It’s been a mere week since the release of the Apple iPhone 6, and there’s already a lot to be said about the phone. It’s bigger, it’s better, and it has a refreshed design. Overall, it’s pretty much exactly how you would expect the new iPhone to be. The biggest headliner on the phone is, of course, the fact that Apple actually decided to make the iPhone comparably sized to most other smartphones on the market. Whether that’s a good thing or not is really in the eye of the beholder.
The size of Apple’s iPhone isn’t the only thing making headlines this week when it comes to the iPhone 6, though. As it turns out, the phone isn’t exactly as solid as one might hope. When you take a material as bendy as aluminum and you flatten it out to make it thinner and lighter, you might run into some problems. It might look pretty from the get-go, but is it a practical design? Apparently not, because putting the iPhone 6 in your pocket might be all it takes to make your huge new iPhone get all bent out of shape - literally.
This isn’t the first time iPhone users are being warned to be wary of where they put their phones. Many of you probably recall that both the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5s both encountered similar problems. But you’d think that Apple would have made sure that easy bending wasn’t an issue with their latest and greatest model, but I suppose that’s easier said than done. Aluminum will be aluminum, I guess.
And as much crap as I’ve given phones made out of plastic over the past few years, I can’t help but notice that Googling “iPhone 5c bending in pocket” only turns up results of the iPhone 5, 5s, or 6 bending in your pocket. So for all of us that have been on the “Rah, rah, aluminum is king,” train, well, serves us right for being so smug I suppose.
It also goes beyond just being made out of aluminum - being thin doesn’t help much, either. After all, the HTC One (both the M7 and the M8) are made out of aluminum and the problem isn’t nearly as prevalent as it is in the iPhone. This might be due to the magnitude in which the iPhone sells compared to HTC’s flagships, but the worst I ever experienced with my first HTC One was a dent or two. I think the curvature on the back helped the phone be structurally sound. The iPhone’s flat and thin design is what makes it so prone to bending.
Aside from bending, you also have the issue of battery life. Yes, phones today are a lot better off than they were just a few short years ago, but battery life isn’t getting much better with thin being in. A thicker phone would not only provide more structural stability, but also more room for battery life. It doesn’t have to be that thick, either; it’s just this trend of being the “thinnest” phone that’s making it difficult for battery life (in its current state) to get any better. We simply don’t have the means right now to mass produce nano batteries with days worth of battery life, so the only other alternative is to make slightly thicker, larger phones to get better battery life.
I like pretty phones as much as the next person, but a slightly bigger phone made out of materials that won’t distort under ordinary conditions doesn’t seem like it would make a phone that undesirable. I know I would choose a phone with more durability and better battery life if given the choice between the two. Plus, you can slap an Apple logo on pretty much anything and it will sell like hotcakes; might as well make it a durable phone that lasts a while, right?
Images via CNet, Tech Crunch
