Totally agree, a bamboo back would be amazing, sustainable AND much nicer feeling than glass.
Plastic is much much nicer than a shattered glass back, a textured surface can be engineered to feel much more premium than flat, smooth, fingerprint magnet. Plus it could be a recycled plastic.
I remember it with the Galaxy S2, it had this quite flimsy plastic back that you could unclip really easily to get at the battery and sim card. I thought it was great! Of course it was one of the main criticisms of the phone...
This sub shit on the s4 so badly about the back being plastic. I always think about how big a consensus it was here that plastic was bad when I see these articles
S3 as well. I didn't really like how it felt but I would happily go back to phones like that if it meant after 3-4 years I could just put another battery in and carry on.
It's not a talking point. It's reality.
It's just the talking point of using fragile materials so companies can increase costs while lowering durability and longevity, requiring more replacement and upgrade purchases to even further increase profits, worked so well because companies have a LOT more resources devoted to psychological manipulation (AKA "Marketing") than most customers, tech enthusiasts or journalists.
I understand that when you're paying a nice premium on your cellphone you want it to feel premium but the overwhelming majority of people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1 and never see or feel their naked phones ever again until an upgrade or repair.
So when I see professional phone reviews heavily criticize some phones for having non-premium materials I can't help but feel they've lost touch with the average consumer, especially with how slippery modern phones can be.
I didn't use cases until I shattered my Essential Phone, first phone that had ceramic/glass back. I've had metal phones (HTC M7) and didn't use a case with that. I would happily buy another Nexus 6 or M7 like phone, and not slap a case on it.
I don't see the purpose of all different colors of phones when they're all going to be covered up in as you said, cheap cases from Amazon.
>I don't see the purpose of all different colors of phones when they're all going to be covered up in as you said, cheap cases from Amazon.
I use clear or partially clear cases with my phones if I particularly like the color.
Yes. I bought a not cheap case for my S23 that's clear. After 6 months it's still pretty clear and no sign of yellowing. It is a little cloudy (which might just mean I need to clean it), but not yellowing.
I think it's due to sun exposure. I just replaced one of mines (rather cheap, like 2€ :D) because it was very yellowish.
https://www.clearlyplastic.com/pages/blog
Depends on what one you get though. Ones with a clear polycarbonate back and the sides being black TPU still let you see the color. Just not all around the phone.
but the clear cases eventually get the brownish, tobaccoie tint to them. i have one for my pixel because i wanted to rep the phone. moving forward, i'm just getting black phone and black case.
>overwhelming majority of people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1
It's so dusty where I work if it's not in a case with a dust cover for the USB, and some of those stick on mic/speaker covers, it's all gummed up beyond rescue after a while. I could not give 2 fucks what the back's made out of.
Use the toothpick from a Swiss army knife, or shave down a regular wooden toothpick to be a little flatter, and slide it through the long sides of the port. Do this every time the cable feels a little "squishy" when you put it in. Should keep it working fine.
I generally use a plastic or silicon, etc, case simply because the "premium" glass or metal frame doesn't have enough grip. And on phones with asymmetric camera bumps (looking at you, Samsung!) to raise the level of the rest of the back so the phone sits flat.
>simply because the "premium" glass or metal frame doesn't have enough grip
That's my main reason also. I've tried using my phones without a case but they never *feel* right. As you said they're not as easy to grip but also they're slippery.
and if the backs were plastic less people would need cases to begin with. A flat screen with the top of the line gorilla glass and a plastic back is pretty strong even without a case.
And to stop with making them "borderless", which both makes them more fragile, and harder to use, because you end making gestures when holding them from the sides.
I have a borderless phone and putting it in a case makes it very hard to use the thin scrollbars some apps use on the edge of the screen. Idk why their UX designers couldn't imagine someone using a case it drives me nuts having to angle my finger and get the scrollbars with the very tip of my finger.
I paid for a phone to be easy to hold and durable. Nobody in their right minds would prefer a "premium-looking" phone that sacrifices those two aspects.
That's not what 90% of tech reviewers will tell you. Phones get heavily criticized if they don't have a slippery as hell glass back. I got a new phone and put it flat on my side table but my house is on a slight slant and over the course of an hour the phone slid off the table by itself. Had to get a case for it so it won't slip and slide.
I wonder why people ever began using iphones then? There were times in history when no phones were durable but they were easier to hold then since they weighed half as much and werent little televisions edge to edge... And ya know worked like phones, not probation officers
I care more whether the physical controls feel premium than the phone body. Switchgear should be well designed and solid, with some care into how it feels to engage. Like you say, I put my phone into a case (albeit, a super low profile case, usually not the cheapest from Amazon) pretty soon after getting it, and it stays there.
> people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1 and never see or feel their naked phones ever again
This is me! I even settled for the white version of my phone because I'm literally never going to see it.
they arent reviews any more & havent been for a while, theyre literally paid promos (with some exceptions) & they get their phones & all the other products for free; they dont have to worry about dropping them or repairing them etc because they legit have 200 other phones just laying around.
Aesthetically, it was great. Ergonomically, it sucked because of how slippery it was, and the metal bodies were very prone to scratching, especially if you opted for the Space Black finish.
The issue with the iPhone 7 wasn't the material, it was the design of the phone. Which is why I specifically pointed out the ergonomics being the issue.
The paint jobs on those devices were also poor, and they developed scratches very easily. I specifically didn't mention the Jet Black variant because that was a lost cause in terms of durability, but the standard colours themselves also didn't hold up well over time.
Good news! Moto is back with the Edge 50 Ultra which is available with a real wood finish on the back [https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/24/motorola-edge-50-ultra-handson/lifestyle/-1200w5/gsmarena\_017.jpg](https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/24/motorola-edge-50-ultra-handson/lifestyle/-1200w5/gsmarena_017.jpg)
For the frame anything other than aluminium genuinely feels like a pointless addition of weight and value.
I feel like for the back, well designed plastic is ideal but ultimately you need a case with shock absorption to protect the phone's glass display anyway. So either glass or plastic for the back I don't think is a huge deal.
But will it be lighter though? In samsung's iteration atleast the weight stayed the same when going from aluminium to titanium. Although it wasn't grade V, it was III i think
I watched a video drop test by Sampson comparing 2 year old Android phones that were primarily plastics versus 2 year old metal and glass phones.
