[NewsPoster]

After a night of sensationalist reports from South Korea, news agencies elsewhere in the world reported that the iPhone 6 Plus 128GB was likely going to be subject to a recall. MacNN started looking into the newest claims of iPhone 6 Plus problems early this morning, in parallel with an ongoing investigation that started last week about app library size causing device instability. Despite reports of phones being bent either accidentally or on purpose, we can report that there is no reason for a recall at this time over faulty NAND memory, or any other cause.

Reports circulated shortly after release that some iPhone 6 Plus models with 128GB were crashing under pressure from large app libraries. While we can confirm that large libraries are a problem, the issue is more of an issue with iOS itself than with NAND. Apple's official policy on crashing 6 Plus models is now for the user to retain the unit, pending a possible software update, with instructions to the user to "prune the library to less than 700 apps."

We have on hand a 128GB iPhone 6. Since reports of large libraries causing problems surfaced, we've loaded down the iPhone 6 with 300, 400, and now 500 apps, and run it for a few days. So far, nothing. On the other hand, we've also got an early run 128GB iPad Air, and it doesn't utilize TLC flash which we verified by disassembly. It is somewhat unstable with more than 900 apps installed, but still far from what we'd call crash-prone. Get the app count less than 900, and there are no problems with the tablet.

Either iPhone 6 128GB version uses TLC NAND memory. The report from Business Korea blames the same NAND on issues with Samsung-built 840 and 840EVO SSDs, which were fixed in firmware. Late last night Business Korea reported that "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."

First of all, Samsung's NAND isn't defective. The problem with the SSDs was firmware related, and not an issue with the NAND hardware itself. Apple's issue is likely iOS file structure oriented, and not with the hardware. Yes, the NAND is similar in both pieces of hardware, but not identical, eliminating any similarity between the two products for the purposes of troubleshooting and evaluation.

Secondly, NAND cells or the controller itself causing issues when over a certain number of applications are loaded on the device is a ludicrous claim, which fails at even a casual glance. Why would an individual cell which holds only part of a file or app start a problem with the entire system when the rest of the SSD has above a magic number of applications? How would an individual cell even know how many apps there were? Why would Apple's NAND controller, which is different than Samsung's in the 840 series of SSDs, both have the same flaw?

What is flawed here is the logic of the reports that were given traction by media. Fueling the believability of report is the ongoing feud on the consumer front between the two Apple and Samsung -- even though they continue to maintain a business relationship with one another. Some basic testing shows that although not representative of all devices that the reports coming out of Korea have no factual basis, something that any skeptic should be able to take stock in.

[inspectorgadget]

A well written report

[pairof9s]

Well, this side of feud notes this NAND report did originate in S. Korea, home of Samsung...I'm just saying.

[lkrupp]

500, 700, 900 apps? Really? I imagine there are maybe a few dozen lunatic basement nerds with that many apps, like the OCD ninjas with 75,000 songs on their iPods. Do we really have to cater to those fringe groups?

[Makosuke]

Glad to see a report that applies a little basic technology logic to the issue, rather than rampant speculation. Honestly, while there could be a problem with either flash or the controller thereof, if the problem magically manifests at a specific number of apps, I don't see how that could possibly be what's causing it. It's not like the NAND or controller have any idea what the data they're storing is made up of. Particularly since those 700 apps could easily only take up a couple gigabytes of storage if they're all tiny.

Also: 700 apps? Dude, that is a lot of software. I have a 128GB 6 that I thought was overloaded with software--games, mostly--and I've only got 160 apps on it.

[jmeel ali]

Reports circulated shortly after release that some iPhone 6 Plus models with 128GB were crashing under pressure from large app libraries. While we can confirm that large libraries are a problem, the issue is more of an issue with iOS itself than with NAND. Apple's official policy on crashing 6 Plus models is now for the user to retain the unit, pending a possible software update, with instructions to the user to "prune the library to less than 700 apps."



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abbas