Good news: the iPhone 6s solves the bending problem

New video shows backplate made of thicker, lighter material that won't bend like the iPhone 6

Hey, remember bendgate? That was that time, a couple of years ago where people were claiming that their iPhone 6 devices were bending in their pocket. It's been a while since I've heard anything about that, but it created some really bad press at the time.

Of course, nobody has gotten their hands on the iPhone 6s yet, but the guys over at Unbox Therapy claim that they have obtained the backplate for the device and it portends some good news for iPhone lovers.

In a video put up on YouTube on Monday. And now it seems like Apple has made sure it doesn't have a new similar problem on its hands with its new devices that are coming out later this year.

They observed that the area around the home button appear to be "significantly thicker on the 6s backplate compared with the standard 6." Using a digital calibrater Unbox Therapy was able to measure the difference between the two, funding that the 6s had a thickness of 1.9mm at that point, versus 1.14mm on the iPhone 6, making it almost twice as thick.

Rather than making the phone heavier, though, the backplate for the iPhone 6s is actually two grams lighter than the iPhone 6, 25 grams to 27 grams.

"This evidence here seems to point in the direction of a new material, potentially that rumored 7000 series aluminum, which is not only going to be thicker in some key points here but also probably going to be stronger in general," said Unbox Therapy. 

Eventually they will also test the potential for each to bend, but for now it seems like Apple has made some pretty important improvements in its latest phone.

Take a look at the video below:

One thing that is important to note about this video is that Unbox Therapy are slightly famous for another video they did in 2014, where the same guy bend an iPhone 6 with his bare hands. The video has been viewed 66 million times. So these are no Apple fanboys we're dealing with.

You can see that test below:

While its not really feasible to calculate how much bendgate might have cost Apple, since there's no way the company is going to break out those numbers, a report from Forbes at the time attempted to calculate how much money it might have to pay out due to the problem.

For example, if 100,000 people decided to not buy an iPhone due to the bad press, it would have decreased Apple’s revenue by about $80 million. If the same 100,000 people decided to return their iPhones within the two weeks of buying them, it would have cost Apple $52 million over two quarters. 

Apple may be the most profitable company of all time, but that doesn't mean it can afford another potentially heavy financual problem like this, not to mention the bad press and publicity. Getting word out early that the bending problem is fixed is pretty smart strategy.

The iPhone 6s

The iPhone 6s is expected to be released a month from now, and the company is anticipating a big launch. 

In all, between 85 and 90 million iPhones will reportedly be made by the end of this year. For comparisons sake, last year Apple ordered an initial production run of 70 million to 80 million for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, its first larger-screen iPhones, which was a record at the time.

There are going to be so many phones that need to be made, in fact, that the company's two existing assemblers, Hon Hai and Pegatron Corp, likely can't handle the load. They could barely keep up with the demand last year, causing delays and long waits. So Apple is considering adding a third assembler, Wistron Corp.

The iPhone 6s wil have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, which are the same as in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Screen resolution is also expected to stay the same.

The phones are expected to come with Force Touch, a new type of touch pad that is pressure sensitive, which it announced earlier this year. That means the phone doing different things depending on how hard a user pushes on the screen. This feature is already available on the Apple Watch and MacBook laptop computer.

(Image source: washingtonpost.com)