuri (@zenkelbin) - 9 years ago

      what do u expect, this site is all bout Apple. If u want a regular news then going to NY times

    • I hate “this is news?” comments on any website. There’s a pretty damn simple solution if you’re not interested in the story. It involves not reading it and moving along to something that you are interested in. I happen to be interested in buying an iPhone 6 Plus, so this is relevant to me. As the other comment indicates, are you really surprised that there’s iPhone news on an Apple news website? Pretty shocking, I know. You must’ve been totally blown away when you hopped on the site and found it.

  2. Jeff Colvin (@jeffcolv) - 9 years ago

    I went to an Apple store this past weekend. Nearly every iPhone 6+ was bent. People are assholes.

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Yeah, I actually caught a duo of Fandroid punks deliberately bending iPhone’s at a local Apple store with a LOT of force, and got them kicked out by the Apple employees with a warning that if they ever come back they’ll call the police and have them pay for the damage… They gave their usual “Apple sucks @$%!#” comment whilst being escorted out…

      Freaking HATE Fandroid asswipes!

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Goes to show your reading comprehension is ZERO… But let me spell it out for you… They were holding Android phones and spouting anti-Apple, pro-Android rhetoric as they were being escorted out by staff for damaging property.

      • jrox16 - 9 years ago

        Don’t bother with herb, he’s one of them. Fandroids are the biggest, most obnoxious assholes there are. It’s really a mental illness to devote so much time and energy to hate products you don’t like even though no one is forcing you to own them. It should be studied by psychologists.

      • brad42 - 9 years ago

        Ok if they were caught bending phones they wouldn’t be escorted out of the store. except by the police. So this story is obviously a fake.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Nice of you to come out and accuse me of lying, when I was the one there who caught these guys in the act and saw what transpired next, not you.

        If you don’t want to believe it, fine. I was there. There have been cases where people have just been asked to leave a store if it was a first-time offence, which it would appear it was in this instance. The manager of this particular Apple Store is quite understanding, and let them go with a warning not to come back, otherwise the authorities would be involved next time.

    • drhalftone - 9 years ago

      What this article completely ignores is just how taxing that extra 0.8 grams in your pocket. By the end of the day, my arm feels like its going to fall off because of the wear and tear on my arm the whopping 0.8 grams has just putting the phone into my pocket in the morning and onto my nightstand at night. Those Apple engineers are jerks for designing such a heavy phone.

      • sircheese69 - 9 years ago

        RDU, I have sat on mine a million times with no issues.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      There is an easy solution to Apple’s problem: stop making bendable phones.

      • Fallenjt JT - 9 years ago

        One solution for Apple: ignore the dumbass and keep making iPhone 6+ since everyone wants it. Next year, rebadge 6+ with Polycarbonate in color variance and call it 6C, it will sell like hotcake again beside, 6S and maybe 6+S.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        I agree with Fallenjt, God forbid if Apple actually starts listening to dumb trolls like you, they’d end up where Nokia is now! The phones don’t bend under anything less than violent pressure, and your comment is simply spreading media FUD over an issue that actually isn’t an issue at all.

      • aeronperyton - 9 years ago

        If Apple actually built a phone out of Unobtainium, you would just complain about the weight. …and the half-life.

      • rdu06 - 9 years ago

        I’m pretty sure if someone were to sit on their android that it would bend as well. You can’t demand a skinny light product and then complain that it’s fragile. “Stop making bendable phones”… What a stupid comment.

  3. eswinson - 9 years ago

    Do they weigh more if they are full of apps and music?

  4. Well they should. I have a 6+ and even the gentlest pressure corner to corner changes the way is “wobbles” when laid flat on a table. I can make it lay “flat”, even with the camera module sticking out, incredibly easy. The phone flexes, BADLY, and it’s got to be rectified. I want to use a case because of this inherent weakness, but, the phone is so awesome that I don’t want to use a case. I have a Skinomi on it right now, but it just doesn’t feel safe. And anyone denying that they bend, easily, is just plain full of shit.

    • Ray Wolf - 9 years ago

      I have one and the first thing I did was try to apply some pressure to see if it bends and my phone is fine. I will agree that it feels less rugged than an iPhone 5/s but I see no true design flaw.

      These are $800.00+ devices, we shouldn’t expect them to be treated like crap and not get damaged. I wouldn’t use my MacBook Pro as a stepping stool or foot stool so people shouldn’t be sitting on their phones.

      Obviously, you’ve predetermined that I’m “full of shit” so there’s no need to maliciously reply to my comment if you feel the compulsion to do so.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        I was expecting your trolling ass to come around, and make your usual mindless, one-liner troll response. Here’s mine to you,

        GO FUCK YOURSELF LOSER.