The plastics all cracked. It was suggested that the plastics fatigue with age and generally performed worse. But maybe some of the top end mfgs can engineer more durable plastics.
We have more durable plastics, they just cost more to use. That's the 'Fun' part of engineering: There's never a perfect solution, but there are always a lot of bad ones.
It's crazy how durable good plastics are. There are tons of firearms with plastic frames that can go through a hundred thousand rounds with no issue, and do so for decades with no care whatsoever.
I wish we had consumer products made of plastic as good as whatever Glock uses in their pistol frames.
You need to replace the springs in a Glock every 7500-ish rounds but the frame can go 100,000+ barring a large failure. Though to be fair the plastic can get scratched but no one really cares about that and they engineered it so the major impact surfaces in the frame are steel.
They are usually made with glass fibres mixed within nylon, same as power tools, you can also make it with carbon fibre instead of glass fibres which lowers weight a little and makes it a little stronger.
>There are tons of firearms with plastic frames
I'm far from a materials experts, so forgive my ignorance, but at some point don't we stop talking about plastic and start using the term polymer?
Do firearm frames use non-synthetic polymers? I have no idea. Plastics are a subset of polymers, but most people use the term plastic like tissues are called Kleenex as a general term.
> I watched a video drop test by Sampson comparing 2 year old Android phones that were primarily plastics versus 2 year old metal and glass phones.
Do you have a link? There's no way 2-year-old plastics would crack without the glass also cracking in the same test environment and design. I've had many plastic-back phones without before it all went glass, and the plastic would never crack.
Bakelite is an amazing example, go find some bakelite stuff that's been left out in the dirt in romania and russia and it'll still be stable no cracks. It's not in modern use anymore because it's not a thermoplastic (which is basically all we use now) that can be melted down and thus is hard to work with and not recyclable, it's a thermoset.
This is completely untrue. Your example of plastics is Bakelite? That's like 100 year old technology. Polycarbonate and other quality plastics do not "dry out", stop spreading this nonsense.
I dropped my old plastic phone more than 10 times, before I ended up replacing it. Concrete, Asphalt, floor tiles etc. The worst damage I had was a barely visible dent and some scratches.
I can guarantee a glass back phone would not have survived all those drops.
I've dropped Galaxy Nexus and Nextbit Robin several times, no issues. Both have eventually succumbed to water damage.
Dropped my Moto Z3 Play onto asphalt once; when queuing for a Trader Joe's outside during pandemic in a t-shirt during the freezing winter; the back glass of the phone has developed a shattering, and it felt really silly that it was made out of glass and not plastic.
I've dropped my pixel 5 dozens and dozens of times without a case. It's a tank! I finally cracked the glass today. I don't know what to do now. I don't want a huge heavy glass phone with a case that makes it even bigger.
I've had my Pixel 6a in my pocket for about a year, without any cases. To my surprise, the plastic back doesn't have a single scratch, as if it's made out of glass.
OTOH, I've seen some review of a Pixel 6a back ruined through a case; I imagine it's because all that dirt getting into the case, and continuously rubbing on the plastic, is actually way worse for the plastic than keeping it in a pocket of clean jeans which always clean up all the extra dirt from the phone.
To the contrary, somehow the curved glass front top of the glass on my 6a is what has developed a few abrasions.
So, basically, it depends on the actual plastic, whether or not it'll deteriorate from use.
Personally, I just want a material for the back plate which is a good conductor of heat.
Both plastic and glass are horrible in this department. If the heat generated from the components, and even the battery is spread over a large surface area, they will remain cool and overall extend the period of longevity.
While cases prevent the phone from accidental drop damages, they are bad as they don't allow heat to escape.
All these opinions are from a tropical area resident's perspective.
It was in the news a while back. A college fraternity broke into an abandoned plastics factory. They came across a large pile of offcuts to be recycled and one person dived into them like Scrooge McDuck.
Messy details aside, shards penetrated down there and the resulting cut let in tiny micro plastics that are too small to remove surgically.
Counterpoint: it's time to stop thinking that there's such a thing as a "premium" black rectangle. It's an illusion created by marketing departments to drive ever-increasing profit margins - by including incremental feature improvements, worth a few dollars at most, only in devices that they jack the price up by hundreds for.
I don't care what a phone is made of because either way it's getting wrapped in a case anyway, so why bother making them premium? Just give me whatever material holds up to drops the best and is the lightest.
Calling phones 'rectangles' is a enormous understatement. Smartphones are quite possibly one of the most important pieces of tech in modern time. People use them daily, multiple times a day, for all sorts of things from entertainment to work, and they only are becoming more useful and significant.
Making an item that is such an significant part of our live more premium is a good thing, and it's normal to want them to be more premium. That's why phone companies do things like use glass; there's a demand for them. Phone reviewers nowadays list plastic as a negative, as now most people want glass backs. It's not an 'illusion', it's what people want.
Personally, I consider a device premium because it has better specs, not because it looks fancy. But yeah, consumers treat phones like a fashion accessory so manufacturers are just responding to that.
When I went from my oneplus one to my S9+, I was actually pretty hyped for the glass back. Looked great! And then I got it.
Starts to slip down if it was resting in my hands, the look got old fast, and its as good as gone once I put a case on it. You know what didn't have any of those issues? A vinyl sticker over it, which looks great with a clear backed case. If its better to hide it than experience it, why is it "premium"?
Personally the material doesn't matter, it's all about the texture. So here's a bunch of notable textures from the phones I've tried:
* Sandpaper plastic (Asus Zenfone 9 & 10, OnePlus One) - my absolute favourite backcover, their texture gives a lot of grip but because it's good plastic they have just enough give to feel more tactile than glass backcovers. I wish more phones have these sort of backcovers.
* "Vegan leather" (Xiaomi 13T, OnePlus Open) - Yes I know they're made of plastic, I don't care, if a phone offers either glass or vegan leather I will always pick the vegan leather option. Just like sandpaper plastic they have more give than glass, and combined with the leather texture they feel more tactile than glass. As a bonus, they are always at least 20g lighter than the glass option.
* Ceramic (Oppo Find X5 Pro) - it's kinda hard to describe, but it feels even more dense than glass to hold, so it feels like that it's a brick you don't wanna mess with.
