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

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

notebookcheck.net

37 pointsjosebama63 comments

It always bothered me that manufacturers use an expensive design just for the users to hide it in a case. Almost 20 years ago there were phones with exchangable bodies. That was ideal, and I wish Apple would offer something like that. An alternative could be a plastic screen on the phone, as many people are using tempered-glass protectors anyway. One you have a glass protector, it shouldn't make any difference whether the phone uses glass or plastic on its screen.

Personally I never use a case on my iPhone precisely because I want to enjoy the premium feel. I don't know if I'm luckier than the average person, but I've never broken or seriously damaged a phone by dropping it (and I have dropped my phone on various occasions). Especially with modern iPhones, they really seem pretty robust. The most fragile part is the screen, and that's not covered anyway.

Same here

I use a spigen case with a tempered glass screen protector. Its a level of safety that I consider critical. Wearing shorts, go to sit in a small car, slippery small phone falls out. Leave phone on end table, toddler throws it. Fall off bicycle, etc

For me a smartphone is a tool not a fashion statement. I remember when smartphones were new people showed them off but I don't see that nowadays.

My shiny new Pixel 8 just fell off a table after 1 hour that I left it there. It didn't vibrate and I didn't move the table or anything like that. Glass phones are so slippery that they take a life of their own when placed on a flat, smooth surface. I miss plastic phones.

This is the biggest concern for glass phones.

The coefficient of friction of gorilla glass seems negative at times, especially as so many other surfaces we're around are textureless.

> coefficient of friction of gorilla glass seems negative

Wow.

This argument would've made sense a decade ago.

But smart phones are an established product line where lots of experiments have already happened.

Including using cheaper, more robust materials. The outcome ? People just think your phone is cheap and don't buy it.

After smashing the glass back on a Nexus about 10 years ago, all the phones I've bought since have been mid-range Android phones with plastic backs. Currently have a OnePlus Nord 2T - excellent phone. I'm probably atypical, but I'm sure I'm not alone.

Tastes change. This isn't some engineering or logistics constraint; if plastic phones have a real advantage, adoption is simply a matter of marketing.

Design (and fashion) is typically cyclical as well. Typically, fashion cycles seem to be every 20-30 years... meaning plastic backs are due for a resurgence!

"Tried that, didn't work"

https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-tried-that-didn-t-work-d9c42fe1

Oh god I wish someone from Apple would read this; I only buy iPhones for the software, I couldn't care less what the case looks like and would take rugged over fancy any day.

My favourite ever iphone was the plastic-bodied 5C, never felt the need for a case on that thing and it felt indestructible.

The all-metal iPod case was a masterpiece of ruggedness.

I remember seeing friends' that were dinged to hell, but still worked perfectly fine.

That worked great for iPods, but wireless charging doesn't work with all-metal cases. Brain fart: Let's put the coil behind the screen!

I've never had the desire for wireless charging. I imagine Apple has stats on how many people actually use it, and I'm wondering if it's more valuable as an advertising feature than an actually useful feature. I like to use my phone when it's charging, and I can't do that if it has to be stationary.

They’re not mutually exclusive, and I expect this is something you’ll only notice in practice, but I don’t consciously charge my phone much anymore. Between placing it on the pad on my desk or the MagSafe charger in my car there is no battery deficit left to fill with a cable. I just pick it up, use it and put it back down.

If only there was some way to put a plastic or silicone layer on a phone, a "case" if you will.

Exactly. Why make more durable phones when you can make an extra $30 by selling a case, too?

I go through several cases and screen protectors during the lifetime of a phone. If the phone was made of the same materials as the cases, I'd either be looking at a new phone each of those times, or putting a case on it anyway.

A transparent TPU case costs $1 on aliexpress, with many phones it's included for free.

Yeah, I get it. I was mostly joking, but a few things:

I strongly suspect most people buy either the official case from the manufacturer or maybe they go to Amazon or buy one from their local store (Best Buy, Verizon, etc.). They are high markup items and thus readily available in places people shop already.

I find secondary markets that are essentially universal interesting. Imagine selling a TV, but not including a remote control, that seems absurd. What I strongly suspect is happening here is that the market does not favor phones that don't need cases because people want to buy cases. When you're talking about toting around a generic black rectangle everyone else has, there is a desire to make it unique and expressive through the case. I think even with plastic phones, cases would still sell.

Maybe combine plastice and silicone layers in a "case". You could give it a military grade rating. Hmmmm.

At which point that shiny expensive glass is "just" useless dead weight.

> One second you're whipping your phone out of your pocket to check what that notification was

Forget plastic, ditch notifications.

I hate the cognitive load of blindly determining the orientation of my Pixel 6. I have to search for the camera bump with my fingers.

Not only does glass feel premium, it's also relatively scratch-resistant, which means our devices look new for longer — as long as we don't drop them.

I’m firmly on the glass side, but I’m willing to listen if there was a material as scratch resistant as glass and had better shock resistance. The word “scratch” was only used once in the article so I guess there isn’t a material improvement to polymer over amorphous silica.

I never did like the weight of much glass use in phones. The performance and screen quality of midrange (Android) phones has improved so much that the only reason I have for a premium phone is for the wired audio quality. Even then all I would need is a USB-C DAC accessory. I'm not much into using it for photos, but if I did find such a 3-in-1 device it would be worth the price.

Glass: Slippery, heavy, and prone to catastrophic widespread failure from a point impact? What could go wrong?

Feature not a bug to those who sell replacements and repairs

This is the main reason I haven't switched to IPhone. Being able to drop my phone whenever I want without worrying about damage is too big a pro.

