Apple May Have a Huge iPhone 6 Plus Recall on its Hands

Apple pretty much dismissed any concerns with iPhone 6 Plus bending, even though there’s plenty of proof that, given enough pressure, the phone does indeed bend. We haven’t experienced that under normal usage situations, however, and that problem seems to have mostly quieted down. Still, Apple may be facing a much bigger headache that one media outlet suggests could result in a massive recall of iPhone 6 Plus units.

If you own the iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB of storage, you may have noticed that it sometimes crashes and reboots. I can confirm this with my own unit, and apparently the problem lies in the storage option that Apple decided to use on the device. As a result of how it handles data, the flash storage and its controller IC component may ultimately have issues when there are loads of applications stored on the larger format iPhone 6 Plus.

According to Business Korea, Apple opted to use triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash storage in the iPhone 6 Plus to save costs over multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash storage that’s used in other iPhone models. The problem, Business Korea explained, is that while TLC can store more data, it’s also slower and less stable than the other options available, which may be one reason why the iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB of storage crashes. The site also points to known problems with the controller IC, or integrated circuit, that has also been recognized in Samsung SSD products that use the same NAND flash.

It’s possible that Apple might be able to work around the issue with a software fix, it seems, but Business Korea also thinks something much bigger may be on the horizon. “Some in the industry think that if TLC flash is indeed the cause of the defects, Apple might recall all of the products that have been sold so far,” the news outlet said. The issue, at least on my end, isn’t so frequent that I’d return my device, but perhaps it’s a much bigger problem than it appears to be on the surface.