Ditch the glass: It's time to bring back less-fragile plastic smartphones

[Redaktion]

There was once a time when smartphone design featured a healthy amount of diversity, but those days are long gone. Smartphone manufacturers have somehow convinced the average consumer that glass — one of the most fragile materials around — makes the best phone designs, durability be damned.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ditch-the-glass-It-s-time-to-bring-back-less-fragile-plastic-smartphones.727130.0.html

[Agreewithyou]

I agree with you,

And change the screen to sapphire!

[Neenyah]

Glass is premium, they say 😅 And I'm just drinking my premium beer (it's in a glass bottle so it must be premium). Nice article! 👍

[A]

Glass is premium, they say 😅 And I'm just drinking my premium beer (it's in a glass bottle so it must be premium). Nice article! 👍

You don't get it, the more fragile it is the more premium it is. Cause the richer you are the more you can afford expensive things breaking easier!

I personally prefer plastic phones over glass (too fragile) and aluminum (bends too much and gets cold and hot, passes vibrations to components making them more fragile)

And funny thing is we all end up wrapping them in silicon or plastic protectors anyways. I never actually bought a protector for my phones up until they started making them out of glass and/or aluminum

[Mr Majestyk]

I agree with you,

And change the screen to sapphire!

Seriously! Sapphire is brittle like glass. It's use should be reserved for glass coatings due to it's very high scratch resistance being only second to diamond in hardness. Making the whole screen from Sapphire is crazy, due to huge costs and being less tough than Gorilla glass. People would be going ape sh!t when they get their Sapphire screen repair bill.

[julian.vdm]

Glass is premium, they say 😅 And I'm just drinking my premium beer (it's in a glass bottle so it must be premium). Nice article! 👍

You don't get it, the more fragile it is the more premium it is. Cause the richer you are the more you can afford expensive things breaking easier!

I personally prefer plastic phones over glass (too fragile) and aluminum (bends too much and gets cold and hot, passes vibrations to components making them more fragile)

And funny thing is we all end up wrapping them in silicon or plastic protectors anyways. I never actually bought a protector for my phones up until they started making them out of glass and/or aluminum

I exclusively shop for phones with plastic backs because I refuse to use a bloody case and I have children, so it's not uncommon for a phone to go flying across a room. I'm thinking my next phone will be a Pixel 7a or Zenfone 9 or 10 (if the new one is plastic).

[Neenyah]

You don't get it, the more fragile it is the more premium it is. Cause the richer you are the more you can afford expensive things breaking easier!

I personally prefer plastic phones over glass (too fragile) and aluminum (bends too much and gets cold and hot, passes vibrations to components making them more fragile)

And funny thing is we all end up wrapping them in silicon or plastic protectors anyways. I never actually bought a protector for my phones up until they started making them out of glass and/or aluminum

Hehe, I have nothing to add here but to say well said - so, well said 👏 I miss variety in phone design though, now they all look almost identical with some differences on the back in camera positioning and design. Plastic for cheap (🙄), glass for premium and expensive (😆) and the rest is more-less the same, especially when coming from same manufacturer.

[NikoB]

It's so funny for me to read these statements from the philistines.

As I have written many times before, if there is a dead end in silicon, they will sell you "rhinestones". Now you are discussing "rhinestones", since there is essentially nothing more to discuss in the smartphone industry. New products are becoming more and more boring, and the increase in performance per 1W of consumption is less and less with each new technical process, which is becoming more and more difficult for chipmakers.

The author writes from the position of an amateur that does not paint the site.

Plastic has poor thermal conductivity (everything inside overheats faster), but is radio transparent and shock-resistant. But it resists scratches not good.

The metal is extremely durable (of course not pure aluminum), but heavier, an excellent heat exchanger for removing heat from the inside (but also bringing it from outside to inside) and the key drawback is that it is not completely transparent to radio waves. Therefore, completely metal smartphone cases do not exist in nature - there are plastic inserts everywhere, which automatically spoil the appearance for the bourgeoisie, for whom "rhinestones" are more important than the performance and efficiency of antennas.

Glass as a whole is radio-transparent, it protects rhinestone lovers well from scratches for subsequent resale of their junk at a flea market, but it is extremely fragile. And also not a very good heat exchanger.

Today there is no ideal case for a smartphone so that it is 100% radio transparent to antennas, an excellent heat sink for dissipating heat to the case, and at the same time extremely durable against shocks and scratches.

[NikoB]

If we evaluate from the point of view of excess weight, the priority will be as follows:
1. Plastic
2. Metal
3. Glass