Samsung exploits Bendgate controversy with own Galaxy Note 4 stress-test video

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (bend test 001)

Samsung may have won a contract to build Apple’s next-generation mobile processor for 2015 iPhones and iPads, but that’s not stopping the firm from milking the Bendgate meme for all it’s worth.

Having poked fun of Apple in a series of tweets after the controversial YouTube video suggested malleability of the iPhone 6 Plus, the South Korean firm on Thursday posted a two-minute video on its blog showing off the three-point bend test process behind its latest Galaxy Note 4 phablet.

The rigorous testing procedures have been designed “to give you, and your back pocket, peace of mind” because “leaving things in your back pocket can lead to, well, bent things,” remarked Samsung alluding to Bendgate.

“Our hips are strong – stronger than we give it credit for,” continues the post as it outlines some of the rigorous tests the Galaxy maker runs both during and after development and production of its devices.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (bend test 003)

“This video shows some of the tests that Samsung runs to give you, and your back pocket, peace of mind,” says the firm.

Here, check out Samsung’s clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhCz6PnT78

Like Apple, Samsung is employing a three-point bend test which measures the length of a fatigue crack created at the tip of the notch by cyclic loading. The device withstood a force of over 250N (about kgf).

In a human weight test that simulates the device being repeatedly sat on, the Note 4 was able to endure a 100kg man sitting on it “several hundred times”.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (bend test 002)

The secret behind the durability of the Galaxy Note 4? The metal frame, the magnesium bracket and the mutually reinforcing structure between parts, according to the firm.

The iPhone 6 Plus’s chassis milled from a solid piece of aluminum has been criticized for bending near the volume buttons and the SIM card slot. However, Consumer Reports, the influential U.S. magazine, has put a number of smartphones through its barrage of stress tests, finding that the iPhone 6 Plus is not as bendy as initially believed.

Using a three-point flexural test, Consumer Reports found that the iPhone 6 can withstand 70 pounds of pressure before deforming, and the 6 Plus can take up to 90, beating HTC’s One and finishing behind the LG G3 and Samsung’s Note 3.

Consumer Reports expects “that any of these phones should stand up to typical use.” Responding to the controversy, Apple in an official statement said it had only received nine actual complaints.

Consumer Reports (bent phones scattered on table)

Samsung’s bend-stress video appears to have been published in response to Apple’s PR assault which involved giving journalists a sneak peek inside its iPhone testing facility, where it attempts to “break its handsets before consumers do.”

Consumer Reports (Bend test results)

The iPhone maker performed more than 30,000 durability tests on the iPhone 6 6 and iPhone 6 Plus combined before deciding to start mass producing them.

For what it’s worth, only one-third of respondents in our non-scientific poll were having second thoughts about buying the iPhone 6 Plus in the aftermath of the Bendgate controversy.

[Samsung Tomorrow Blog]