Samsung was so confident that the Galaxy Note 4 was immune to the bendgate saga but that’s not essentially true. YouTube user, Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy (same guy who released the original video of the iPhone 6 Plus bending under a certain amount of pressure) posted a clip of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 facing the same test. See video above.
To our surprise – considering the several Samsung made to prove the toughness of the Galaxy Note 4, the phone bends when strong pressure is applied by both hands. In the video, Hilsenteger comments that “it’s nowhere near as severe as the iPhone 6 Plus”.
Bending the phone back also puts it back in shape and you cab be sure that the Note 4 won’t bend in your pocket during normal day to day use as complained by users of the iphone 6.
His video is a response to the outcry of numerous Apple fans who questioned the use of only the iPhone 6 Plus in testing bendgate flaws. Hilsenteger also tested the Note 3 which passed the test; thanks to an internal chassis and a plastic exterior. However, the Note 4 bent in the same spot as the iPhone 6 Plus; no thanks to its metal exterior.
Hilsenteger states: “I had to put a lot of pressure into it to achieve it (the bendgate test on the Note 4), but even still, the Galaxy Note 3 was completely fine”. The conversation here is, why are other devices engineered to a specification higher than others? If no phones ever bend, why can the Note 3 withstand 150 pounds of force, whereas other devices are less than half of that?
The bend tests are not the be-all and end-all of durability testing on a phone; they are the far end of the spectrum,” Hilsenteger says. “I can’t possibility replicate six months, a year or two years of ownership in a video that comes out two weeks after the phone is out. In some circumstances, we have to push the boundaries because you are going to be the owner of the device for two years, maybe more, and it’s a significant investment.’’
Every phone is capable of bending when put under a certain amount of pressure but the question is how easily and how often does the phone bend? The purpose of the test is to see how the devices hold up under intense conditions.
A phone’s bending is not a matter of the manufacturers putting more effort or more money into durability as perceptions on what makes a phone durable may vary. User review videos like Hilsenteger’s would ginger companies to rethink their ideologies on what ‘’durable’’ should be and be more thorough with their in-house tests before releasing results.