My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive, and then it slips out when I get out of the car. But no problem on my previous phones, despite the Moto had cheap Panda glass front.
Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January, and I loved the phone for the camera and good specs. But alas after only 4 months, and single drop of just 30 cm while sitting on the porch, the glass back immediately cracked! The back now looks like an ugly mess, and the high water resistance is very likely gone too.
For sure the last time I buy a phone with a glass back!!!
I wonder why glass back is so popular, and I curse the media for reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S2 as “feeling a bit cheap”, because the back was synthetic, and drop tests showed it was 10 times as durable as the iPhone with its glass back.
Samsung did it right in the beginning, glass backs are a curse.
PS: I don’t use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it’s an obvious design flaw!!!
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it’s fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
I am not clumsy, that’s why I believe the phone should be able to last without cover. This was the first time the phone slid out of my packet, and I’ve NEVER dropped it out of my hands. One 30 cm slip and it’s broken. Where for instance my Moto had maybe 4-6 in all over the years, and remained unscathed, apart from some tiny scratches.
The sliding out of pocket does occur maybe a couple of times per year, but it’s a low drop, and the phone should absolutely be able to handle that tiny drop, as it’s an item for everyday use.
I’ve also never had problems with scratches on my screen on any phone, which is the reason people use screen protectors I guess, which I don’t either, because they are ugly, for instance they create a tiny ring around the camera, and they feel awful IMO, my phone came with it, and it took exactly 10 seconds for me to decide to remove it, because I could feel the edge of the screen protector when using the phone.
But please stop with the dropping my phone regularly comments! Just because I dropped my Moto a few times (slid out of pocket) over almost 4 years! Always from low height, which it should be able to handle a few times.
Yeah, you have to either buy a case or buy a ruggedized phone. The sexy glass ones are just to look good in ads and in stores.
Yes I agree, and I added this to my post:
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it’s fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?
I wouldn’t say it’s a flaw, but an intentional decision. They expect you to buy a case aftermarket.
Is it shitty? Maybe. But people also like being able to choose a personalized case, which you can’t get with a ruggedized phone. If you don’t care about that, I’d look at ruggedized phones like what Cat makes: https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-smartphone/
My Moto held brilliantly without being ruggedized and without a case. And that’s despite it is big 6.8" screen and relatively heavy with 220 grams.
I’d say it’s absolutely a flaw, to chose a material that is way way worse and yet more expensive.
As I write in my post, with a case, there is zero advantage to the glass back, and you don’t get any premium feel from it.
Makes phone feel slippery too, which make some feel like it’ll pop out of my hands.
Yes, usually plastic backs have texture, that actually make them quite comfortable to hold IMO. Also the texture can be made so it looks very cool.
Also plastic backs aren’t usually just cheap plastics, they are high quality synthetic materials.
Plastic backs are also both thinner and lighter. Which all in all makes it the way superior material even over aluminium.
Glass backs are the dumbest idea in the history of stupid.
The only way things like that could be defensible if they were easy to replace (bring back Moto-Z style magnetic backs!), but since phones are all held together with glue now, that’s not a thing.
I think my Samsung Galaxy S10 did it right. Glass back for the feel, attached to a removable and replaceable plastic back panel.
A glass back is not necessary for wireless charging. There’s many materials that can fit there, the glass choice is purely for “premium” feel.
There is nothing premium about glass, that’s marketing lying to you. It’s designed to break easily being smooth and fragile, to make the phones more disposable.
It’s great for stuff like car phone holders. It sucks for basically every other use case. In particular, it means you can’t easily pick up, use, and put down your phone and maintain charging.
I have one of those slanted chargers for desktop use, so while I’m at my desk, I just set it there (bonus that the screen is kept visible in case of a call or message)
It’s reasonable to use it while it’s charging on the stand, though I wouldn’t enjoy doing anything landscape (it will still charge it’s just very precise)
Definitely cannot deny the utility of a regular power cable if you are in bed or something and you really want to use it while charging.
In particular, it means you can’t easily pick up, use, and put down your phone and maintain charging.
I strongly disagree. While you can’t “maintain charging”, it’s extremely easy to change from charging to using and back again. If you want to use your phone while charging, wireless charging doesn’t make sense, but if you want to quickly use your phone (like sending a quick text), it’s nicer than having a cable attached.
And probably stiffness. Aluminum would both scratch more easily than glass and bend/dent more easily
Yes glass doesn’t bend or dent because it shatters. I had a Note 4 with an aluminum frame and never needed a case. I used it for 5 years before upgrading and still own it (it still works). The aluminum frame and plastic back are by far the most durable combination I’ve used thus far and it survived many drops hard enough to leave small gouges in the aluminum.
Now I have a thick ass case on my modern phone because it probably wouldn’t even survive a fall onto the carpet without some protection which is a huge downgrade in my opinion.
Glass backs are popular because it makes assembly easier, because if the front and back are made from the same material, then they would have the same thermal expansion coefficient, which means that you can get a less variable fit between the front and the back.
It is for the benefit of the manufacturer and not the customer.
It’s also partly because phones now require 60,000 antennae and radio waves don’t go through metal. Wireless charging, NFC, wifi (x2), bluetooth, cellular (x4), UWB… There’s some ability to reuse the antennas via TDM and other tricks but they just “need” so many these days. Also also, plastic is kinda evil from a pollution standpoint, although one could also argue that it could just be recycled with the rest of the phone.
It’s like we can’t have good phones. If you want Headphone Jack, SD card, Message LED, and synthetic back, you can’t get a phone with good camera, GPU and water resistance at the same time.
Why are phone makers so hostile to their own users?
Because if they give you everything you want, you’ll fix it and update it and you won’t buy another phone for like 8, maybe even 10 years. And that would destroy their short-term profits, which would obviously be disastrous. No, it wouldn’t kill the company or even require a single employee to be laid off, but the profits though 🥺
Motorola is doing a lot of what you are looking for. And they’re a lot cheaper than the competition
The Sony Xperia phones offer IP68 with an SD card slot and a 3.5mm port. They just have poor software support and cost a shit ton.
The newer Sony phones have improved software support of 3 OS & 4 years of security updates.
And it isn’t like the materials are the problem either. If they can make water resistant phone with glass they sure should be able to do it with plastic, right? But nope.
Well we would have premium metal back phones, but metal backs interfere with the other gimmick “wireless” charging
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro has all of those things plus a removable battery and can take a serious beating. I used to throw the phone almost daily to demonstrate it’s durability. The sides got dents and gouges, but I never once had a crack in the screen. The newer Xcover 6 Pro has all of the same features as well as an iPhone 12 quality camera.
I managed to kill one after breaking the charging port (ironically not related to years of repeatedly being thrown at concrete) and got a Unihertz Titan. Its basically an oversized modern Blackberry 8830 and has the same durability, battery life, and a physical keyboard. No removable battery unfortunately and the camera sucks though.
I wonder why glass back is so popular (…) How is glass back not a design flaw?
Because Steve Jobs. Seriously, many stupid “but it’s pretty”, as well as several anti consumer decisions (hard to repair, glued parts), can be traced back to Apple and Steve Jobs. Couple that with every fucking manufacturer wanting to emulate Apple, especially Chinese ones, and everything in the smartphone world makes sense.
Glass backs were already popular on Android phones when Apple started using them. Previously they used metal backs, but they aren’t compatible with wireless charging so manufacturers have to choose between plastic and glass — guess which one is more popular with reviewers?
