So, are we all just going to forget about Bendgate?

I’m all for design changes that propel smartphones forward. I’ve loved flip phones since the day they made their return (alright, I waited for the second generation), and I’m always fascinated to see how camera bumps grow and evolve to house larger and larger sensors. However, one design trend has me increasingly worried — the fact that both Apple and Samsung seem determined to make their next phones as thin as possible. Maybe it’ll work out in the end, but I still have to ask: Are we all just going to pretend that Bendgate never happened?

Before I talk about why I’m so worried about the dawn of Bendgate 2.0 (or perhaps 3.0), let’s talk about what happened in the first place. To set the scene, the year is 2014, and Apple has just announced its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — its thinnest iPhones ever. Everyone marveled that engineers created a pair of iPhones that sat at just 6.9mm and 7.1mm, respectively, without their camera bumps. And then, the unthinkable happened: iPhones started bending.

Due to the thinner chassis, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were more susceptible to bending when put under pressure, like if a user were to carry their phone in a tight pocket. Although Apple claimed that it only received nine total reports of iPhone 6 models bending, later documents showed that Apple knew its latest models were at greater risk of bending — up to 7.2 times more likely in the case of the iPhone 6 Plus. It has since made its iPhones thicker and more durable, seemingly showing the world that it learned its lesson about just how thin an iPhone needed to be.

Apple did not, however, learn its lesson about thinness across the board, with Bendgate making another appearance after the launch of the iPad Pro (2018). Once again, users reported that their aluminum iPad Pro chasses were bending when put under pressure, which is far from ideal when you’re trying to slot your 11-inch or 12.9-inch tablet into a backpack or bag to carry to a cafe or coffee shop. And before you ask, yes, the iPad Pro (2018) was even thinner than the iPhone 6 series at just under 6mm thick.

So, when I saw that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge is around 5.8mm thick and the iPhone 17 Air (if it’s indeed called that) is rumored to be 5.5mm thick outside of the camera bump, it was enough to make me nervous. Will either premium smartphone be made of aluminum or come without at least some reinforcement? No, probably not, but they didn’t think the Titanic would sink back in the day, either.

Alright, I sound pretty doom and gloom about the idea of extra-thin phones from Apple and Samsung, but I promise that’s not the case. Am I concerned? Oh, yes, certainly, but I’m also intrigued. I know that both companies have come a long way since their previous hiccups (if that’s what we want to call Bendgate or Samsung’s exploding batteries), and for them to try to make extremely thin phones feels like they’re ready to push themselves again. Is it the innovation that I would have chosen? Probably not, but after a few years of stale designs, I’m ready for anything.

Besides, as Apple quickly showed with its subsequent iPhones and its next generation of the iPad Pro, it knows how to pivot quickly. It added more metal cowling to the chassis of its top-end tablet and eventually switched to a much tougher and lighter titanium frame for its iPhone Pro lineups — something I expect to continue on the iPhone 17 Air. Apple’s modern Ceramic Shield glass is tougher, too, which should finish off the premium package pretty nicely. I imagine that Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge will fall into broadly the same boat, potentially swapping some of its glass for ceramic but mainly sticking to a similar formula of tough, tough materials.

And yet, I thought we all agreed that phones no longer had to be as thin as possible. As Android manufacturers moved away from waterfall displays, I thought we were over the illusion that thinness equaled quality. I even thought we all collectively decided that thin phones, though lighter and more ergonomic — to a point — made too many cuts to their battery capacities and cooling setups to run as effectively as slightly thicker alternatives. But I’ve been wrong several times, and maybe the new silicon carbon batteries will make me eat my words.

If I’m not wrong, though, Apple and Samsung are walking a dangerously thin (pun intended) line. We’ve seen just how few reports it takes to put Bendgate back in the news, and to me, it feels like the stakes are even higher this time because thinness is the name of the game. If they forgot about Bendgate, it’s starting to sound like we’re all doomed to repeat it.