gTool PanelPress torture chamber wants to fix bent iPhones

You are probably tired of the endless debates, videos, proofs, arguments, and counter arguments about the bendable properties of the iPhone 6 Plus, and perhaps other smartphones as well. But no amount of talking will actually fix those already bent devices and you are just unlikely to get an open admission from manufacturers as you are to get answers from a wall. One company, however, has rolled up its sleeves to offer a fix in the form of the gTool PanelPress.

Now this contraption might not be for the faint of heart because, in all honesty, it looks like a torture device meticulously designed for smartphones instead of humans. And for all intents and purposes, that is actually what this "fix" will be trying to do. On some level, it almost makes sense. Our natural instinct when bending something out of shape is to apply equal, or sometimes even greater, pressure on the opposite direction in an attempt to put it back into shape. This is what the PanelPress actually does. You put inside the bent iPhone and clamp one end down. You place a bar underneath where you want pressure to be exerted in the opposite direction and then, with the other end, begin to twist the knob to force that end down. The tutorial video below shows how simple it is. Again, perhaps not for the faint of heart.

Does it work? Well, perhaps, perhaps not. It's quite hard to tell from a single video (especially where the supposedly unbent device briefly disappears from view). At least based on what Unbox Therapy showed, it wasn't easily possible to unbend the iPhone 6 Plus with bare hands, so maybe some mechanical leverage would do the trick. But then there's also the possibility that not only will it not unbend the device, it could also weaken it at that point of pressure. And there's no assurance that the smartphone won't bend again in the future, at least from causes other than your pocket. At best, this is just a band aid fix. Or the iPhone could end up in worse shape than before, like with a cracked screen.

But for those who might have started to believe in gTool's spiel, the PanelPress can be found with resellers worldwide. Quite conveniently, gTool's website doesn't put any price tag on the contraption, so you will really have to make an effort to find that out for yourself. The PanelPress is noted to be for the iPhone 5, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus, leaving those with a slightly bendable Samsung Galaxy Note 4 out of the party.

SOURCE: gTool