You know what’s funny? I dream of a form factor like the Nintendo Switch: fully plastic, even the screen, so I could put a high quality glass screen protector like the one I have on the console. The thing is a tank, surviving many falls without a single damage, and I had to swap the protector once in all these years I have it.
The first Android phones were really exciting. I got a Samsung Galaxy (no numbers, no letters, just Galaxy) in 2009. AMOLED screen - the first Android experience for me. Unfortunately Samsung dropped the update support really soon - which got me into custom ROMs - another exciting thing…
High end plastics are by far the superior material from any usability perspective. I hate glass phones, and the first glass phone I bought of course broke in only 4 months! Where I’d never had a phone break on me before. And any of my older plastic phones would probably barely have noticed the tiny drop that broke my glass back phone.
Now I have an added plastic cover, which is ugly, and makes the phone unnecessarily bigger than if it had a quality plastic body instead of the moronic glass.
I will never buy anything but phones with a plastic back in the future. Problem is that often the only alternative is vegan leather, which is also not as durable and will show wear way before a high end plastic back.
I will die on the hill that metal unibody phones felt the most premium. Especially Huawei had a few that had a super smooth surface that almost felt like glass.
Metal unibody degrades usability by shielding magnetic/RF signals. That degrades GPS NFC Bleutooth, wireless charging and probably also compass functionality.
So as I see it, metal bodies are probably not a reasonable option.
They also get dents, they transfer energy from a drop directly to the insides, they transfer heat from the CPU to your hand… Nah thanks. I’ll take plastic.
I always buy a new phone and a new case and after some years I ditch the case because it wouldn’t hurt to buy a replacement and it feels like a new slimmer version of my trusted phone…
I have never once thought that. The fact I have always wrapped my smartphones in an S view style leather case means I could give less than one shit about what the back of my phone has been made of. I watched knuckleheads freeballing their phones, dropping them, cracking the screens, and noped the fuck out of that noise before I even owned my first smart phone. Been doing the leather envelope style case ever since. Knock on wood, never cracked a screen, not tryin to win any beauty contests, just keep my thousand dollar pocket mini computer up and runnin.
When I was younger and more naïve, I used to think a case was useless. I kept my phones in my pocket most of the time, and didn’t feel particularly clumsy or reckless. Then I got a phone that happened to have a glass back, and it broke not because I fumbled it, but because it slid out of my pocket onto time floor while I was sitting down. Glass backs on phones are bullshit.
Ha the exact same thing happened to me. Most expensive phone I ever bought, and it broke first time it was “dropped” slipping out of my pants while I was sitting down. it was such a tiny drop, only half of dropping from a dining table, and probably a third if I was standing with it in my hand.
The effect of the drop being exponential to the height, the about 35-40cm is really a minuscule drop for an everyday tool. Yet it was enough to break the backside glass, which doesn’t even have a purpose, beyond moronic reviewers claiming it FEELS premium.
Well IMO it’s way inferior to high end plastics, that have way better durability, weigh less, is less bulky, and is less slippery. There is simply no comparison, it’s infuriating that Samsung made the Galaxy originally with plastic back, but changed it because ALL reviewers claimed it didn’t feel premium. Completely disregarding it won ALL durability tests against iPhone by far, it wasn’t even a competition.
Fuck idiotic reviewers that scold a feature that is actually hugely beneficial!!! Fuck the Apple way is always better mindset, even when it clearly isn’t.
nah phones aint premium until the price is lower f*cking phone costs so you dont have to spend half a months salary just to not have it become junk in 3 years and not be a buggy mess at launch premium is not paying an arm and a leg and not having your every move tracked and sold to the highest bidder
It’s time to stop thinking phones are anything but commodity hardware with variable degrees of shittiness. There are no such things as premium phones, just premium prices.
Good philosophy. I’ve found that I’m much happier on the internet since I stopped being bothered about other people being “wrong”. I cannot save the world, but if I can help out a few people then that’s enough.
A tool can also be premium, and there is definitely a difference between an average phone and a premium phone.
The problem is all the nonsense about the premium FEEL, it’s not a feature when it degrades durability, or requires a cover that removes that premium feel anyway. Glass covers are also more slippery, making it more likely to drop out of a pocket or hand bag or even your hands.
Glass is detrimental in every way for usability, just the extra weight of it, makes drops more likely to cause damage. All the reviewers that push “The Premium Feel” without consideration to the downsides, like being slippery, adding weight, being more fragile and making the phone slightly more bulky, should be banned from making reviews.
Yes, I completely agree on the complicity of reviewers parroting the same PR buzzwords in every single review. It definitely feels like they have played their part in normalising many of these objectively bad and anti-consumer design decisions.
pandering to reviewers who use the phones for a couple of days instead of actual consumers who want to use it for a few years is probably the stupidest thing they do in this industry
give me a fucking replaceable battery so i can use it for more than a couple of years, stop removing features we all use just so it can feel futuristic and new. give me a repairable fucking phone.
like holy shit please take this off the hands of bean counting capitalists and marketers, and please put computers back in the hands of engineers.
I understand what you mean, but I disagree, there are places where it isn’t necessary, needless use of plastic is a problem. But for the back of a phone, it can avoid buying an even bulkier plastic cover, it can extend the lifetime of the phone, in both cases it reduces waste.
So your idea of premium is fragile and expensive?
Plastic has superior usability in every way, weight, bulk, durability, shock absorption, less slippery than glass, meaning it doesn’t drop out of pockets handbags or even hands as easily.
So what part about a high end plastic is that isn’t premium in this situation?
Which is a problem of perception and marketing, given that in many cases a plastic that has been specifically engineered to perform a function will, unsurprisingly, be better than an alternative.
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