In tests last week, U.S. phone insurance brand SquareTrade used “BendBot” robots to apply pressure to the flagship devices and simulate the forces produced in an “average person’s” back pocket.
They found that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge bent at 110 pounds of pressure and the Edge display itself also cracked.
Samsung has now responded to the report. A tweet posted by the company this morning contained a link to a YouTube video showing the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge being put under 3-point pressure tests in Samsung’s own development labs.
The video explains that the phone is rested against two supports at either end. Downward force is then applied to the middle of the phone to create a total of three pressure points.
The company tested the devices with 80lb of pressure. This is considerably less than the force used in SquareTrade’s tests but Samsung claims that 80lb would be an “extreme” pressure that most devices would never experience during normal usage.
Both phones are seen to bend slightly when the force is applied but they spring back to their original state when it is removed. Crucially, they both operate as normal after the test.
The 80lb pressure is 30lb less than SquareTrade found it took to critically damage the device. No doubt Samsung is seeking to allay fears that may have been instilled into consumers by the phone insurer’s findings last week.
Of course, 80lb is a very large force to be applied to any phone and Samsung is right to say that it would only occur during extreme circumstances. The company will be keen to divert attention away from SquareTrade’s video though after mocking Apple over #bendgate last year with a series of tweets, including one focused on the Galaxy Note 4 Edge that read “Curved. Not bent.”