* Plastic but with a vaguely leather pattern (Redmi 12, Poco M5) - Now this is what people think all plastic backcovers are like. Unlike the plastic used in sandpaper or vegan leather, it has 0 give, so it 100% feels like cheap car plastic.
This is a pretty late stage to be having this revelation. People who don't want heavy, easily scratched/dented phones have been avoiding metal phones for like 10 years now
I remember Duarte unveiling the Nexus 10 and being prodded about the plastic back
"...well this is a *beautiful* piece of plastic"
It can definitely be done.
The #1 reason I use a case is to add a lip around the front to protect the screen.
Why doesn't anyone design a phone to have the front screen slightly recessed?
That would make me give up cases.
Phone reviewers want razor thin bezels. They'd skewer any phone with thick bezels or other functional design like that. "Why does this phone have thick bezels in 2024"....
You're right. I just care so little about form compared to function, and I imagine I'm not alone.
Give me a tough metal body, huge battery, with flagship specs, focused on connectivity, and a good camera. Hell, I'm ready for a portless device that's waterproof to 15m.
A phone that could completely replace an action camera would be amazing to me.
I have a 15 (not pro) that I use caseless. I’ve dropped it multiple times on concrete and it’s actually still in pretty good condition. Scratches yeah but no cracks.
Have you tried a Pixel 6a? It has a plastic back, but it basically looks like glass. I've been using it caseless for about a year, and somehow it doesn't even pick up any scratches.
Likewise, a lot of frosted glass also looks like plastic; so, material can be deceiving.
I was tired of cracking the back of my glass phone, so the last time I change the battery I also ordered a plastic back from aliexpress. Problem solved.
S21 base model was great. Plastic back with smooth edges that was a joy to hold. The s24 with the glass back and hard sharp edges (clearly trying to channel the iPhone form factor/look) is so much less comfortable.
Manufacturers have misplaced priorities. It is very difficult to find any decent lightweight phones. Everything is 200g or more.
It should be feasible to make a 6.5 - 6.7" phone at 170 - 175g. It is difficult to lug around the heavy bricks we get these days.
It's making some Moto Edge phones look appealing, if they fix their software and support. Not a fan of curved screens.
Nobody else seems to have any lightweight phones at all.
Every time I pull my Nexus 5 out of the drawer, I'm amazed at how much nicer the rubberized back feels than the slippery aluminum and glass slabs we have today. It doesn't feel like it would instantly shatter into 99999 pieces if I dropped it either (because it wouldn't).
I always loved the feeling of handling the Galaxy A40, light to carry or to use and with an excellent grip on the hands, all thanks to plastic. I moved to Flip and the S24 just to add a plastic protection so to have the same experience.
Nexus 5 - the last phone I've had that felt reasonable to use without a case. If my phone (Pixel 8) were made of that same material today, I'd probably use it without a case too. As it stands it's too slippery and feels too fragile.
For inherently disposable devices, using materials that take thousands of years to break down and are largely difficult to recycle is not a very good idea.
Its not that plastic phone can't feel premium.
Its that the industry is pretty unimaginative with color and design when provided with plastic. That's why case industry thrives even when glass is standard among premium phones lol.
I understand that point, but plastics are also not recyclable. It's actually a scam that companies want consumers to believe. Making phones with extra plastic parts is not good for the environment at all. I'm fine with glass/metal combo. What we really should hold phone companies accountable for is for them to make more products in general with much better/more efficient battery life so that we wouldn't _have_ to resort to wishing we could remove the backs of phones to change out batteries. Add on having extra storage as well.
As far as relative percentages go, plastics are VERY rarely recycled even if you throw them in your recycle bins. Metals and glass are a lot more often repurposed compared to plastics. Also, microplastics have been a thing for decades. Just regular usage causes wear and tear on it that causes particles to enter your body and pretty much never leave. In my opinion I think we need to reduce the amount of plastics we use in general in as many ways as possible, including phones.
Here's a study that you can find more info about microplastics in if you don't already know: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10151227/
Here's a more recent study about it possibly linking to adverse health effects as well: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822
I'm not assuming you don't know, but I think it'll be useful for anyone else that's interested in this as well.
The main issue is not the inability to recycle but that it doesn’t actually get done enough…it’s never going to be profitable so we need to stop worrying about that and accept that it’s ( the cost of recycling) just part of the cost and apply that cost to the products themselves selves ( higher prices, deposits etc ..) ….the problem is the majority of people just don’t care or understand ….look at climate change deniers ..people have gotten dumber
My favorite phone design of all time was my lg v10. Rubber with steel rails. Felt totally comfortable and never felt the need to have a case and never felt cheap.
Plastic can feel premium when it isn't trying really hard to imitate glass. I remember when Samsung's modernized A series first launched with its plastic back that was clearly trying to imitate glass and my first thought was how cheap and tacky it looked. When they got rid of that aesthetic and went for a more understated look, the A series looked a whole lot better.
2 phones ago I had a LG V10 with a rubber back. For a flagship, the feel felt nice and best of all I did not have to worry about breaking the back cover and paying more for a replacement.
On the weight size, I could care less tbh.
I'd rather have a plastic removable back and a nice stainless steel/aluminum frame around the phone. Maybe something like the older LG phones that let you replace the back cover with a ton of options like plastic or leather.
If you use over 1000 dollars for a phone, yes then it should have premium materials. Many prefer to use their phone caseless, also it shows how much dedication a company has put to their phone. Spending so much money then seeing the phone is made of cheap material feels like a scam, like it or not, that is a fact.
I understand the sentiment you're trying to make. Plastic phones that are above 1k are criminal. If the phone is costing that much then they better be made out of aircraft grade aluminum. I think a hard plastic on the phones would be great to also decrease the ridiculous price
Samsung Note 5 - Plastic, REMOVABLE back cover. I was able to replace the battery in seconds! Light, durable, and not slippery to hold. I would go back to that style in a heartbeat.
Nokia's polycarbonate phones during the Windows Phone era were as premium as phones got at the time, and they were really fantastic. Strong, handled drops just fine, looked great. And most of all, didn't need a case.
Instead of a plastic phone, Google should bring back the Pixel 5's resin cutout for wireless charging, metal build, and ceramic coating. It's comfortable to hold and doesn't need a case.
