Samsung's bend blame blast: We DEMAND a Galaxy S6 Edge do-over Samsung is disputing claims that its Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone is just as bendy as Apple's iPhone 6 Plus – and has put together a video to make its point. Galaxy S6 and S6 edge 80lbf Three-Point Bend Test Last week consumer electronics insurer SquareTrade put the two handsets, and the HTC One M9, through some bending tests, …
I'm pretty sure that bending anything made out of glass is not a good idea. The bend tests done in the lab don't duplicate real life very well, so just because the glass on a particular phone didn't break in that test doesn't really mean anything. You could bend it a slightly different way and the glass may shatter.
Sticking a big (and expensive) phone in your trouser pocket is inherently not "safe". I wouldn't think it was a good idea to walk around with a glass drinking glass in my pocket and sit on it, so why would would I think that a big sheet of display glass would be indestructible or safe?
Really, I have to wonder whether any of these large smart phones are actually fit for purpose as "mobile phones". If you want to carry a phone in your pocket and not have to worry about it breaking, one of the cheaper models is a safer bet. They tend to be smaller, thicker (and so inherently stronger), and the really cheap ones have a sheet of plastic as the window over the screen. And if you do break it, you're not going to cry over the money you lost.
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It hasn't been the watch pocket since the invention of the iPhone meant you didn't want to wear a watch any more - or, if you're not an Apple cultist, since the wristwatch rendered the pocket watch obsolete. So now it's the condom pocket. It's always been the right size to hold something you don't need if you have an iPhone, though.
@Jedit, I doubt you'll have much luck with a condom sticking out of your jeans either. It's still a watch pocket regardless of Levis trying to market it otherwise. In the intervening years they have been perfect for Zippos too, but I wouldn't call it a lighter pocket.
If you think that a condom in on of these pockets will be fit for purpose by the end of a good night out (let alone a few good nights out which they would last for a normal human male then you must have a very large family or very swift bedding skills :)
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In my view, the 6510 was smaller than the 8210. It was thicker, but was slightly less wide.
I lost mine on a night out in Swansea. I think it fell down the back of a seat in one of the establishments on Wind Street, but I can't remember the evening that well.
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A suit pocket is fine at work, but what happens when you're wearing jeans and a tshirt at the weekend?
I was hanging out for an s6 but after playing with a couple of larger phones (and being used to an iPhone 3G) I'm thinking maybe an s4 mini. Btw an iPhone 3G is fine in the back pocket. I never have to worry about sitting on it- it's built like a tank and I've never had a problem with the weight. Is it time to revive the clamshell dual screen? Maybe even triple screen- small front screen for phone use, clamshell for browsing. Thin/light is good for a laptop where weight is significant but not required for a phone, within reason.
"A suit pocket is fine at work, but what happens when you're wearing jeans and a tshirt at the weekend?"
-- P. Lee
Surely bigphone uses are more likely to be wearing cargo pants than skinny jeans?
On a more serious note, it's not entirely impossible to use several devices - both Android and iOS seem to be pretty good at syncing multiple devices (I have no experience of Windows mobile but I suspect it is the same). It would be nice if devices could share numbers, but some judicious call-diverting does most of what is needed.
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Glass can be made bendy by using it in very thin sheets. Most damaged screens are a result of impact damage - not bending - exerted through a small area by a piece of grit or similar.
That said, I use a Z3 Compact with a ' wallet' case to protect the screen. The phone thickness to screen area ratio is high compared to Apple and Samsung flagships, so bending moments are reduced, and the waterproofing gives extra peace of mind. I have a physically active job, so I don't want a huge slab in my trouser pocket. The downside is that the screen is smaller, by my eyes are still young enough to just fine with that.
