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Comment by jmb99 | Hacker News Reader

I’ve had the 15 Pro since launch day, and it is incredibly durable. No case, no screen protector. The screen is slightly scratched around the edges, there are a couple ~1mm^2 dings in the titanium, but aside from that, no problems. I’ve dropped it probably a hundred times, including probably a dozen or two on concrete or tile. The titanium (and whatever they’re doing with screens these days) really makes a difference.

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Not sure how you are not getting scratches - here's a photo of mine https://imgur.com/a/pt5HRVl

It seems every year they are scratching even more. Not that it matters much tho.

Weird. I get no scratches either. I do try and keep my keeps in an opposite pocket, but not always and this year as my place has been under construction, the phone has shared the pocket with all sorts of metal screws, bolts, junk, etc. still nothing.

My phone has a couple (literal 2) scratches slightly under the notch bubble, that I am fairly certain were caused by laying the phone face-first on a desk that had some kind of dirt on it, and removing the phone by sliding it off the desk (rubbing the dirt against the screen, causing the scratches). The rest of the main screen surface is pretty much scratch-free, and only the corners and edges have notable scratches (from inserting and removing the phone from my pocket - the corners pretty much always catch on the metal rivets on my jeans). I don’t keep anything in the same pocket as my phone though.

The reason screens scratch more now than in the past is the tradeoff between shatter resistance and scratch resistance. Generally speaking, it’s very hard to make glass that is both resistant to scratching and shattering at the same time - you can trade off one for the other, but you can’t have both. (Of course as material science progresses the baseline improves - I’m talking about a given point in time at a given price point). In general, it’s much easier to live with light scratches in a screen than with a shattered screen, so the majority of mid-to-high-end phones make the trade off to favour shatter resistance over scratch resistance.

Next time you’re on public transit, or in line at a restaurant, or somewhere else people frequently use phones, take note of how many have cracked screens. Compare that to a decade+ ago where it was fairly common (for me at least) to see broken phone screens. Obviously anecdotal, and could be due to a number of compounding factors, but I very rarely see broken phone screens these days.

> Next time you’re on public transit, or in line at a restaurant, or somewhere else people frequently use phones, take note of how many have cracked screens

Cool anecdotal evidence, it does actually seem to be correct based on my experiences as well.

Though imo a screen protector is very little price (in terms of losing out on stuff, not monetary wise) to pay to have that scratched instead of the screen.

I think it depends a lot on how you handle your phone. I used to have screen protectors, which would always end up scratched, coming off, etc. It was a total PITA to replace them. The last one I had was on my iPhone 7. Took it off for the last 4 years of use I've got out of that phone. The screen is still like new. For mew new phone, I didn't bother with a screen protector. It's a year and a half old now, and no scratch to report.

Screen protectors have gotten much better and much cheaper, especially for anything other than the latest model.

In any case, sounds like you have a lifestyle that doesn’t require one.

I depend on them. Really can’t tell a difference anymore with regards to feel, hue/light etc.

Just upgraded to iPhone 15 Pro Max, I’m glad this phone is durable based on your experience.

Obviously anecdotal but yeah, this is by far the most durable phone I’ve owned. My 11 was the first I went caseless with, and it got pretty beat up in the first year. My 13 Pro was better, but still worse for wear after a year. The 15 Pro is probably in similar shape compared to the 11 after 3-4 months, and I have not been careful at all with this phone whereas with the 11 I most certainly was.

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