It's time to stop thinking plastic phones can't be premium
Flagship Android phones don't all need to be glass and stainless steel. It's time to bring back materials like aluminum and plastic
Premium phones make little sense, based on what I've seen everyone puts them in cases anyway. "Premium materials" are slippery and "premium thinness" results in insufficient battery capacity so accessories like phone rings get put on them, and people carry around external battery packs.
Why not just make a grippy, practical phone that I can use as a tool, with removable batteries, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and expandable memory?
Burn the witch!
Because that phone would last and you would only need a new one every 4-5 or however many years instead of 1-2 so capitalist companies won't see that as having any value.
I think companies know what people want and how to make a great phone like that, just none of them will or want to be the first.
The only thing premium phones have going for them are really good cameras. I love midrange phones but the photos they produce are not as good as flagships.
Stop making sense!!!
I don't need the audio jack, but I guess it doesn't hurt. There are phones that have all that, but unfortunately they are at most mid-range phones which isn't what I'm looking for.
so fairphone?, look it up, it's a phone maker that do exactly that
Fairphone dropped the 3.5mm jack too :(
Unfortunately, they have minimal support for US frequencies. The US market is dominated by disgustingly expensive flagships, and severely compromised midrange and budget offerings.
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.
Who wants to pay premium for prices?
Sounds like you've never had something nice.
FINALLY someone gets this. I don't care about the "premium look" whatever that means, I just don't want my phone to break when I accidentally drop it. Which is why I always put a case on my phone
In fact, I'm pretty sure phone manufacturers started putting glass on the back of phones specifically to make them less durable so that customers buy a new phone sooner
Nah, it's mostly because all the tech reviewers trashed phones with plastic backs saying they felt cheap. If you look at any of those reviews they always talk about the premium feel.
It also changed from aluminium to glass backs mostly for wireless charging.
Plastic backs are better, but the tech reviewers did a lot of damage there. If they'd tried to influence people and explained why particular made sense instead of trashing it we may have more plastic phones.
It's funny that we buy these metal and glass phones and then protect them with rubber and plastic cases.
New phones are made to show wear so that they lose resale value.
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...
It's not funny, it's moronic. But I guess that's kind of what you meant. 😋
Funny as in sad
I never thought they couldn't. Glass phones were an absolutely ridiculous idea.
"Glass is glass, and glass breaks" I want a metal back phone. I don't care about wireless charging.
Can anyone suggest me an Android that has all these?
I may have found a phone for you. It's called the unihertz tank 2
https://www.unihertz.com/products/tank-2
Comes with a few other really interesting features you don't see on any other phone (like a goddamn laser projector?), though i think the processor is a little underpowered.
That's kind of insane. From the name I think it's safe to assume they're angling for some military contracts.
From this comparison, I would guess they chose the G99 to cut costs, as the 1300 was announced two months earlier and beats or matches the G99 in every category, including battery life (which is the only thing it seems to be good at).
I want a metal back phone
Steve Jobs did too, they still needed a plastic window for some antennae on the OG iPhone, then went to full plastic. It has become worse now, the back isn't just for wireless charging. It is also for NFC, UWB, and often cellular/gps/wifi/bluetooth may share antenna connections through the back.
Right there with you though. NFC could probably be packed in a band at the top of a phone. UWB seems of dubious value thus far.
I did a search on GSM Arena and if you lower the battery capacity to 5000 then there's a single result. If you change some of the other spec requirements there's some other stuff available but nothing that matches what you want one-to-one.
I went with the lenovo/motorola thinkphone. Kind of an oddball choice, but it has a kevlar back instead of glass, and has most of your points.
The battery is 'only' 5000mah, but i get multiple days of use per charge.
There were some pretty good sales on it because it didn't sell as well as they had hoped.
Nice to finally see a review stating what I've been thinking ever since the Samsung Galaxy 2 was scorned 13 years ago by reviewers for having a plastic back, and not having the premium feel of the much more fragile iPhone.
Ever since it's like a conspiracy of reviewers hailing the premium feel of metal unibodies or glass backs, despite the clearly lower quality of those materials, while dissing superior plastic bodies that weigh less, has way better shock absorption, is less bulky, and is less slippery and therefore less prone to drop out of pockets or bags.
The main reason it feels more "premium" is the extra weight, which is clearly detrimental to usability.
It's like cheap stuff like cheap loudspeakers, where they have iron bars in them to ad weight, to make the speaker "feel" better. Where a speaker with a stronger (magnet) may actually be better.
But with phones it is 100% people fooling themselves, if they think heavier is better, and fragile glass is somehow better than sturdy quality synthetics.