Have to say i still own the S4 Mini hardware it struggles with multi tasking sometimes, but i can honestly say its a tough little phone. Had one occasion where my phone slid of the dash board, out the drivers window at my local shopping center where its was subjected to abuse from the car following me i.e got run over. you could tell it had been run over, but what amazed me was when i popped battery back in and back cover on, it restarted fine and worked. Amazing really
I suspected the tests were fake. Apple users in general lack ethics and tend to be quite sneaky.
In the workplace I have noticed it is the iPhone users who undermine a team.
Apple have been lagging in the innovation stakes so will need to up their sneaky attacks on competitors.
That head of apple that died would approve. I seem to recall he was unethical.
Stalin would not have been a fan of the iPhone, because it is not a phone for the proletariat. This is why he invaded Finland - to take over Nokia. Torquemada wouldn't have liked it either, as Steve Jobs was openly non-Christian and his devices must therefore be Satan's work..
Hitler would have loved it, though. It has a Blitz socket, the battery will last 1000 minutes (under regular use), and it even has restriction of user freedom and all software for it must be authorised for release by Das Apfelreich. Truly, the master phone for the master race!
Plus One for knowing what Blitz means. Also, Hitler did appreciate good design - the VW Beetle enjoyed a very long production run after he outlined what he wanted from the car. Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen Fry have both commented on the genius of Nazi uniforms. Good design and engineering has been associated with Germany before and after Hitler's rule.
I don't support Hitler's values for a moment, but that is irrelevant. Distaste for the atom bomb doesn't diminish the brilliance of science and engineering that went into the Manhatten Project.
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>Mind you anyone who goes around bending phones or sitting on them is probably a bit dumb anyway.
OTOH we have the Sales of Goods act, a product must be fit for the purpose for which it is sold. It is not unreasonable for a mobile phone to be put in a pocket, or to assume the engineers have done their job.
You're right with the sales of goods act. You could go into a store selling Apple or Samsung phones, and tell them "I want to be able to put that phone into my backpocket, and sit on it with my big arse, without it bending, and I want that in writing". I think the seller will then tell you "sorry mate, we don't sell a phone meeting your requirements", and therefore the sales of goods act requirements are fulfilled.
Ok, so let's put a phone in a vise and apply pressure to the middle until it breaks? Almost anything will break if it's put in a vise and continuously increasing pressure is applied to the middle. If they wanted to do a realistic test that displays what happens when the phone is placed in a back pocket and sat on, have a girl with a big round butt put the phone in her back pocket and then sit on it multiple times. Of course the phone will bend, but that would at least be a realistic test that shows what happens when an idiot puts the phone in their back pocket and sits on it. Anyone who puts the phone in their back pocket then sits on it deserves for their phone to bend.
Your proposed "girl with a big round butt" test isn't reproducible. She might sit a bit differently the second time, and if two people do the test they'll probably find two different girls who weigh different amounts.
So, they standardise the test by applying a fixed amount of force in a specific way.
"Almost anything will break if it's put in a vise and continuously increasing pressure is applied to the middle." But the test isn't "can I break it". The test is to *measure* the point where the phone breaks, so they can compare that across phones, and they can compare it to the amount of force exerted when a "girl with a big round butt put the phone in her back pocket and then sit on it".
It's science!
Would you put a laptop or tablet on top of your matress at night? Or put a file cabinet on top of your server rack?
I can see why people like these very large phones, but its kind of like expecting to fit a book in your back pocket. Its just an issue of taking care of your property and realizing that a big phone obviates putting it in certain places. Don't put your expensive stuff in a situation where it might break!
That's all well and good and I agree with you. But people are sometimes not all that smart. I've had to replace at least one laptop because someone feel asleep with it and rolled over on it. As for the file cabinet on the server... never seen that. But one place I went to had a coffee machine on top of a server. A lady in one place had a fountain with running water on top of her tower.
I've seen phones jammed into a back pocket that by all the laws of mechanics and physics should never have fit in there to begin with. There's entirely too many people don't think. They think some government agency or some company will do the thinking and pass a law or build a product that will survive their dumbness.