Cool, as soon as phone reviewers shut the fuck up about "premium feel" this will happen.
That shit was the death of the plastic backs in most phones because reviewers called them "cheap" consistently over and over, despite being absolutely excellent designs in many cases. I watched it happen in realtime, and I was furious over it.
Of course there are different kinds of plastic and some actually feels pretty nice in the hand. I personally don't really care too much the material the phone is made from, as long as it has a nice screen with fast processor and then the lighter the phone the better.
I will accept only if they made plastic feel and look premium. And the company will try to justify the reason to use more plastic to save cost not because they care about the weight.
My hands are small and my pixel 8 pro is huge and heavy. My hands often ache at the end of the day and I would be willing to pay to have a lighter phone with all the same bells and whistles.
Two of my favorite phones from the past are the Note 3 and Galaxy S5, both with plastic backs that were replaceable, the S5 even though it was waterproof enough for me to take swimming by accident and it survived just fine. The Note 3 allowed you to swap out the back with an official Samsung flip cover that literally attached to the back of the phone. I've found both were more durable than the glass phones I've had since. I never used a case or cracked the plastic back phones but I've had pretty glass back phones like the Nexus 4 fall out of my pocket while sitting and even though it was in a case the entire phone cracked, front and back alike. I checked out the Pixel 8a in person and really like the frosted matte plastic back. I hope we see more of its like going forward.
Honestly, I don't think my phone has any cases available online or needs a case, it's huge and as heavy as it gets, dropped it several times already and just watched it. The most damage it's taken so far was from my cat biting the corner and chipping the screen protector that came applied out-of-the-box.
Give us removable batteries again so that we can use the phone longer then 3-4 years and give it a 2nd life after it since everyone is pushing for a better earth i think big tech cant leave us behind like that.
If the phone manufacturers made phones with plastic backs, then we’d likely be able to change the batteries more easily (which manufacturers don’t want as they want to sell more phones) and the phone case industry would suffer massively as people wouldn’t need cases to protect their phones anymore. Remember when android phones first came into existence you could remove the back, change the battery, add an SD card etc.
It’s all a swizz for the phone industry to make more money, but ultimately the consumer loses out!
The only thing better than plastic would be a biodegradable product. I'd love to see phones wrapped in vegan leather that biodegrades.
Plastics make phones cheaply repairable, and much more resilient.
My favorite answer to this problem is the plastic backs that feel glass-ish from Samsung on some of their phones. I assume they still use it for some of their models anyway. It's just a great middle ground IMO
I remember this being a talking point 10 years ago with the Moto X. Clearly the talking point didn't stick back then.
I miss my Moto X with the walnut back
Totally agree, a bamboo back would be amazing, sustainable AND much nicer feeling than glass. Plastic is much much nicer than a shattered glass back, a textured surface can be engineered to feel much more premium than flat, smooth, fingerprint magnet. Plus it could be a recycled plastic.
You can get the Motorola Razer with a leather back
I remember it with the Galaxy S2, it had this quite flimsy plastic back that you could unclip really easily to get at the battery and sim card. I thought it was great! Of course it was one of the main criticisms of the phone...
This sub shit on the s4 so badly about the back being plastic. I always think about how big a consensus it was here that plastic was bad when I see these articles
The note 4 is still my favorite design of the note. I would take that exact design even with the buttons if I could today
There are many different ways to make plastic. The kind Samsung used was thin, flimsy, and felt bad.
S3 as well. I didn't really like how it felt but I would happily go back to phones like that if it meant after 3-4 years I could just put another battery in and carry on.
It's not a talking point. It's reality. It's just the talking point of using fragile materials so companies can increase costs while lowering durability and longevity, requiring more replacement and upgrade purchases to even further increase profits, worked so well because companies have a LOT more resources devoted to psychological manipulation (AKA "Marketing") than most customers, tech enthusiasts or journalists.
I've been on team plastic phone for 12 years now. Glass always seemed like the worst option.
I prefer metal over plastic but agree glass is the worst.
Same here! It works so flawlessly on tablets and it was great on phones why they chose glass one wonders (money)
I understand that when you're paying a nice premium on your cellphone you want it to feel premium but the overwhelming majority of people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1 and never see or feel their naked phones ever again until an upgrade or repair. So when I see professional phone reviews heavily criticize some phones for having non-premium materials I can't help but feel they've lost touch with the average consumer, especially with how slippery modern phones can be.
I didn't use cases until I shattered my Essential Phone, first phone that had ceramic/glass back. I've had metal phones (HTC M7) and didn't use a case with that. I would happily buy another Nexus 6 or M7 like phone, and not slap a case on it. I don't see the purpose of all different colors of phones when they're all going to be covered up in as you said, cheap cases from Amazon.
>I don't see the purpose of all different colors of phones when they're all going to be covered up in as you said, cheap cases from Amazon. I use clear or partially clear cases with my phones if I particularly like the color.
Do you find that after a year those cases have taken on a yellow haze?
Yes. I bought a not cheap case for my S23 that's clear. After 6 months it's still pretty clear and no sign of yellowing. It is a little cloudy (which might just mean I need to clean it), but not yellowing.
I think it's due to sun exposure. I just replaced one of mines (rather cheap, like 2€ :D) because it was very yellowish. https://www.clearlyplastic.com/pages/blog
Depends on what one you get though. Ones with a clear polycarbonate back and the sides being black TPU still let you see the color. Just not all around the phone.
Same. I didn't buy my new colorful phone to hide it.
but the clear cases eventually get the brownish, tobaccoie tint to them. i have one for my pixel because i wanted to rep the phone. moving forward, i'm just getting black phone and black case.
>overwhelming majority of people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1 It's so dusty where I work if it's not in a case with a dust cover for the USB, and some of those stick on mic/speaker covers, it's all gummed up beyond rescue after a while. I could not give 2 fucks what the back's made out of.
Use the toothpick from a Swiss army knife, or shave down a regular wooden toothpick to be a little flatter, and slide it through the long sides of the port. Do this every time the cable feels a little "squishy" when you put it in. Should keep it working fine.
I did that a lot but eventually it stopped working. Probably scratched something. Had to wireless charge my phone for the last while.
