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iPhone 6 Plus, bent, bendgate

The iPhone 6's so-called 'bear on illness' is a well-known upshot within Apple — the visitor merely doesn't want to discuss it. That's co-ordinate to Apple tree store employees, who claim that they've been informed past both their own supervisors and the company's internal repair tracking organization to exist aware of the trouble, which tin affect both the iPhone vi and vi Plus, but is much more mutual on the latter.

The new written report comes courtesy of Motherboard, which helped break the initial story. The problem is related to the iPhone 6's flexibility and a conclusion Apple made to remove the underfill from between the touch ICs, which command the touchscreen'southward function, and the grid of solder joints that connect these chips to their motherboard. Typically underfill is used to strengthen the connexion between the chips and the board, and to ensure that the solder won't crack. Combine a more than flexible device with the lack of underfill, and you've got a recipe for disaster. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are not currently believed to suffer from this problem.

iPhone6-TouchIC

The touchscreen ICs. Photograph by iFixit

According to the Apple employees, Apple tree's backend system is at present designed to immediately lock out repair options for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and to inform customers that their only way forrard is to pay a $329 replacement fee if the client is out of warranty. At first, early phones with a problem allowed for a display replacement under warranty, only this is no longer the case. Apple no longer fifty-fifty allows for a screen replacement in the company's internal system, suggesting the company knows the trouble is in the logic lath.

Apple's official response? Cypher at all. The visitor has refused to acknowledge or even ostend the issue, despite the fact that unofficial research indicates this is a problem that affects a high percentage of iPhone vi Plus devices. The standard iPhone 6 is much less likely to take a problem, simply information technology'due south not issue-free. And there accept been reports of devices failing that have been kept in a difficult example for their unabridged operating lives. At least 1 of the employees Motherboard spoke to informed them they were quitting the company partly because they were tired of telling iPhone 6 Plus owners they had to pay out $329 for a replacement.

Touch disease tin can exist repaired by swapping out the ICs themselves, and some repair shops will ready broken devices for around $200 — less expensive than a total iPhone vi Plus, but still far too much money for a problem Apple should've predictable. Removing the underfill from a chip is extremely unusual; it'southward designed to be used for a reason.

This kind of mental attitude might've been more than permissible when smartphones aged chop-chop and a two-year-old device was begging for the garbage bin. Today, they're likely to concluding a good deal longer. The iPhone 3G I bought in 2009 wasn't very useful by early 2022. My iPhone 5c, in contrast, has anile much more gracefully. Equally smartphones have become more capable, they're also aging more slowly (apart from the typical lithium-ion battery degradation, which nonetheless sucks). Plus, with the major American wireless carriers, now you lot can "pay off" the phone and then relish a lower monthly nib, something that wasn't near as easy to pull off several years ago — so the incentive to hold onto a perfectly serviceable device is even stronger than it used to be.

Apple tree is already facing a course-action suit for its touch affliction issues. Merely the visitor seems to remember it can stonewall, wave the iPhone 7, and convert customers without whatsoever damage to its make or name. This behavior is ridiculous, given the the entire trouble is Apple's mistake to commencement with.