Apple Lets Reporters Into Its Secret iPhone Testing Facility Following Bendgate [Video]

Apple has invited a select number of reporters into its iPhone testing facility to demonstrate the extensive torture tests it puts its smartphones through before their release.

"We've designed the product to be incredibly reliable throughout all your real world use," Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller told the Verge. "And in designing that we then have to validate heavily, and see how does it live up to real world use, and what are the forces and pressures on it, and how do you measure and prove that you’ve delivered on a specification."




Apple says the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the most tested of any generation to date. The company went through 15,000 iPhone 6 and 15,000 iPhone 6 Plus devices just for testing. "The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus are the most tested," said Dan Riccio, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering. "As we add more and more features, we have to find out a way to break them before customers do."

"The bottom line is that if you use enough force to bend an iPhone, or any phone, it's going to deform," Riccio said.

Apple pointed to 25 kilograms as the amount of weight Apple puts on top of the iPhone's screen to test it for the bends. That's not the full amount of weight the phone can take, says Riccio. Just what it can handle while being capable of "bouncing back" to its original form.

In addition to that test there are numerous others, including a "sit test" that simulates the stress an iPhone goes under while in your pocket. There's a test for when people sit on a soft surface and for a "worst-case scenario", when it's placed in the rear pocket of skinny jeans and sits on a hard surface, at an angle.


Apple also does a torsion test, that tests the phone when twisted from one end to the other.

"As we expected, it’s extremely rare to happen in real world use," says Schiller. "In this case, as in many things, we tell customers that if you think something's occurred that shouldn't have with your device, go to AppleCare, go to the Genius Bar, and let them take a look at it. And we'll see if your product is having an experience it shouldn't have, and is covered under warranty."

Check out some video and photos from the testing below or hit the links for more details...

[via Verge] [via CNBC]