      • madmen8 - 9 years ago

        God Damnit Edison, I am ALWAYS on your side in terms of principal. Always! I always agree with you. But you make it SO HARD because you act like a lunatic! Damn man, Your points are valid, your opinions are justified, your temper is crazy and makes you sound like you’re an ignorant who just tries to win the argument through brutality, intimidations, rage, indignation or degradation. You’re a super sharp dude, I always read your posts. you’re a smart guy with a burning passion for Apple and Tech. Don’t bust a hemorrhoid getting the point across brother.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        @madmen8,

        LOL @ hemorrhoid comment :)

        Yeah I do have “outbursts” from time to time… It’s because people like Israel, which for the moment based on his current, and previous comments, we will refer to as the troll. More to the point, he’s a liar, and then labels everyone else who doesn’t agree with his lie as “full of shit”, so my response to those situations is quite “vocal”… I know it may offend some people, but after having dealt with these character types in real life, I’ve just had enough of them and don’t care if I come off sounding harsh any longer. I don’t tolerate liars, cheats, thieves, or otherwise moral-less people.

      • jrox16 - 9 years ago

        Some of these assholes commenting here obviously haven’t seen the Note 4 being permanently bent by hand on YouTube. Or they did but can’t change their worldview and have to continue on their crusade to, I don’t know, destroy Apple or something. Who knows what happens to a dumbass guy who can’t get laid ever, must make them go nuts and need to focus their hate on something, in this case Apple.

      • giskardian - 9 years ago

        I don’t get the reasoning where if something is expensive, it’s supposed to be delicate. It seems the opposite to me: a cheap phone should require delicate treatment but an $800 phone should be built to last.

    • Thats complete BS. I have a 6 Plus which I don’t baby and it hasn’t even slightly bent.

    • jrox16 - 9 years ago

      It flexes badly? Every phone flexes. Haven’t you seen the videos? The issue is at what point the flex becomes permanent. On the iPhone it was like 90 pounds for the 6+, Consumer Reports tested it. Also, maybe you didn’t notice, but the Galaxy Note 4 also bends in hands. Takes a little more pressure according to the bender (the same guy who originally bent the iPhone in his straining hands on YouTube), but it does bend permanently as well. Go get a new hobby already, no one cares anymore for this Fandroid nonsense lol.

      • giskardian - 9 years ago

        It takes 150% more pressure to bend a Samsung smartphone according to the CR three point test. There also may be a different way to apply stress to the 6+ that causes it to bend with less pressure.

        Get a new hobby, fanboy. Apple can take care of their own image with their army of PR droids. Or are you one of them, perhaps?

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        They tested the old Galaxy Note 3 in that test, which was a polycarbonate device, in and out. Polycarbonate can bend further than aluminium and still being able to “bounce back” but with that same token, it can shatter at a certain point because it’s a brittle material. Let’s wait to see if the Note 4 gets tested the same way, then you can go crying about it. After having seen how easily the Galaxy Alpha (aluminium band, plastic primary frame and magnesium “cage” inner structure) bends, the Note 4 should be so easy to bend it’s a joke.

    • Fallenjt JT - 9 years ago

      I deny your BS claim. My iPhone 6+ has always been either front tight jeans pocket when I sit and back pocket when I walk around and got no sign of even little bend. I did put pressure on it when i sit with it in front pocket and it’ totally normal. BTW, if you put it the rear pocket of your jeans and it on it, your jeans pocket will tear before the phone will bend. So, S.T.F.U.

    • iosser - 9 years ago

      This is pretty much my experience. I noticed today that my 6+ with apple case wobbled on a flat glass desk. But not by more than about 2mm. A fairly light pressure was enough to bend it back a little too far. Currently, it still wobbles a bit. I don’t expect to get it consistently flat.

      I agree the fandroids are probably scaremongering for suspicious reasons, and I have a significant financial interest in Apple’s success, but this is the fact of *my* iPhone 6+, which does not get kept in my back pocket.

      If 1.5g is within normal tolerances, then I guess some phones have different properties.

      Overall, it’s still a wonderful phone, and I would not give it up for this issue. But it is an issue and anyone who says it is not simply doesn’t understand the black swan metaphor. Further, anyone who loses their rag over it should get a grip.

    • brad42 - 9 years ago

      They don’t bend under anything less than 90 lbs per square inch. Here is proof. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/09/consumer-reports-tests-iphone-6-bendgate/index.htm

  5. alphabetize1 - 9 years ago

    I have a launch day iPhone 6 Plus and it still isn’t bent. I’ve even accidentally slept on it twice. It takes a fair bit of force to actually bend it.

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Exactly! This is not as fragile a device as trolls like Mr Israel or herb the moron try to profess it is…

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        There you go being a hotheadded asshole again. Mr. Israel (whether you agree with him or not) has been posting here for ages and is clearly not even close to a “troll.”