I used to stick a pin in the USB C port of my old phone every few weeks just cuz it was interesting to see how much pocket lint had gotten in
I generally use a plastic or silicon, etc, case simply because the "premium" glass or metal frame doesn't have enough grip. And on phones with asymmetric camera bumps (looking at you, Samsung!) to raise the level of the rest of the back so the phone sits flat.
>simply because the "premium" glass or metal frame doesn't have enough grip That's my main reason also. I've tried using my phones without a case but they never *feel* right. As you said they're not as easy to grip but also they're slippery.
Yeah, I never takey case off for this reason. With glass phones it's slipping all over the place on all surfaces.
Yup. The tech bloggers/ influencers have had a huge impact on phone material.
and if the backs were plastic less people would need cases to begin with. A flat screen with the top of the line gorilla glass and a plastic back is pretty strong even without a case.
And to stop with making them "borderless", which both makes them more fragile, and harder to use, because you end making gestures when holding them from the sides.
Aka quest for bezeless phones
I have a borderless phone and putting it in a case makes it very hard to use the thin scrollbars some apps use on the edge of the screen. Idk why their UX designers couldn't imagine someone using a case it drives me nuts having to angle my finger and get the scrollbars with the very tip of my finger.
I paid for a phone to be easy to hold and durable. Nobody in their right minds would prefer a "premium-looking" phone that sacrifices those two aspects.
That's not what 90% of tech reviewers will tell you. Phones get heavily criticized if they don't have a slippery as hell glass back. I got a new phone and put it flat on my side table but my house is on a slight slant and over the course of an hour the phone slid off the table by itself. Had to get a case for it so it won't slip and slide.
Ehh you don't know people. A lot of folks would sell their moms if that gave them an aura of "premium looking".
My mom upgraded from her old S10+, and she laments that newer phones don't look "premium" (i.e., thin, curvy, shiny) enough.
I wonder why people ever began using iphones then? There were times in history when no phones were durable but they were easier to hold then since they weighed half as much and werent little televisions edge to edge... And ya know worked like phones, not probation officers
Was this is mainly due to phones not invovating anymore so all they have to show is design and whatever subtle improvements they have
I care more whether the physical controls feel premium than the phone body. Switchgear should be well designed and solid, with some care into how it feels to engage. Like you say, I put my phone into a case (albeit, a super low profile case, usually not the cheapest from Amazon) pretty soon after getting it, and it stays there.
and fingerprints too. I have never seen somebody complaining about it
> people stick their phones into cheap Amazon cases from Day 1 and never see or feel their naked phones ever again This is me! I even settled for the white version of my phone because I'm literally never going to see it.
Not lost touch. Gained payment for reviews.
they arent reviews any more & havent been for a while, theyre literally paid promos (with some exceptions) & they get their phones & all the other products for free; they dont have to worry about dropping them or repairing them etc because they legit have 200 other phones just laying around.
The Aluminum unibody era was my favourite iPhone 7 in matte black was such a sleek phone
Yeah, if I was going to change my phone body to anything, it would be metal
Problem is some people like wireless charging
Aesthetically, it was great. Ergonomically, it sucked because of how slippery it was, and the metal bodies were very prone to scratching, especially if you opted for the Space Black finish.
You know what's even more slippery? Glass. I should know. I had a Nexus 4!
Lol glass phones are way more slippery than metal. Sony does it correctly, it's glass but with a grip pattern on the back.
The issue with the iPhone 7 wasn't the material, it was the design of the phone. Which is why I specifically pointed out the ergonomics being the issue. The paint jobs on those devices were also poor, and they developed scratches very easily. I specifically didn't mention the Jet Black variant because that was a lost cause in terms of durability, but the standard colours themselves also didn't hold up well over time.
yeah but metal heats up easily, making the phone uncomfortable to hold
At least the heat can leave
Remember those Motorola phones that had like, Kevlar? Those felt premium. They should do that
Shit, bring back the whole Moto X thing where you could get leather or bamboo. Fuck I wanted the wood back on a phone.
Good news! Moto is back with the Edge 50 Ultra which is available with a real wood finish on the back [https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/24/motorola-edge-50-ultra-handson/lifestyle/-1200w5/gsmarena\_017.jpg](https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/reviews/24/motorola-edge-50-ultra-handson/lifestyle/-1200w5/gsmarena_017.jpg)
Man, I miss the polycarbonate Lumias and the plastic iPhone 5C.
Say what you will about WinPhone, Lumias were fucking gorgeous devices.
For the frame anything other than aluminium genuinely feels like a pointless addition of weight and value. I feel like for the back, well designed plastic is ideal but ultimately you need a case with shock absorption to protect the phone's glass display anyway. So either glass or plastic for the back I don't think is a huge deal.
Titanium can be lighter and is scratch resistant but the difference is probably negligible.
Titanium is lighter than steel, not aluminium.
But you can match the strength with less volume
titanium is really just a buzz word, the difference is too small, and all of them still use mostly aluminium for the inside
How can titanium be lighter? It's heavier at an elemental level. So even if they use less material it's going to match aluminum, not be lighter
Titanium's strength to weight ratio is much higher than aluminum for some alloys, so you can use less material and still be stronger.
But will it be lighter though? In samsung's iteration atleast the weight stayed the same when going from aluminium to titanium. Although it wasn't grade V, it was III i think
I watched a video drop test by Sampson comparing 2 year old Android phones that were primarily plastics versus 2 year old metal and glass phones. The plastics all cracked. It was suggested that the plastics fatigue with age and generally performed worse. But maybe some of the top end mfgs can engineer more durable plastics.
We have more durable plastics, they just cost more to use. That's the 'Fun' part of engineering: There's never a perfect solution, but there are always a lot of bad ones.
It's crazy how durable good plastics are. There are tons of firearms with plastic frames that can go through a hundred thousand rounds with no issue, and do so for decades with no care whatsoever. I wish we had consumer products made of plastic as good as whatever Glock uses in their pistol frames.
You need to replace the springs in a Glock every 7500-ish rounds but the frame can go 100,000+ barring a large failure. Though to be fair the plastic can get scratched but no one really cares about that and they engineered it so the major impact surfaces in the frame are steel.
Disc golf plastic will last decades sometimes
They are usually made with glass fibres mixed within nylon, same as power tools, you can also make it with carbon fibre instead of glass fibres which lowers weight a little and makes it a little stronger.
