Samsung dismisses concerns on Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge durability

SEOUL/SINGAPORE: Ahead of the launch of new flagship smartphones Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung Electronics said Monday sought to ally durability fears raised by SquareTrade.

SquareTrade, the U.S.-based extended warranty provider,has raised durability questions of the new smartphones by releasing videos of tests on the two Samsung smartphones.

Using a Bendbot machine, SquareTrade gauged how much force a device can withstand before it bends, cracks, and stops functioning.

Samsung Electronics was quick to respond to the claims, saying the SquareTrade experiments were unrealistic and any deformation in their new cell phones is unlikely under normal circumstances.

"SquareTrade's clips were made to mislead consumers. It assumes that 50 kilograms of direct pressure is applied on the phones, which rarely happens in real life" Samsung said on its corporate blog — www.samsungtomorrow.com.

Mentioning earlier reports by market research firms, Samsung said its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge passed all durability tests under normal situations.

"Based on our own tests, the two Samsung phones don't bend under 36 kilograms of direct pressure," Samsung said, adding that the Bendbot test was intended to dramatize the situation, and was irrelevant to real-life situations.

At its event to unveil the two phones, the company's senior marketing executive Lee Young-hee was proud to say that the two new phones weren't bendable like the iPhone 6.

SquareTrade tests show, however, that S6 started to bend at the same pressure as the iPhone 6 did and broke under lower pressure than the Apple device.

Samsung, meanwhile, asked SquareTrade to perform one more test to check the sturdiness of the back side of the Galaxy S6 as the latest video clip was composed of tests with the front side of the device.

"We believe there will be the same pressure both on the front and back of a device. Test results will have more credibility if another test is done on the back side using the same method," the corporate blog said.