#Snapgate: iPad Air 2 Breaks While Undergoing Bend Test
Apple has another PR crisis up its way for its newly launched iPad Air 2 courtesy of a YouTube user named Martin Macht who did a bend test on the device.
YouTube/Marvin macht's
To Macht's surprise, the iPad Air 2 not only bent but even snapped into two pieces when he applied pressure on the tablet. But to Apple's credit, the gadget appears to be still working at that stage.
No thanks to Unbox Therapy whose original bend test on the iPhone 6 became viral, logging almost 56 million views to date in one month, bending devices has become the new benchmark to assess the physical strength of new smartphones and tablets.
YouTube/Unbox Therapy
In the past, the torture test was limited to dropping the gadget from a certain height, hitting it with hammers and scratching the screen and back covers with keys and coins, and dunking it in water.
Unfortunately for the Cupertino-based tech giant, the bend test's embarrassing results come at a time that Apple Q3 results said that while sales of its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus broke records, sales of iPads are moving southward.
Macht's bend test has all the making of a viral video since in a matter 2 days, his clip has logged more than 275,000 hits and people are quickly spreading the links of the YouTube video on social media as well as commenting on the results.
In Twitter, aoll asked: "Can the 6.1mm thin iPad Air 2 survive a bend test? You probably know how it end."
pascal said that Apple's newest tablet is "extremely bendy," while Wojtek Pietrusiewicz was furious at the need to make new gadgets go through a bend test when Macht "could have given it to charity instead."
Mike ZomBeasly found it funny that YouTube watchers are furious at the result of the bend test, while Filip Radelic chipped in that a light force such as resting the head on a bag with an iPad inside is enough to bend the gadget. He said it happened to the iPad mini of a friend.
However, some Twitter members also question the need for a bend test. Steven Phillips tweeted: "The new iPads look impressive, but you can guarantee that some idiot will post a bend test video on release day!"
@medusa commented, "I don't understand why anyone would do that. It's a f***ing tablet. Not titanium."
Playing on the device's name, Ye Peng asked, "If you're bending an iPad Air, does that make you an Airbender?"
Tabtec followed Macht's example and performed his own bend test, but his results are more favourable for Apple.
YouTube/TabTec