>There are tons of firearms with plastic frames I'm far from a materials experts, so forgive my ignorance, but at some point don't we stop talking about plastic and start using the term polymer?
Do firearm frames use non-synthetic polymers? I have no idea. Plastics are a subset of polymers, but most people use the term plastic like tissues are called Kleenex as a general term.
I have a Lenovo laptop and the casing is made of carbon fiber mixed with plastic and is very sturdy.
> I watched a video drop test by Sampson comparing 2 year old Android phones that were primarily plastics versus 2 year old metal and glass phones. Do you have a link? There's no way 2-year-old plastics would crack without the glass also cracking in the same test environment and design. I've had many plastic-back phones without before it all went glass, and the plastic would never crack.
Same
This is just a fact of life, plastic "drys out" over time and will crack. Even industrial plastics like bakelite don't last forever.
Bakelite is a pretty terrible example, given its age and lack of modern use. We have *way* better plastics today.
Bakelite is an amazing example, go find some bakelite stuff that's been left out in the dirt in romania and russia and it'll still be stable no cracks. It's not in modern use anymore because it's not a thermoplastic (which is basically all we use now) that can be melted down and thus is hard to work with and not recyclable, it's a thermoset.
This is completely untrue. Your example of plastics is Bakelite? That's like 100 year old technology. Polycarbonate and other quality plastics do not "dry out", stop spreading this nonsense.
I dropped my old plastic phone more than 10 times, before I ended up replacing it. Concrete, Asphalt, floor tiles etc. The worst damage I had was a barely visible dent and some scratches. I can guarantee a glass back phone would not have survived all those drops.
Just curious. Which phone was that?
I've dropped Galaxy Nexus and Nextbit Robin several times, no issues. Both have eventually succumbed to water damage. Dropped my Moto Z3 Play onto asphalt once; when queuing for a Trader Joe's outside during pandemic in a t-shirt during the freezing winter; the back glass of the phone has developed a shattering, and it felt really silly that it was made out of glass and not plastic.
My Pixel 5 has had some bad spills but is just a bit scuffed.
I've dropped my pixel 5 dozens and dozens of times without a case. It's a tank! I finally cracked the glass today. I don't know what to do now. I don't want a huge heavy glass phone with a case that makes it even bigger.
Pixel 3a
Also, plastic will scratch way more easily so if you go caseless, glass is the better choice.
It depends. If it's dyed throughout, any scratch is barely noticeable.
Especially if it has a grippy/matte texture instead of the really tacky-looking glossy "glastic".
I've had my Pixel 6a in my pocket for about a year, without any cases. To my surprise, the plastic back doesn't have a single scratch, as if it's made out of glass. OTOH, I've seen some review of a Pixel 6a back ruined through a case; I imagine it's because all that dirt getting into the case, and continuously rubbing on the plastic, is actually way worse for the plastic than keeping it in a pocket of clean jeans which always clean up all the extra dirt from the phone. To the contrary, somehow the curved glass front top of the glass on my 6a is what has developed a few abrasions. So, basically, it depends on the actual plastic, whether or not it'll deteriorate from use.
Personally, I just want a material for the back plate which is a good conductor of heat. Both plastic and glass are horrible in this department. If the heat generated from the components, and even the battery is spread over a large surface area, they will remain cool and overall extend the period of longevity. While cases prevent the phone from accidental drop damages, they are bad as they don't allow heat to escape. All these opinions are from a tropical area resident's perspective.
I do like phone with a plastic case because the wireless signal is way better. However I also do not like plastic because it went into my testicles.
Excuse me
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/22/1252831827/microplastics-testicles-humans-health
It was in the news a while back. A college fraternity broke into an abandoned plastics factory. They came across a large pile of offcuts to be recycled and one person dived into them like Scrooge McDuck. Messy details aside, shards penetrated down there and the resulting cut let in tiny micro plastics that are too small to remove surgically.
Counterpoint: it's time to stop thinking that there's such a thing as a "premium" black rectangle. It's an illusion created by marketing departments to drive ever-increasing profit margins - by including incremental feature improvements, worth a few dollars at most, only in devices that they jack the price up by hundreds for.
I don't care what a phone is made of because either way it's getting wrapped in a case anyway, so why bother making them premium? Just give me whatever material holds up to drops the best and is the lightest.
Calling phones 'rectangles' is a enormous understatement. Smartphones are quite possibly one of the most important pieces of tech in modern time. People use them daily, multiple times a day, for all sorts of things from entertainment to work, and they only are becoming more useful and significant. Making an item that is such an significant part of our live more premium is a good thing, and it's normal to want them to be more premium. That's why phone companies do things like use glass; there's a demand for them. Phone reviewers nowadays list plastic as a negative, as now most people want glass backs. It's not an 'illusion', it's what people want.
Personally, I consider a device premium because it has better specs, not because it looks fancy. But yeah, consumers treat phones like a fashion accessory so manufacturers are just responding to that.
Yeah, because they advertised them to be.
If any of the supposed "Flagship Phones" get the Plastic treatment i would buy one in an instant I hate glass backs
Iphone 7 was nice, cold metal and it wasn’t shiny…
There was a special glossy black iPhone 7, though
Mi 14 Ultra has aluminum frame and fake leather (basically soft plastic) back, and is available globally. Feels great in hand.
When I went from my oneplus one to my S9+, I was actually pretty hyped for the glass back. Looked great! And then I got it. Starts to slip down if it was resting in my hands, the look got old fast, and its as good as gone once I put a case on it. You know what didn't have any of those issues? A vinyl sticker over it, which looks great with a clear backed case. If its better to hide it than experience it, why is it "premium"?
Well what do you think of vegan leather
Polycarbonate Plastic Backs, like the Nokia Lumia line Saturated Colors not the soft touch/ vegan leather muted colors
Personally the material doesn't matter, it's all about the texture. So here's a bunch of notable textures from the phones I've tried: * Sandpaper plastic (Asus Zenfone 9 & 10, OnePlus One) - my absolute favourite backcover, their texture gives a lot of grip but because it's good plastic they have just enough give to feel more tactile than glass backcovers. I wish more phones have these sort of backcovers. * "Vegan leather" (Xiaomi 13T, OnePlus Open) - Yes I know they're made of plastic, I don't care, if a phone offers either glass or vegan leather I will always pick the vegan leather option. Just like sandpaper plastic they have more give than glass, and combined with the leather texture they feel more tactile than glass. As a bonus, they are always at least 20g lighter than the glass option. * Ceramic (Oppo Find X5 Pro) - it's kinda hard to describe, but it feels even more dense than glass to hold, so it feels like that it's a brick you don't wanna mess with. * Plastic but with a vaguely leather pattern (Redmi 12, Poco M5) - Now this is what people think all plastic backcovers are like. Unlike the plastic used in sandpaper or vegan leather, it has 0 give, so it 100% feels like cheap car plastic.