      • giskardian - 9 years ago

        If they were as durable as fanboys like yourself proclaim, then you wouldn’t go off on hotheaded rants like you did above. You KNOW they have a design flaw. That is why you shout so loudly about the absense of said flaw…

        Psych 101, buddy. You doth protest too much.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Yes he is a troll, he’s also a liar, and a few other things based on his “opinions” in the past. Want to defend him, fine, two peas in a pod. And you think I care if you feel I’m an asshole? Nope!

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Oh so refuting media BS and idiot trolls that spew said BS now makes me the bad guy? Count yourself up as another idiot troll.

    • madmen8 - 9 years ago

      Same here. I slept on it last night actually and this reminds me to check it. I have an apple silicon case on it. I’ll check it out now but its been a month and I have dropped it, slept on it and sat on it, and its been flawless up till now. Unless last night it finally croaked…

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        Must have been one hell of a party then for you to fall asleep without taking it out of your pants, or not even changing for the night, eh? ;)

        Let us know how the phone is, I’m willing to bet it’s perfectly fine, though I’m sure it’ll break Israel’s heart…

      • madmen8 - 9 years ago

        Yeah Edison! It’s fine. My heightened sense of reality makes me think I’m seeing a slight curvature but when held to a ruler or flat surface, it’s perfectly fine. I Had my 6+ in my front pocket, on my thigh and got an aggressive lap dance, no problem. If you’re doing something that bends the phone, it’s gotta be more than what I’m doing, in skinny pants, with a 120lb girl bouncing and grinding on it, and if that’s the case, you shouldn’t have your phone with you.

      • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

        OK, I gotta start going to the parties you get in on ;)

        Glad to hear your phone is A OK, as I knew it would be. Can someone be a pal now and pass Israel a tissue? I hear him sobbing in the corner…

    • Fallenjt JT - 9 years ago

      It’s been tested with 90 lbs (>40kg) of pressure to make it bend. The rear pocket of Levis’ Jeans could only withstand 12.5kg force test by University of Wisconsin. That mean, bending the phone in the rear pocket is totally BS because the pocket would be torn apart before the phone bends.
      Whoever claiming bending phone by rear pocket deserve to be smashed in the fact by wet noodles for his stupidity.

      • lexxkoto - 9 years ago

        Meanwhile, in the University of Wisconsin’s research labs:

        “Hey, shall we find a cure for cancer?”
        “Nah, bro! Let’s see how much force it takes to rip a pocket off some jeans. After that, we’ll see how many Lifesavers it takes to choke a parrot.”

      • yes lexxkoto, engineering researchers and students are probably very concerned with looking for a cure for cancer instead of actually testing and researching engineering things :D

  6. The weight difference is likely the difference in weight of the alloys used for different colors.

  7. Michael - 9 years ago

    “whopping”

  8. driverbenji - 9 years ago

    If, out 10s of millions of iPhone 6/6+ that have been sold now, there really was an issue with them bending easily or in pockets, we would be hearing about how many people are complaining and returning them. We have heard no such thing.

    The entire bending thing came out of people trying to get media attention (bloggers), nothing more.

    Just as you can put a phone in a blender, does not mean you should be trying to bend your phone.

    I don’t try to bend my phone.

    I don’t try to bend my aluminum laptop.

    I don’t try to bend my TV.

    I don’t try to bend my portable hard drive.

    I don’t put a magnet to a hard drive to see if it will keep it’s information on it.

    I don’t try to bend my keyboard.

    I don’t try to bend my USB cable in the port on my computer.

    I don’t poke holes in my speaker and then expect it to work normally.

    This is so juvenile. These people need to grow up, get off the internet, go and find something better to do with their lives.

    I have an iPhone 6 (not plus), I keep it in my front pocket, and it does not bend with regular use, in fact, it seems quite strong, like it would take very intentional force to bend it at all.

    (I think Jeff Colvin was making sheeet up, just to provoke, get a reaction.)

  9. Kevin Stuckey - 9 years ago

    Good to know!

  10. downhillrider - 9 years ago

    the only problem with this article is that guy was able to stroll in and buy a iPhone 6 Plus. I still haven’t been able to get one from my local Apple Store…..

  11. I’ve had an iPhone 6 Plus since day 1, I carry it in my front pocket in relatively tight jeans, nothing special. I have just moved to a new apartment so I have assembled quite a few pieces of furniture whilst having the phone in my pocket, bending over and putting pressure on it plenty of times. Still, it’s shape hasn’t changed at all, no bending and no issues at all. I check it regularly because of curiosity, this whole bendgate thing was blown way out of proportion I think. And before all the Android fanboys try to thrash this, I carry a Note 4 too which I love, I am in both camps since I love both Android and iOS, sorry to disappoint ;)

    • ericpruss - 9 years ago

      Why would you carry around two phablets? Do you also have both a MacBook and a Dell PC in your backpack?

  12. ericpruss - 9 years ago

    Yeah, “whopping” is the first word that comes to mind when I read “0.8 grams” – these iFixit folks need to stick to what they do well, take shit apart, and pimp tech tools.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.