That Samsung video shows a guy trying to bend a number of pencils which naturally buch up versus the same number of pencils laid out flat in their testing machine - methinks both Samsung and Apple are using marketeers in the lab. Never a a way unbiased results.
Dismiss both sets of results!
Samsung was completely happy with the test results on the iPhone and mocked Apple as they could. Now, applying the EXACT SAME TEST METHOD, suddenly its is no more accurate as the results are not to Samsung's linking.
Suckers big time!!
It's not that the simple physics of force applied to the middle of a thin object will either bend it or break it eventually. That one's easy and obvious, and anyone sitting down on a thin, expensive, slab of metal and glass in his/her back pocket should receive no pity, imnsho.
The thing is , from observation of a lot of Youf in skinnies + mobile phone mangling this actually rarely happens. The phone comes Out before the behind is parked on whatever surface is used for reposing, so is rarely ever sat on.
While in Attenborough mode I did notice that the majority of cracked screens had their telltale lines along the diagonal of the screen, indicating that the force applied was a twisting force along the long axis of the phone, not the straight-up downforce used in the test. This is what you get while bending forward or squatting down in not-even-so-tight jeans where the force of the rolling action of the gluteus maximus, backed by the hinge of the hip joint ( plus the mass of any tight-packed adipose tissue ) is applied to anything present in the back pocket.
anecdotal as it is, I do believe Sammie has a point in stating the performed tests are less that useful, given the observed results in the wild. I doubt that they would want to test this though, given that a thin phone can take even less twisting force before giving in, and the results may show that the force required falls well within the realms of Normal Use, giving rise to another kind of embarassment..
Despite what some fanbois think, neither Apple nor Samsung can defy the laws of physics.
Big, flat, thin things tend to be more bendable than stubbier things.
If we want wafer thin devices, we are just going to have to treat them a little more carefully.
Personally, I'm getting a bit fed up with Apple's approach to MacBook Pro. Portability's great and thinness looks fantastic, but I'd actually appreciate an option of having the same technology in a slightly chunkier case with ports and expandability.
For the actual "pro" market, having an ultra thin case isn't the be all and end all!
wow, i don't care who you are, or what you do, you cannot tell me that since the since the invention of the mobile phone you have been worried about it bending!? its such a none issue.
Things bend if you try to bend them - mobile phones will bend if you try to bend them and they will break, WOW someone stop the press, how did Newton not predict this!!?!?!
If you don't want a broken phone, don't try to bend it. and Normal use doesn't have to be defined, any human with sub average intelligence knows that if you use a phone properly, the chances of it bending are slim to none.
rant over
So reading all posts above, one can conclude, any one with enough money to afford large £500+ smart phone and feels compelled to put it in their back pocket and sit on it, should not under any circumstances be allowed to have one
However they will qualiify to own an exclusive newThick phone.
I have a very nice "smart" phone which even takes a 64GB card, namely the Samsung ch@t.
Despite multiple blunt force trauma events and two liquid encounters it just won't die, had to take it apart twice to fix the antenna but none of the base hardware has been changed.
Needless to say Samsung no longer sell these which is a great shame because they really are quite nice as the hotspot actually works properly unlike newer offerings.
If anyone happens to have a hacked FW that supports LTE please let me know, as apparently the chip in these can indeed support it but no new firmware available since late 2012.
It did show up an H+ but this is apparently regular 3G+
One issue I have with the S3,S4,S5 AND S6 is that the screens are much more delicate than they should be for such an expen$ive gadget.
Had at least a dozen people asking me in the last 3 months to fix broken S4 screens and a lot of those were internal damage to the OLED itself such as half dead or "creeping death syndrome" ie the glass to metal seal was cracked.
Perhaps Samsung should concentrate on fixing this really glaring problem before rushing out a £550+ phone which breaks the first time someone sits down with it in their back pocket.
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