After the unwarranted jabs that Apple had received for apparently using bendable aluminum cases for its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the company appears to be putting out all the stops to finally put Bendgate behind it.
Last year, Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy jumped into the increasingly growing loud clamor being made by Apple customers who were complaining that their brand new, expensive iPhones were bending under pressure when placed inside their pockets. Hilsenteger, in an attempt to see just how believable those complaints were, decided to take matters into his own hands, literally, by bending the iPhone 6s with his bare hands.
Now, Hilsenteger is at it once again with a case purportedly to be used for the upcoming iPhone 6s, expected to be unveiled by Apple in September, which he says he received from Twitter leaker Sonny Dickson. This time, however, instead of trying to bend the case with his own hands, Hilsenteger put together a machine that can test exactly how many pounds the case can withstand before being deformed.
The result? While the iPhone 6 case buckles under a pressure of 30 pounds, the new iPhone 6s case can withstand more than two times as much at 80 pounds. If the reported iPhone 6s case is real, the video reveals that, although Apple largely dismissed the Bendgate controversy by saying that only nine people were affected, the company is certainly not risking history repeating itself for the iPhone 6s.
The difference in both cases' performance can be drilled down to two things, according to Hilsenteger's analysis using an X-ray fluorescence analyzer. The first one is the use of 7000-series aircraft aluminum, which is the same kind of aluminum used in the Apple Watch Sport. This sits well with earlier reports from analysts and supply-side sources claiming Apple will be ditching the 6000-series aluminum of its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to go with a more durable, and less bendable, alloy.
Hilsenteger's testing shows the aluminum alloy used for the reported iPhone 6s case is composed of 92.8 percent aluminum, with as much as 6.1 percent zinc to add to the robustness of the metal. Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 case is composed of around 98 percent aluminum.
The second factor is a thicker anodization coating that Hilsenteger says will keep the zinc from corroding. X-ray testing shows the iPhone 6s case will have a 10-micron-thick coating that will protect the case from corrosion and, possibly, allow Apple to use new dyes for new color options (such as pink, for instance).
7000-series aluminum is known to be more expensive than the regular 6000-series that Apple is using for its current flagships, but Apple will not likely want to put up with Bendgate 2 when it launches its new iPhones next month.
