It has only been less than a week since launched, but new owners of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus are already running into some expected but serious warping issues due to the larger iPhone's design.
Reports of iPhone 6 Plus owners accidentally bending their aluminum iPhones first cropped up on the MacRumors forums, where users said they noticed their iPhones were bent after carrying around the device in their front pocket. One user named hanzoh said he saw his new iPhone 6 Plus was "slightly distorted" after placing the smartphone in his pants' front pocket for about 18 hours.
Russell Holy of Geek.com also posted images of his new iPhone 6 Plus rocking slightly back and forth when placed flat on its front, an issue that has never been seen in other iPhone 6 Plus units without the bend.
"Unfortunately, it looks like Apple has sacrificed durability in exchange for that thin profile and impossibly light experience," writes Holly.
Other users, such as French Apple user Florian Paulmier, have taken to Twitter to share photos of their bent brand new smartphones.
Oups, l'iPhone 6 se déforme dans la poche ! https://t.co/szFfovaHB7 pic.twitter.com/Zru9uozhMU
— Florian Paulmier (@FlorianP123) Sept. 23, 2014
Following reports of the iPhone 6 Plus being susceptible to bending, vlogger Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy took the new iPhone out for a bend test and posted a YouTube video of it. The video shows Hilsenteger applying pressure on the back of the iPhone 6 Plus with nothing but his bare hands. Eventually, the new phone gave in to the pressure, with the upper part of the aluminum unibody near the button cutouts caving in the most. The central part stayed the most stable.
"Bottom line is it's an aluminum phone, it's going to bend if you apply enough pressure like I just did," said Hilsenteger. "Now, will this happen in your front pocket? That probably depends on how tight your pants are and how often you're wearing this in your pocket. I think it could."
The new iPhone 6 Plus has a body made of aluminum, a soft, malleable metal that easily bends when one applies pressure to it. Given the new iPhone's slimmer design and larger surface area, it is easy to see how placing it in the pants' front pocket can warp the device.
This isn't the first case of bending smartphones from Apple. As Cult of Mac pointed out, the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S were also met with the same bending reports shortly after launch, as well as the iPhone 4S. Smartphones from other manufacturers, such as the plastic Samsung Galaxy S4 and metal Sony Xperia Z1 also had their share of reports from users who said the phones had bent, in some cases with the screens even cracking, after users placed them in their pants pocket.
