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Bendgate: Some Apple iPhone 6 Plus users report phones bending in their pockets

The last thing you want to have happen to your brand-new smartphone is have it bend out of shape. But unfortunately, that's exactly what a lot of iPhone 6 Plus owners are reporting as happening.

The issue was brought to light on the Apple blog and forum site MacRumours, where users started highlighting their issues with bent smartphones on Tuesday. Shortly after, a blogger with Geek.com reported seeing the same issue, and even showed the damage that had been done with this GIF:

The two users who posted to the MacRumours forums reported that the iPhone 6 Plus had been placed in a pocket, and then after several hours of sitting, the phone showed a visible bend near the volume buttons on the phone. User hanzoh reported that he placed the phone in his front pocket, drove four hours to a wedding, sat for dinner, did some dancing, then drove four hours back. When he took it out of his front pocket and placed it on the coffee table, the phone appeared to be slightly bent.

Another user shared that he was aware of the same thing happening when the iPhone 5S was released. According to the user, the people who experienced this and reported it to Apple were all told not to keep their iPhones in their pockets. According to Yahoo Tech, users who previously reported issues with bent iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S devices got sent replacement devices from Apple or their carriers.

The issue, as Geek.com's Russell Holly explains, appears to be Apple's visually appealing, albeit not indestructible, aluminum shell. Holly suggests that in order to get the incredibly thin and light form of the iPhone 6 Plus, some of its durability has been reduced, making it more susceptible to bending.

However, as Wired points out, bending shouldn't come as a surprise to iPhone 6 Plus owners. Not only has this happened occasionally to iPhone 5S users in the past, it's also a problem that has been seen with iPads, too.

The two big issues are making sure that the battery and the glass display don't bend, as that could have much more serious safety consequences.

"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 in an analysis of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus displays for DisplayMate.

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Despite the widespread publicity of the iPhone 6 Plus' bend issue, it's certainly not the only phone with this issue. As manufacturers try to make phones thinner and lighter, particularly as their surface area gets bigger, there's more of a risk that the thinner materials could bend if not handled correctly.

In a "bend test" (who would actually do this to their phone?), a YouTube user found that, under pressure, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will bend too, and the glass eventually shatters.

The truth is, as ubiquitous as smartphones are in our lives now, they're still expensive pieces of technology, and still need to be treated with a certain degree of care. To prevent your phone from bending from everyday activities, there are a couple of things you can do:

  • Take your phone out of your pocket while driving, or sitting for extended periods of time.

  • Get a case that helps the phone maintain its rigidity. Basically any case should help.

  • Don't put undue physical stress on your phone. Like bending it to see if yours, too, will bend. It probably will.

If you find that your iPhone 6 Plus is bent, contact Apple or the service provider where you got your phone, and follow their advice for care or replacement.

Apple has yet to comment.

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