I blame myself. In the middle of a lovely podcast conversation with Apple’s Senior VP for Hardware Engineering, John Ternus and the company’s global marketing manager, Geg Joswaiak (lovingly known as “Joz”), I brought up “Bendgate”. Things went kind of out of the rails from there.
We chat with Tom’s Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer about the incredibly slim Apple iPhone Air, a product, Apple revealed just a day earlier, and without irony, its strength.
I sat in the crowd and heard the specifications that include a titanium frame in Class 5 and the new ceramic shield 2 for maximum durability. Still, the memories are long and it’s hard to forget, the last time Apple revealed a thin phone with big screen. What people may not remember is that the iPhone 6 Plus was only 7.1 mm thin and it contained a big-for-time 5.5-inch screen.
Almost as soon as the iPhone 6 Plus hit store shelves, people were torque and bent it. It held up so badly that Apple would on the iPhone 7 Plus introduce a brand new class of aluminum.
Look at
I said the magic word
IPhone Air is only 5.6 mm thick, making the Apple’s thinnest phone ever. It seemed, at least to me, a risk, so I asked the question to Ternus and Jozwiak, even awake to mention the phrase “Bendgate”. Are they worried and how have they prepared the $ 999 iPhone air for the penalty it is definitely ending when it will be sent later this month?
Ternus quickly reminded me of, “You heard us say in keynote speaker, … It’s more durable than any previous iPhone, and that’s 100% true.” He listed existing water penetration measures (IP68), and the harder (with a factor of three) ceramic shields covering both sides of the iPhone.
“It exceeds our internal measurements for bending strength,” said Ternus, who is when Jozwiak chimed, “which is really high.”
Joz (whom I call him from here and out) then added that he thought the teams “chose the right materials for these products, and the titanium here on such a thin product was the key to creating an incredibly strong, Incredibly strongencapsulating. “
I have seen an iPhone Air Fly
I would ask if Apple had completed any robber test, which means if they had asked people to sit in iPhone Air but Joswiak cut me off. He had other ideas.
I saw when Joswiak began waving his iPhone air against me, only late realizing he was throwing the 165-gram phone in my direction. Suddenly the phone flew through the air. Of course, I fumbled it and it jumped over an adjoining table. I shrank to grab the clearly unnoticed phone, relieved it hadn’t ended up on the floor behind us, but Joz wasn’t done.
“Try to bend it,” he said, flirting to me.
“Go ahead, it’s on me. ‘
I realized that I was on video and was trying to potentially destroy one of Apple’s most important employees’ personal phones.
I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t deny the challenge.
I held iPhone air in front of my face and put the thumbs on my face and my other digits on the smooth back, and then I bent the phone, or rather I sent mighty when it bent a little but did not give in. There were no cracks and I could see the confident and almost beatific smile on Joz’s face when I gave it my everything.
Mark Spoonauer also gave it a shot and jokingly jokingly whether the Apple Store shoppers would be encouraged to try this test.
More protection than you think
I admitted that this was better than an ass test. The phone bends clearly, but it clicks right back in a perfectly flat plate, the other you stop trying to bend it.
“If you put enough load,” Ternus said, “You can make it bend a little,” and Joz ended the thought, “but it’s coming right back. That’s the idea.”
Although not much movement as these are stiff materials, I was curious about how the lithium-ion battery is protected in these situations.
“We have a metal jug on the battery,” Ternus told me, “which also makes the battery even a much stronger component … We really have a good time with it.”
So there you have it, I have just unintentionally settled the question of “Bendgate” for iPhone air. This is clearly a very durable phone. I gave it all in a surprise bending test, inspired (heck, almost in demand) by the leader of all Apple Marketing.
Thank you, Joz, to scare the heck out of me and give me a chance to remove at least one concern for Apple’s exciting, new and incredibly thin iPhone air.
I think I have to lie down now.
By the way, if you want to see this moment and maybe see the full and fascinating conversation, you can check part 1 of the podcast interview on Tom’s Guide and Part 2 on Techradar’s YouTube channel.
You can read Mark Spoonauer’s report here.
Look at
