Samsung is obviously dismayed by the bending test recently conducted by phone warranty provider SquareTrade which showed that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge bends at 110 pounds and breaks at 149 pounds of pressure.
The Apple iPhone 6 Plus also bends at 110 pounds of applied pressure but breaks at 179 pounds of pressure while the HTC One M9, another flagship smartphone, becomes inoperable when 120 pounds of pressure is applied.
When the ‘bendgate’ accusations hit the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus a few weeks after they were released into the retail markets, competitors ganged up on the American tech company.
But that did not deter consumers from buying the larger iPhones en route to Apple reclaiming the top spot of the global smartphone market and dislodging Samsung in the process.
Official statement
The Korean tech giant released on April 6 an official statement on the smartphone durability test conducted by SquareTrade through a web blog site called Samsung Tomorrow.
Samsung explained that the 110 pounds of pressure rarely occurs under normal circumstances because the typical force generated when a person presses the back pocket is approximately 66 pounds of force only.
The company explained that its internal tests conducted on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge showed that its latest flagship devices do not bend even under 79 pounds of applied pressure, which is equivalent to forcing to snap a bundle of five pencils at once.
It added that even though both front and back sides are exposed under the same level of pressure in normal circumstances, the test does not show the strength of the back side, citing that smartphones have different levels of durability in their front and back sides.
Samsung said that the phone warranty provider only tested the front side of the Galaxy S6 and the company believes that it may mislead consumers about the veracity of the entire durability of the smartphone.
New stress test
The company is planning to request SquareTrade and ask them to conduct the stress test again which will already involved the front and back sides of the smartphones. Samsung said that it is amenable to have the results of the test opened to the public.
Samsung added that all its devices have been subjected to rigorous high-quality validation tests before they are delivered to consumers. These tests include various conditions, such as dropping, bending, and breakage. The Korean tech giant said that it is confident that all its smartphones are not bendable under daily usage.
The company web blog site has also posted a video of a 3-point bend test that Samsung is carrying out on its smartphones before they are released to the consumer market.
SquareTrade, on the other hand, issued a response statement to Samsung by saying that the test that it has recently conducted on three of the latest flagship smartphones is unbiased. The phone warranty provider also said that it’s happy that Samsung has publicly released its own tests.