The Google Pixel 4 XL is apparently cracking under pressure.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Google’s new flagship phone the Pixel 4 XL is more likely to snap when bending, a reviewer has found. YouTube tech reviewer Jerry Rig Everything managed to break the Pixel in four places, although the screen and back panel both survived.
“Bending the Pixel 4 XL from the back is fine. The screen keeps the phone structurally solid with no kinks or cracks in the frame. Bending the phone from the front, though — there’s a loud pop,” he says in the video posted Tuesday.
The first “really painful” crack appears on the side of the phone just under the square-shaped camera lens and above the white power button. He keeps bending it “to see if anything else breaks.”
“Continuing the bend, we hear another crack, this time on the other side above the SIM card tray. The Pixel 4 is now snapped in two places,” Jerry Rig Everything says. He continues bending it, finding two more cracks appear on the frame at the bottom of the phone.
The cracks are appearing because of Google’s antenna placement, according to the video: The plastic antenna line, covered by paint on the Pixel 4 XL frame, causes weak cracking points all around the phone.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.