Being able to blindly fumble for it in the dark is essential.

And the point of a phone is to be a mobile computer. A bulky phone case kind of defeats that point.

I've been saying this for years. I understand that the aluminum unibody design is an integrated heatsink for thermal performance, but the glass thing has really bugged me. Plastic is by far a better material for this application than glass.

I actually like my current phone (Zenfone 9) due to this reason and the fact that it's pretty small compared to all the flagships.

The back is some variant of plastic but it feels like paper. Dropped it a couple of times without a case and no scratches at all.

Having used many phones, my impression is that texture matters a great deal more than material. Polished phones feel slippery and greasy. Brushed or otherwise matte phones feel really good.

phone in flipcase -> indestructible, replaces wallet as well. I don't even get the aesthetics of fingerprints on rounded corner glass, when did that become beautiful or original?

Or you can be like me, and add a case: +50% thickness, ruins the aesthetic, etc but when my phone went flying the other day the case was trashed and $1000+ phone was fine.

What's wrong with aluminium?

metal blocks RF

The iPhone 7 and earlier all had an aluminium back no issue. Changed to glass from the 8/X onwards for wireless charging.

iPhone 7 placed the antenna on the rim, the area where there is a bit of plastic. For years iPhone wireless & wifi connections are somewhat weaker than other phones, I suspect it's because the metal back.

Wireless charging is also RF btw.

You can't have wireless charging with a metal chassis AFAIK. Whether you value wireless charging is another question.

Seems like they could just put something sturdier on the corners of the phones, feel like that's how they usually get cracked

I’ve had two iPhones without cases for 10+ years I’ve cracked a screen twice, doesn’t exactly seem like a pressing issue

Conversely, I always use Apple's iPhone case and have broken ~2 iPhone 15 Pros and four iPhone 14 Pros, so I would very much appreciate a more durable phone.

Check out Otterbox cases, they're made for us clumsy people. They turn a drop from "hope it didn't break" to "oops"

I actually used their cases for year until the iPhone 13, when the back glass cracked on day one in their case. Now I just rely on the Apple plastic case for grip and AppleCare for protection.

Similar. Been no case since the iPhone 6. I have no idea how, but I’ve only broken one screen and across our family of four (kids only starting with iPhone X, others preferring cases), we’ve broken 2 iPhone screens and one iPod screen in that time. One iPhone screen was a flex-based breakage where the screen developed a defect while the glass was intact. For all I know, plastic screens might be more subject to that failure.

Each screen replacement cost me around $75 to replace DIY.

In exchange, I have 4 3-6 year old phones that look and function as new. If you hold them just right you can see fine scratches in the light, but at a casual glance, they appear unblemished. That would not be the case if the cases were plastic. I also get the convenience of wireless charging (not possible in metal cases).

Typing this on Zenfone 10. I agree with this article completely

I just checked, my OnePlus Nord has a plastic back. But it’s also very decidedly not a premium phone, which suits me just right ;)

They 100% added back glass just to have more glass to break. It has 0 function.

What if a premium case maker like Spigen made the phone body itself?

I really like how zenfone 10 back is looking and it's not glass

I never ever smashed my phone. Why would I wanna do it? How/why can people be so clumsy? I think it is a symptom of having too much money.

I am pretty damn careful with my phones, and still managed to break 3 in the last 20 odd years (which I think is good going!) - one was knocked out my hands when someone bumped into me in the street, one slipped when I was showing a friend something, and my latest - I've no idea when the back glass smashed - it was in a case and one day when I cleaned the case I found the back was smashed.

I usually have both a screen protector and a case, but accidents happen.

I've never had a crash in my car either, I don't understand how anyone can - I think it's a symptom of having too much money /s

You never tripped? Slipped? Had a toddler run into you? Dropped as much as a glass? Are you actually a human?

Sometimes things just fall out of your hand. You could be distracted by someone suddenly talking to you, bump into something, and lose your grip. Or have you never dropped a fork in your life either? Some people just get unlucky and it happens to their phones.

I've probably dropped mine at home 3 or 4 times, usually when trying to pick it up or set it down - but I got a nice soft case around it so nothing ever cracked. The real mystery is why people don't put a basic protective case on their expensive handheld devices.

And yet, people purchase new phones...some will be fashion-choices, some lost, most dropped. And then (for the last two) it's a rush to get a replacement. I regularly keep an eye on 'adequate' phones...just in case i fall in a river again and have to get a new-to-me one.

I'm not clumsy at all, but pixel 7 is so slippery, that if you put it on a table/laptop with little aderence and maybe a bit of inclination, it can fell off. Meanwhile my older pixel 5 is the total opposite - it feels good in the hand and the grip is not slippery at all My even older pixel 3 is betweenn p5 and p7, it has a glass back but it's not that bad compared to p7. There are other advantages to plastic backs too: cheap, easy to replace, (usually) lighter compared to glass

It might be possible that people live slightly more rugged lives than you do?

Don't have children who randomly pick up stuff from unexpected places I presume?

I never did either until phones got too damn big. I also started dropping them after I had kids.

Latest glass screen I've broken I did it while sleeping... fell asleep while reading reddit, woke up with the sound of the phone hitting ground. And that's one of the best outcomes I've had while falling asleep while using the phone. Worst ones have been sharing a link of whatever I was reading/watching to random people, liking random whatsapp statuses of people I didn't talk to since years and other similarly embarassing stuff. Maybe I should stop using a phone before bed.

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