{"id":105998,"date":"2015-04-07T15:24:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T15:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=105998"},"modified":"2015-04-07T15:25:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T15:25:16","slug":"samsung-attacks-s6-edge-bend-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=105998","title":{"rendered":"Samsung attacks S6 Edge bend test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samsung is playing down a report that its new flagship phone – the Galaxy S6 Edge – is “just as bendable” as Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus and breaks completely at a lower pressure point.<\/p>\n

The allegations have been made by a company that sells smartphone protection plans.<\/p>\n

Samsung said that the results “may mislead consumers” and called on the firm to carry out a revised test.<\/p>\n

But one expert said it highlighted the danger of mocking a competitor.<\/p>\n

Last September, at a time when there were multiple reports that the new iPhone’s aluminium shell left it prone to damage, Samsung posted a tweet stating that its own Edge phablet was “curved, not bent”.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung
Samsung sent out this tweet last September<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then in February, at the S6 Edge’s launch event, Samsung’s mobile division marketing chief paused for applause and laughs when she boasted about the new handset’s design in a presentation containing several comparisons to Apple’s models.<\/p>\n

“Not only does [the glass] look great but it’s super tough – in fact, it’s the toughest in the market,” said Younghee Lee.<\/p>\n

“Also the special metal that we use is 50% stronger than the metal in other high-end smartphones.<\/p>\n

“My first language may not be engineering, but I do know that this [is] tough [and] will not bend.”<\/p>\n

Samsung is not the only company to have exploited criticism of Apple.<\/p>\n

HTC and\u00a0LG also posted tweets at the height of last year’s controversy, with LG going so far as to mark one of its posts with the hashtag #bendgate.<\/p>\n

Apple later said that damage to the iPhone 6 Plus would be “extremely rare” during normal use – a similar point now made by Samsung about the S6 Edge, which goes on sale in the US and UK next week.<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy
Samsung dedicated a section of its S6 Edge launch event to the durability of its phones<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Stress tests<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The current allegations are based on tests carried out by SquareTrade, which used machinery to simulate forces that it said might be experienced by a handset left in a back pocket as well as attempting to identify the force under which different models experienced “catastrophic failure”.<\/p>\n

It said that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Both the S6 Edge and iPhone 6 Plus deformed when a force of 110lb (50kg) was applied. The screen on Samsung’s phone cracked at this level, but the iPhone’s did not<\/li>\n
  • HTC’s latest phone – the One M9 – did not bend until 120lb, at which point it also broke and became unusable<\/li>\n
  • The S6 Edge’s breaking point was 149lb, at which stage it ceased to function<\/li>\n
  • The iPhone 6 Plus stopped working at a force of 179lb<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    An accompanying video suggested that S6 Edge owners were at risk of a “pocket full of glass” if they put their handsets under too much pressure.<\/p>\n

    \"SquareTrade
    The test found that the S6 Edge’s screen cracked at the same point that the phone bent<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In response, Samsung said it was confident that its phones would not bend”under daily usage”.<\/p>\n

    “The normal force that [is] generated when a person presses the back pocket is approximately 66lbf (30kgf),” it added.<\/p>\n

    “Our internal test results indicate that the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are not bendable even under 79lbf (32kgf), which is equivalent to putting pressure to snap a bundle of five pencils at once.<\/p>\n

    “Secondly, even though both front and back sides are exposed under the same level of pressure in normal circumstances, this test does not show the strength of the back side.<\/p>\n

    “Some smartphones have different [levels of] durability in each [of their] front and back sides respectively. SquareTrade has only tested the front side, which may mislead consumers about the entire durability of smartphones.”<\/p>\n

    SquareTrade has issued a follow-up statement stating that it endeavoured to perform its tests “in an unbiased manner”.<\/p>\n

    “We welcome Samsung’s invitation to test its devices again with our Bendbot and release the results publicly,” added spokeswoman Jessica Hoffman.<\/p>\n

    One independent expert agreed with Samsung that consumers should not be concerned about the durability of the S6 Edge, but added there was a lesson to be learned.<\/p>\n

    “This is only a story because it made fun of Apple when it launched the iPhone,” said Francisco Jeronimo, research director at the consultancy IDC.<\/p>\n

    “You’d need to put a lot of pressure in a very specific way to break it.<\/p>\n

    “But it demonstrates that every vendor needs to be very careful when they compare their devices because it can backfire on them.<\/p>\n

    “I think that’s the biggest lesson for Samsung: next time if it sees a competitor having a problem, it needs to be a lot more careful unless it is 100% sure it would not face the same criticism.”<\/p>\n

    –<\/p>\n

    Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Samsung is playing down a report that its new flagship phone – the Galaxy S6 Edge – is “just as bendable” as Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus and breaks completely at a lower pressure point. The allegations have been made by a company that sells smartphone protection plans. Samsung said that the results “may mislead consumers” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":105999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-105998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/105999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}