Hmm, just seen this and given me pause to an upgrade, having had a Nexus screen crack from just flexing in a front trouser pocket (just from sitting down, stay calm everyone…)

Then I read this on the BBC News site:

But Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the advisory service Davies Murphy Group, thought that Apple should take a different tack.

“This is not an issue that Apple – or other phone companies – need to be compelled to respond to or fix. If anything this is a reflection of how people have started to use devices beyond what they were designed for,” he said.

“Even the most recent smartphones are not designed to be put in trouser pockets – front or back – where they are going to be under the most chassis strain. And this just illustrates the fact that the public’s desire for manufacturers to strive for ever thinner and lighter devices means that we are getting ever more fragile devices.

“Just casually sticking a £700 smartphone in your pocket is an increasingly reckless thing to do.”

Personally, I think the term ‘not fit for purpose’ is a better fit, if it can’t survive normal usage. Put it in your top shirt pocket and it’s likely to fall in the toilet or something. Will watch with interest to see if this is a bad batch or genuine issue.

Even the most recent smartphones are not designed to be put in trouser pockets

What?

People *love* it when Apple kit has flaws, don’t they.

Discussed ova heer:

Sorry if this has already been done, but is IOS8 crap or what?

And this just illustrates the fact that the public’s desire for manufacturers to strive for ever thinner and lighter devices means that we are getting ever more fragile devices

Not sure I agree with this statement.

The reviewers always talk about how thin the latest phones are and take comparison pics to show how 8.9mm compares with new and improved 8.3mm or whatever, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard one person discuss or moan about the thickness of their phone.

My Xperia T is fairly thin – although not massively so as it has an inward curve on the back, so it’s thinnest in the middle. But, I am not sure I would even notice if they’d made it 1mm thicker overall.

It’s always in my pocket, the screen is at least 4.5″ and I’ve never noticed an issue with it being strained or bent. Although giving it a slight flex just now, you can definitely see that it wouldn’t take much to bend it permanently, which presumably would cause the screen to crack.

Personally, I think the term ‘not fit for purpose’ is a better fit,

It’s a phone, not an upper leg support device.

I see quite a few kids in tight jeans with their phones in back pocket. I wouldn’t expect most phones to survive if they sat down on something hard.

It’s a phone, not an upper leg support device.

A mobile phone. That, I’d say, is fairly likely to end up in a pocket. Sisters jeans or not.

I see quite a few kids in tight jeans with their phones in back pocket. I wouldn’t expect most phones to survive if they sat down on something hard.

I can see that. But front pocket of trousers? Shouldn’t be an issue in my book. Under engineered if it can’t live with that.

People *love* it when Apple kit has flaws, don’t they.

Don’t know if that was aimed at me, but I have rather a lot of Apple kit (the Nexus was a freebie from work to run a BYOD trial on an Android platform .. my first Android device). The article also shows a few other brands with similar issues. It’s more (to me) the idea that a mobile phone shouldn’t be kept in a pocket thats a bit daft.