I've been saying this for years. Use nice textured recycled plastic. The amount of cool textured and nice feeling materials out there is insane.
Gimme a plastic screen too. If someone is concerned about scratches they can add a glass protector. Those people already do anyway. There are even plastics that could be used that would resist scratches incredibly well.
Then my whole phone is flexible and nearly unbreakable.
Bro just make it yourself you probably have enough plastic in your body for it
I'd give my left nut for a premium plastic phone...
I certainly would prefer a plastic backing than a glass one. Why the fuck does every phone have to be encased entirely in glass? It breaks and it's slippery as fuck, making it more prone to slip out of your hand and break. It's so ubiquitous and universally fucking stupid that I am convinced it's purposely designed so you will drop and break it so you have to pay to fix or replace it.
Every heavy duty aftermarket phone case is mostly plastic and rubberized silicone. Because that shit is 1000 times more durable and shock resistant than glass. Glass's great only for being scratch resistant. There's no reason that every phone couldn't have an otter box-like outer shell built in.
It is actually better for durability if the outer shell is removable as well. Eg, having a durable phone case on a midrange phone is better than a rugged phone. Simply being as you can easily swap the case
I'm going off of hearsay here from a video I saw years ago, but it was comparing a decently durable android in a rugged case with a purpose built rugged android phone. Both sustained similar damage but at least the one with the case could be fixed by a case swap. Other one would need a full on repair.
Phone material stopped mattering the moment camera bumps became a thing. Now, nearly everyone slaps a case to balance out the bump.
That said, I miss my completely mirrored-back Sony Xperia Z5 Premium.
I miss phones without camera bumps :(
Loved my Nokia Lumia phone back in the day. Plastic body and glass screen. Solid af.
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.
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.
Fuck plastic & the oil industry where it comes from.
Totally agree! I can't wait to put that granite-cased phone with wood-backed PCBs in my pocket.
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.
There are plastics that aren't oil derived. Some of them are even compostable in an industrial setting.
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.
The issue there is that metal unibody deigns, attenuate RF signal strength. While they can work, it is a tradeoff.
It's time to stop deciding what other people should like.
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
I can't think of anything plastic that I'd consider premium, let alone a phone.
EDIT: Wait, Legos.
That's the thinking the article is arguing against.
But I do have an example.
High end polycarbonate prescription lenses for glasses.
The high index, thinnest, lightest lenses, are plastic. Not glass.
Edit: Thinking more, I wonder how much more expensive it would be to use the same polycarbonate material on phones.
It would certainly be stronger and less prone to breaking. With good coatings, it would be just as scratch resistant.
It would offer the same premium look and similar feel as glass. Just lighter.
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?
Utility is for poors. People who don't count money want something shiny or whatever their peers have. They can easily replace it if it breaks.
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.
Lumia 800 was the most premium feeling phone I’ve ever had. It also felt indestructible.
Remember the iPhone 5c? I've never owned an iPhone, but I was really tempted to get a lime green 5c
Only iPhone I ever had and I loved that thing to bits.
Only fashion victims thought that.
Companies happily obliged them, bumping the price of phones that break much more easily.
I just want replaceable batteries on my phones again. The last two Samsung phones I owned ended up with swollen batteries, requiring sending them back to Samsung for repairs. I really miss the days of just being able to pop the back off and buying a replacement battery.
If it's ones use and out plastic, I'll stick with glass and metal. I know someone is about to say they still cause CO2 and they do, but these materials can at least be easily recycled. This means when the rest of the chain becomes green (for lack of a better phrase) then so will this part.
If however it's using fully reusable and fully recyclable (not just incinerator "recycling") then sure, absolutely no issue. Fully behind it. I'm willing to bet, however, all of the money in my pocket that that's not the case here though sadly.
So, over the course of the lifetime of your phone, you'll have bought and disposed of a couple of 1000x the amount of plastic. This is a really weird take, man.
The lifetime of a plastic phone will likely be longer too, because metal and glass are a shit combination. Plastic phones make repairs easier too.
How is it weird? It's not just you and me, it's billions of people world wide.
Also, don't try to claim you know me or how much plastic I use. I work very hard to not use any unless absolutely necessary, this is one such time.
Honestly, Lemmy has the weirdest takes at times. Aiming for better is not a bad thing to want, I thought given the balance of people here that being less wasteful would be a plus.
I don't think gorilla glass is recyclable however you could use recycled plastics.
If not now, soon.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66359047
As for recycled plastics, I mean, yes? That's kind of the goal. Fully recyclable devices is my desire, regardless of material. Right now, plastic isn't for the vast, vast majority.
No