What is the most durable affordable android right now?

[AC Question]

My wife has had two Samsungs, Galaxy 2 and 3. They were decently fast but are distressingly fragile. The USB charge port just died. I have the wireless induction charger on order to boost the life of the phone some nut doubtless something else will break. She's hard on the phone like kids are hard on toys but even people I know who baby their phones have dead ports, failing buttons and other nonsense. I had plenty of problems with my last iPhone. Currently on a moto X and it's not had issues beyond software glitches so far.

So, we are exploring options. She isn't a power user, isn't a gamer. I know android gets put on some really awful hardware so I would like a unit that won't feel like slow torture to use but it certainly doesn't have to be the latest hotness.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! The problem is that the Android phones that are designed for durability tend to be less powerful overall. I'm thinking of the Casio G'Zone Commando (one of the worst names ever) and some of the phones by Kyocera (DuraForce and Hydro come to mind). You may be better off getting a good phone and protecting it with a good case, like something from Otterbox.

If you're concerned mostly with build quality, then it can be hard to make generalizations. Your experience with Samsung might be related to the staggeringly high volume of phones they manufacture, which presumably leads to a higher absolute number of defective units (although the relative failure rate is probably still pretty low). Motorola used to have a reputation of making solid, tank-like phones--but now we have the Nexus 6 with its peeling back. I don't know much about the defect rate for LG, HTC, and Sony in general, but based on forum posts, none of them particularly stand out in terms of problems.