iPhone 6s Plus will not bend, tests find, as Apple unveils new handset with special aluminium to avoid another bendgate

Shortly after Apple launched its first really big phone last year, reports surfaced that it could get bent — this year, it has used special techniques to ensure that it won’t

Uri Geller bends the iPhone 6 with his "mental force"

The new iPhone 6s Plus won’t bend, early customers have found, even when subjected to huge pressure.

Last year, the iPhone 6 make headlines because of “bendgate” — a story that took off when people started posting videos on the internet of them warping their own phones. Some said that the phone had been made too big and too thin, and was therefore fragile.

This year, Apple has stopped that happening by using a special 7000 series aluminium alloy, which Apple says helps to make the phone super robust. They have also gained some extra weight, which might be because of a toughening up of the phones.

In testing, the changes seem to have made the phone extra robust — it will bend, but only when people try very hard to bend it.

Apple hasn’t mentioned bendgate during the launch of the iPhone 6s. But it did stress the extra strength of the new alloy — which it said is of the kind used in the aerospace industry.

Bendgate caught on shortly after the iPhone 6 release, but it seemed that it in fact hit only a tiny number of phones. Apple had to repeatedly deny the claims and even ended up taking journalists on a trip around its testing facility, to prove that the phone wasn’t susceptible to bending.