Blaze (he/him)It's time to stop thinking plastic phones can't be premium
AlexstarfireI can’t think of anything plastic that I’d consider premium, let alone a phone.
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?
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.
Fuck plastic & the oil industry where it comes from.
ExtremeDullardTotally agree! I can’t wait to put that granite-cased phone with wood-backed PCBs in my pocket.
That would be sick
I remember seeing people mod the iPhone 4 to replace the glass back with a nice wood back.
Metal and wood can’t be a worse idea than glass. Grippy too. Although without the right treatment it can get gross I guess.
Shhh then it has more planned obsolescence under a veil of greenwash for being biodegradable.
wingsfortheirsmilesI 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.
BagginsI never thought they couldn’t. Glass phones were an absolutely ridiculous idea.
ThyTTYIt’s time to stop thinking a phone should be premium
True, too many people treat phones like a status symbol or fast fashion instead of a tool that should be maintained and used for many years.
It’s time to stop thinking a phone should be premium
too many people treat phones like a status symbol
Honestly just be glad you’re not among those misguided and move on.
Good philosophy. I’ve found that I’m much happier on the internet since I stopped being bothered about other people being “wrong”. I cannot save the world, but if I can help out a few people then that’s enough.
A tool can also be premium, and there is definitely a difference between an average phone and a premium phone.
The problem is all the nonsense about the premium FEEL, it’s not a feature when it degrades durability, or requires a cover that removes that premium feel anyway. Glass covers are also more slippery, making it more likely to drop out of a pocket or hand bag or even your hands.
Glass is detrimental in every way for usability, just the extra weight of it, makes drops more likely to cause damage. All the reviewers that push “The Premium Feel” without consideration to the downsides, like being slippery, adding weight, being more fragile and making the phone slightly more bulky, should be banned from making reviews.
The problem is all the nonsense about the premium FEEL, it’s not a feature when it degrades durability, or requires a cover that removes that premium feel anyway. Glass covers are also more slippery, making it more likely to drop out of a pocket or hand bag or even your hands.
Glass is detrimental in every way for usability, just the extra weight of it, makes drops more likely to cause damage. All the reviewers that push “The Premium Feel” without consideration to the downsides, like being slippery, adding weight, being more fragile and making the phone slightly more bulky, should be banned from making reviews.
Yes, I completely agree on the complicity of reviewers parroting the same PR buzzwords in every single review. It definitely feels like they have played their part in normalising many of these objectively bad and anti-consumer design decisions.
☂️-pandering to reviewers who use the phones for a couple of days imstead of actual consumers who want to use it for a few years is probably the stupidest thing they do in this industry
Absolutely, but I think they feel they have to, to get good reviews.
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?
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! | Prices | Adult Swim UK
Sounds like you’ve never had something nice.
heartfelthumburgerLoved my Nokia Lumia phone back in the day. Plastic body and glass screen. Solid af.
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
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.
It’s not funny, it’s moronic. But I guess that’s kind of what you meant. 😋
caseyweedermanFunny as in sad
EarMasterI 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…
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.
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.
Noble ShiftWhen’s the last time anybody got excited about a new phone?
You don’t like paying for a phone that’s the price of a mortgage payment, while having features removed every year?
You know, now that you mention it, I’ll take two.
lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)When I switched from shitty LCD to nice AMOLED screen. It was Galaxy S3 I think.
Then, meh, I don’t like phones without the bezels.
I wish thicker bezels were more common tbh. It’s annoying to swipe from the side of the screen when my case is in the way.
The first Android phones were really exciting. I got a Samsung Galaxy (no numbers, no letters, just Galaxy) in 2009. AMOLED screen - the first Android experience for me. Unfortunately Samsung dropped the update support really soon - which got me into custom ROMs - another exciting thing…
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 fall without a single damage, and I had to swap the protector one in all these years I have it.
Premium phones make little sense, based on what I've seen everyone puts them in plastic 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?
Stop making sense!!!
MintyFreshBurn the witch!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
LunaFINALLY 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.
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.
Very cute phone!
“Glass is glass, and glass breaks” I want a metal back phone. I don’t care about wireless charging.
- 8GB ram
- 250 GB memory
- ">6000 mah" battery. Thickness doesn’t matter.
- Fast charging
- 120hz display
Can anyone suggest me an Android that has all these?
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.
isyasadI 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 may have found a phone for you. It’s called the unihertz tank 2 12gb ram 256GB memory 15500 mah battery 60W charging 120hz display
