Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Some iPhone 6 Plus users are discovering their handsets do something Apple isn’t advertising: Bending. Yes, a few phablets are bowing slightly after being kept in back pockets and then sat upon.
You could say it’s a pocket-sized controversy, and you’d (mostly) be right. Considering the device is just over a quarter-inch thick and made largely of aluminum, a flexible metal, the fact this jumbo iPhone will bend when great pressure is placed on it for extended periods is a bit of a well, duh . It’s something that happens, albeit rarely, to iPhone 5s and iPad owners.
If you do manage to torque your spendy, bendy new iPhone 6 Plus, there could be consequences. Batteries and displays are not meant to bend, unless they’re designed to do so from the outset, like the curved LG G Flex smartphone (which even has special curved batteries to accommodate its form factor).
“LCDs are made with delicate front and back glass panels. Even if they don’t break, putting mechanical stress on them could affect the critical alignment between the front and back glass layers, which would then significantly affect the display performance and image quality,” said Raymond Soneira, a display expert and president of DisplayMate. Soneira recently published a detailed analysis of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus’ displays compared to other leading mobile displays on the market.
If your display panel gets damaged, you could experience issues like brightness irregularities at the edge of the screen, dead pixels, or colors striping across the screen.
In particular, lithium-ion batteries cannot withstand the stress of repeated bendings and will explode if you say, bent your iPhone back and forth over and over and over again. One kid did just that in 2011. But iFixit’s Kyle Wiens says iPhone 6 Plus owners shouldn’t have to worry about this because there’s a metal plate between the display and the battery.
Soneira agrees, saying that for minor stresses, the phone’s display assembly should hold up just fine thanks to its metal rear casing. Third-party device insurer SquareTrade did find the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are Apple’s most durable iPhones yet. But, as with dropping any phone, sometimes even a minor fall can create the wrong kind of stress.
If you insist on sitting on your iPhone 6 Plus, Soneira recommends placing it in your pocket with its back facing your backside. “The cover glass [on the display] should do a good job of protecting the frontside from whatever you are sitting on,” Soneira says. But considering your new phone cost at least $300, why take the chance? Take it out of your pocket before sitting down, or invest in a new blazer or jacket that has a dedicated smartphone pocket.
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