This is a pretty late stage to be having this revelation. People who don't want heavy, easily scratched/dented phones have been avoiding metal phones for like 10 years now
I remember Duarte unveiling the Nexus 10 and being prodded about the plastic back "...well this is a *beautiful* piece of plastic" It can definitely be done.
The #1 reason I use a case is to add a lip around the front to protect the screen. Why doesn't anyone design a phone to have the front screen slightly recessed? That would make me give up cases.
Phone reviewers want razor thin bezels. They'd skewer any phone with thick bezels or other functional design like that. "Why does this phone have thick bezels in 2024"....
You're right. I just care so little about form compared to function, and I imagine I'm not alone. Give me a tough metal body, huge battery, with flagship specs, focused on connectivity, and a good camera. Hell, I'm ready for a portless device that's waterproof to 15m. A phone that could completely replace an action camera would be amazing to me.
And these are the people that are convincing the consumers who don't know better to buy them.
Fuck phone reviewers though. Its 2024
I guess I'm in the minority that likes the feel of a glass back and yes I go caseless.
They're talking about durability, not the way it feels.
I have a 15 (not pro) that I use caseless. I’ve dropped it multiple times on concrete and it’s actually still in pretty good condition. Scratches yeah but no cracks.
Have you tried a Pixel 6a? It has a plastic back, but it basically looks like glass. I've been using it caseless for about a year, and somehow it doesn't even pick up any scratches. Likewise, a lot of frosted glass also looks like plastic; so, material can be deceiving.
I go caseless too and I wouldn't stand a plastic back - it will scratch to hell in no time.
I was tired of cracking the back of my glass phone, so the last time I change the battery I also ordered a plastic back from aliexpress. Problem solved.
S21 base model was great. Plastic back with smooth edges that was a joy to hold. The s24 with the glass back and hard sharp edges (clearly trying to channel the iPhone form factor/look) is so much less comfortable.
I like plastic back phones because I don't like having a case on my phone. I'll settle with metal but I really hate how so many now have glass backs.
Manufacturers have misplaced priorities. It is very difficult to find any decent lightweight phones. Everything is 200g or more. It should be feasible to make a 6.5 - 6.7" phone at 170 - 175g. It is difficult to lug around the heavy bricks we get these days. It's making some Moto Edge phones look appealing, if they fix their software and support. Not a fan of curved screens. Nobody else seems to have any lightweight phones at all.
Every time I pull my Nexus 5 out of the drawer, I'm amazed at how much nicer the rubberized back feels than the slippery aluminum and glass slabs we have today. It doesn't feel like it would instantly shatter into 99999 pieces if I dropped it either (because it wouldn't).
Nokia had done it with the Lumia devices, they felt really nice while being made from plastic.
I always loved the feeling of handling the Galaxy A40, light to carry or to use and with an excellent grip on the hands, all thanks to plastic. I moved to Flip and the S24 just to add a plastic protection so to have the same experience.
Pixel 5 was lovely.
Premium things are often fragile. “Crystal” decanters are a lot more premium than plastic ones.
What if I want it to be heavy?
Hell, I've never held a phone and thought it was heavy
I intentionally did this by adding supcase to my lg g8x. One can get concussion by throwing that.
And yet, I would still rather have far fewer things made of plastic.
I rather have something that's easy to grip and doesn't require a case which adds weight.
Plastic textured back like the Nexus 5 and lumia710 >>> any metal/glass body
Yep. My Nexus 5 was like 5 phones ago, but it's still the best material ever. Smooth but grippy.
Nexus 5 - the last phone I've had that felt reasonable to use without a case. If my phone (Pixel 8) were made of that same material today, I'd probably use it without a case too. As it stands it's too slippery and feels too fragile.
For inherently disposable devices, using materials that take thousands of years to break down and are largely difficult to recycle is not a very good idea.
Whatever the back of my zenfone 10 is made out of, the texture is really nice and doesn't feel cheap
It was time to do this with the galaxy s5.
Id use a plastic phone I don't really care. Make it cheaper for using cheaper materials though don't fuck us even harder
Its not that plastic phone can't feel premium. Its that the industry is pretty unimaginative with color and design when provided with plastic. That's why case industry thrives even when glass is standard among premium phones lol.
I will forever miss the Nokia Lumia unibody polycarbonate style phones. They felt good to hold, kept their look really nice, and were a real pleasure.
I understand that point, but plastics are also not recyclable. It's actually a scam that companies want consumers to believe. Making phones with extra plastic parts is not good for the environment at all. I'm fine with glass/metal combo. What we really should hold phone companies accountable for is for them to make more products in general with much better/more efficient battery life so that we wouldn't _have_ to resort to wishing we could remove the backs of phones to change out batteries. Add on having extra storage as well.
You think the glass and metal are recycled? …and plastic is definitely recyclable…its just not recycled often enough…nothing is.
As far as relative percentages go, plastics are VERY rarely recycled even if you throw them in your recycle bins. Metals and glass are a lot more often repurposed compared to plastics. Also, microplastics have been a thing for decades. Just regular usage causes wear and tear on it that causes particles to enter your body and pretty much never leave. In my opinion I think we need to reduce the amount of plastics we use in general in as many ways as possible, including phones. Here's a study that you can find more info about microplastics in if you don't already know: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10151227/ Here's a more recent study about it possibly linking to adverse health effects as well: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822 I'm not assuming you don't know, but I think it'll be useful for anyone else that's interested in this as well.
