I'm not against plastic either , had few devices with plastic back , one of them being plastic and water resistant my Samsung s5 .
Today's phones won't survive these though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zM6lUpMMHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnk1UYBblq0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYqtDNrLkY
Just a PSA... IP68 certification on a device does not account for (and therefore does not apply when there are) chemicals it other contaminants in the water, such as chlorine, fluoride, or salt water. Those can damage the gaskets and seals which provide the ingress protection.
While you would probably be fine with a submersion in such a few times, I would definitely recommend a similar level of caution as you would exert if your phone had no such rating when taking it to the pool, lake, beach, etc.
As to the 3a, 3a XL, they do not have a rating but I suspect they have some level of ingress protection, regardless of it's lack of an IP rating. Google may have simply abstained from certifying it to keep costs down.
I've never been one to pooh-pooh plastic backs, as long as they have a nice texture that makes the phone less slippery. Glass is slippery and cracks easily, while metal is usually quite slippery as well.
The only caveat is that soft-touch or rubberized plastic can sometimes deteriorate over a few years, where it starts to feel overly sticky.
To be honest I'm actually mad at Samsung for removing the water resistance in the A series. I mean at least being there it might have eventually compelled other manufacturers to have midrange IP rated devices. As of now I think there are none at that price range.
They only did it for like a year. You'd wonder if they kept at it longer maybe we'd have seen 300USD IP68 devices from Google and Huawei.
Best was Droid Ultra Maxx with Kelvar back
I absolutely prefer the plastic back! My phones instantly go into a case and almost never emerge, except for occasional cleanings, so the beauty of the back is irrelevant to me. Note how many glass-backed phones you see in the wild without cases, and then note how many of them are cracked. Nearly 100%. Metal backs are OK, but still I'm going to immediately put my phone into a plastic case, so the beauty or lack thereof of the material doesn't matter to me.
You're right. My phones always live in a case. If I like the back, I get a translucent or even a transparent case. But I still protect it.
Yep, that's the 'case' for most people - at which point the appearance a design done in glass (3) or similarly in plastic (3a) becomes nearly indistiguishable.
The big difference is that it never bothered me to carry a phone with a plastic back without a case, whereas I wouldn't dream of it with a glass-backed
It sucks that most went to glass but you'll hear complaints that plastic doesn't feel premium. It's absurd really.
Part of it likely has to do with the weight of the device when built with heavier materials like glass or metal, with greater heft often being perceived as a an indicator of quality. Maybe they should have taken a page out of Beats Headphones' playbook and put metal plates inside just to give off that perception :-X
Part of it likely has to do with the weight of the device when built with heavier materials like glass or metal, with greater heft often being perceived as a an indicator of quality. Maybe they should have taken a page out of Beats Headphones' playbook and put metal plates inside just to give off that perception :-X
so much of the ‘expensive feel’ is lost when you use a case.
Thing is that most people with metal/glass phones use cases that prevent wireless charging and you can’t feel the metal sides most of the time either, so much of the ‘expensive feel’ is lost when you use a case. The pixel 3a series should feel no different with a case on that more expensive phones.
Doesn’t change the original point I made though, which is much of the expensive feel of the phone is lost as you can rarely feel the metal sides and glass back with most cases.
I'm always hoping for a nice real-leather case that's not wallet/folio style, but they're virtually nonexistent for Android phones. It's always fake leather using TPU or hard plastic.