#Bendgate 2? Testers Say Samsung's New S6 Edge Bends Just Like iPhone 6, More Likely To Crack
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Call it Bendgate, Phone Wars, or just business as usual, the brouhaha over whether skinny smartphones bend, warp and break continues.
Now, it's Samsung's turn to take the pressure -- all 110 pounds of it.
San Francisco-based SquareTrade, put the company's new big-screened S6 Edge to the test and found it not only bends just like an iPhone6, it breaks under pressure. The warranty service provider used a BendBot, a robot designed specifically to test the bendability of smartphones. To make matters worse, the company posted a video of the test on YouTube, narrated by an authoritative-sounding guy with a British accent.
SquareTrade Test
Samsung responded by questioning SquareTrade's method for evaluating their product, and said it would conduct their own stress test, sans BendBot, and make those results available to the public.
SquareTrade shot back, and released this statement:
"As the video we released on Thursday shows, we performed the exact same test on all phones using our BendBot. We would agree that in our independent tests – neither the Samsung S6 Edge, the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, nor the HTC One M9 bent at less than 110 pounds of force. We believe that the more information consumers have, the better – so we are happy that Samsung has released its own tests and disclosed the benchmarks for its internal stress test (78 lbf of force). We welcome Samsung's invitation to test its devices again with our BendBot and release the results publicly."
Whether or not Bendgate 1 hurt sales of Apple's iPhone is hard to quantify. Apple devices account for 50% of the smartphone sales in the U.S., outperforming Samsung, LG and the rest, according the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
Perhaps Bendgate 2 will help Samsung sell it's new S6 Edge, by providing free publicity.