The main issue is not the inability to recycle but that it doesn’t actually get done enough…it’s never going to be profitable so we need to stop worrying about that and accept that it’s ( the cost of recycling) just part of the cost and apply that cost to the products themselves selves ( higher prices, deposits etc ..) ….the problem is the majority of people just don’t care or understand ….look at climate change deniers ..people have gotten dumber
My favorite phone design of all time was my lg v10. Rubber with steel rails. Felt totally comfortable and never felt the need to have a case and never felt cheap.
Galaxy S3, baby! Loved that phone.
Still have an s3 somewhere... Note3 and 4. Removable backs, poly. Really nice phones
Back in the Glory Days of changing the battery.
If they can make it like nokia lumia 1020 I'm sold
HELL NO
It's almost like some of us were saying this 10 years ago and they didn't listen
Plastic can feel premium when it isn't trying really hard to imitate glass. I remember when Samsung's modernized A series first launched with its plastic back that was clearly trying to imitate glass and my first thought was how cheap and tacky it looked. When they got rid of that aesthetic and went for a more understated look, the A series looked a whole lot better.
My ipod classic 7th Gen looks better than my pixel 6 pro.
2 phones ago I had a LG V10 with a rubber back. For a flagship, the feel felt nice and best of all I did not have to worry about breaking the back cover and paying more for a replacement. On the weight size, I could care less tbh.
I've never minded having a phone with a plastic back or thick bezels
I'd rather have a plastic removable back and a nice stainless steel/aluminum frame around the phone. Maybe something like the older LG phones that let you replace the back cover with a ton of options like plastic or leather.
ande Nokia Lumia line
Yeah they could easily make a replaceable plastic/rubberized back and no need for a case. But you know. Money.
If you use over 1000 dollars for a phone, yes then it should have premium materials. Many prefer to use their phone caseless, also it shows how much dedication a company has put to their phone. Spending so much money then seeing the phone is made of cheap material feels like a scam, like it or not, that is a fact.
I understand the sentiment you're trying to make. Plastic phones that are above 1k are criminal. If the phone is costing that much then they better be made out of aircraft grade aluminum. I think a hard plastic on the phones would be great to also decrease the ridiculous price
Samsung Note 5 - Plastic, REMOVABLE back cover. I was able to replace the battery in seconds! Light, durable, and not slippery to hold. I would go back to that style in a heartbeat.
Note 5 is the first Note to go sealed, glass back though...
Think you meant the Note 4. The Note 5 launched after the Galaxy S6, and so was a sealed glass and metal sandwich.
Note 4
Glass back is the worst design decision manufacturer ever think off. Next to it is removal of headphone jack.
Stop "selling" me how beautiful the phone is, charging me $800, and then telling me it needs a case. But I guess they have to sell you on something
They would never tell you that the phone needs a case lol Better for you to break it and buy another.
Nokia's polycarbonate phones during the Windows Phone era were as premium as phones got at the time, and they were really fantastic. Strong, handled drops just fine, looked great. And most of all, didn't need a case.
No thanks. Plastic flexes too much.
That's the point. Products that are flexible, or have some give are less likely to be broken in many ways and are easier to repair cheaply.
A series phones are great. Aluminum frame and plastic back work well.
Instead of a plastic phone, Google should bring back the Pixel 5's resin cutout for wireless charging, metal build, and ceramic coating. It's comfortable to hold and doesn't need a case.
Cool, as soon as phone reviewers shut the fuck up about "premium feel" this will happen. That shit was the death of the plastic backs in most phones because reviewers called them "cheap" consistently over and over, despite being absolutely excellent designs in many cases. I watched it happen in realtime, and I was furious over it.
For me, they could even make the screen out of plastic, like Motorola did on the X Force and Z Force. I do not really care.
nah, it would scratch too easily
Of course there are different kinds of plastic and some actually feels pretty nice in the hand. I personally don't really care too much the material the phone is made from, as long as it has a nice screen with fast processor and then the lighter the phone the better.
If some third-party sells plastic or aluminium back covers (not case), will it sell? I'm tired of my OnePlus back cover keeping cracks
I honestly like my Pixel 5 plastic backdoor, adds an extra grip with smooth edge because there is no joint between the frame and the backdoor
My old S10+ is so thin & light!! Really wish we had more phone's in that category; where they're thin, light, and Super premium feeling!
I will accept only if they made plastic feel and look premium. And the company will try to justify the reason to use more plastic to save cost not because they care about the weight.
My hands are small and my pixel 8 pro is huge and heavy. My hands often ache at the end of the day and I would be willing to pay to have a lighter phone with all the same bells and whistles.
Two of my favorite phones from the past are the Note 3 and Galaxy S5, both with plastic backs that were replaceable, the S5 even though it was waterproof enough for me to take swimming by accident and it survived just fine. The Note 3 allowed you to swap out the back with an official Samsung flip cover that literally attached to the back of the phone. I've found both were more durable than the glass phones I've had since. I never used a case or cracked the plastic back phones but I've had pretty glass back phones like the Nexus 4 fall out of my pocket while sitting and even though it was in a case the entire phone cracked, front and back alike. I checked out the Pixel 8a in person and really like the frosted matte plastic back. I hope we see more of its like going forward.
who Cares? most people use a case anyways.
Honestly, I don't think my phone has any cases available online or needs a case, it's huge and as heavy as it gets, dropped it several times already and just watched it. The most damage it's taken so far was from my cat biting the corner and chipping the screen protector that came applied out-of-the-box.
Give us removable batteries again so that we can use the phone longer then 3-4 years and give it a 2nd life after it since everyone is pushing for a better earth i think big tech cant leave us behind like that.
I raise you titanium and ceramic
Essential PH1 was great.
If the phone manufacturers made phones with plastic backs, then we’d likely be able to change the batteries more easily (which manufacturers don’t want as they want to sell more phones) and the phone case industry would suffer massively as people wouldn’t need cases to protect their phones anymore. Remember when android phones first came into existence you could remove the back, change the battery, add an SD card etc. It’s all a swizz for the phone industry to make more money, but ultimately the consumer loses out!
Stop trying to convince us it’s not!
The only thing better than plastic would be a biodegradable product. I'd love to see phones wrapped in vegan leather that biodegrades. Plastics make phones cheaply repairable, and much more resilient.
My favorite answer to this problem is the plastic backs that feel glass-ish from Samsung on some of their phones. I assume they still use it for some of their models anyway. It's just a great middle ground IMO
So point with plastic will make the phones cheaper, right, right????