by Jason Snell
Is there a chance the phone could bend?
This week on Upgrade, my guest John Siracusa and I pondered whether Mark Gurman’s report that the forthcoming iPhone Air wouldn’t be as big as an iPhone Pro Max because of a fear of a return to the days of “bendgate.”
We speculated that the Internet’s favorite structural engineer, Dr. Drang, might be able to fact-check that claim for us. And he did:
Here’s a simple problem assigned to me by John Siracusa… early in the show he and Jason Snell were discussing the “thin iPhone” that’s rumored to be coming out this fall. Apparently, there will be only one size of this phone, and there’s speculation that there won’t be a “Plus” or “Max” size because of concerns about another Bendgate. John thought that an unlikely reason, which led to my homework.
If you’re interested in the math behind the stress we put on big flat thin phones, this is your moment.