What's under the Glass?

[MachtSchnell]

Glass backs and non field replaceable batteries are dysfunctional.

iPhone fashion is not progress.

 

[Mike Dee]

A glass back looks and feels good, but can it take a hit? can it survive a fall from a standing height into a concrete sidewalk without damage to the back or the screen? I am a firm believer of durable cases that both protect the phone and give it a better grip. Now if the glass had solar receptacles embedded or beneath it that would help the phone recharge itself . If you are going to use glass then why not make it useful and not just pretty?

I'm not even sure it looks and feels good. It's a print magnet and since it would be foolish not to case it, looks are a non-event.

 

[methodman89]

If I owned a cell phone company, I would love to sell a 700 plus product that is made of glass, and is a phone, which gets knocked around and dropped.
I'm sure they did studies of how often people drop their phones, along with statistics of people replacing phones due to drops. How to increase the profit in that? Make the back glass like the front, now it doesn't matter which side lands down.
It is nothing more than a modern twist on planned obsolescence. There are high quality plastics that work fine with qi charging. Notice also these all glass phones appearing at the same time as people are starting to keep phones longer every year.

 

[LeoRex]

I often long for the feel of my old Nexus 5. The soft touch black plastic chassis felt great in hand. I could lay it in my palm and go near vertical and it wouldn't slide off. And it was tough as nails. It once popped out of my shirt pocket as was walking and launched off my foot as it was coming forward, sliding back down across a good 10/15 feet at a Target... The only 'damage' was the corner was separated sightly but snapped back together... No scratches, no cracks.

It was the last phone I owned that I never put in a case and I never felt the need to get one. When I turned it in after a year, it looked almost new (had a glass screen protector on it). Now, when I get a case for my phones, I go with a low profile case that feels as close to that Nexus 5 as I can find... Have yet to find an exact match though.

I just don't see the point of 'premium materials' when most everyone takes that premium material and slaps it in a $15 plastic case. But it is what it is.

 

[Mike Dee]

If I owned a cell phone company, I would love to sell a 700 plus product that is made of glass, and is a phone, which gets knocked around and dropped.
I'm sure they did studies of how often people drop their phones, along with statistics of people replacing phones due to drops. How to increase the profit in that? Make the back glass like the front, now it doesn't matter which side lands down.
It is nothing more than a modern twist on planned obsolescence. There are high quality plastics that work fine with qi charging. Notice also these all glass phones appearing at the same time as people are starting to keep phones longer every year.

Makes an easy sell of insurance too.

 

[chanchan05]

If I owned a cell phone company, I would love to sell a 700 plus product that is made of glass, and is a phone, which gets knocked around and dropped.
I'm sure they did studies of how often people drop their phones, along with statistics of people replacing phones due to drops. How to increase the profit in that? Make the back glass like the front, now it doesn't matter which side lands down.
It is nothing more than a modern twist on planned obsolescence. There are high quality plastics that work fine with qi charging. Notice also these all glass phones appearing at the same time as people are starting to keep phones longer every year.

High quality plastics are more expensive than Glass AFAIK. So it also keeps down prices for the company. Honestly I blame the iPhone reviewers for this. I mean until before the iPhone 4, people were fine with plastics. Then iPhone came out with the glass back, and people were like woah it feels so good. Then reviewers started bashing other companies for selling similarly priced items but plastic.

Samsung was the last holdout for the plastic on high end phones, and you know what made them change? The S5 sold 40% less than the S4, and smartphone shares dropped from 33% to 25%. That's huge. The change to the S6 design to glass (can't use metal since we have wireless charging) stabilized sales and by the time the S8 came around, it was up again. Of course we know that iPhone and Samsung are the leaders in design and everybody else just follows either around, so everybody else decided to go with glass too if they want wireless charging, and metal if not.

It got to the point that even mid rangers were criticized for having plastic backs. The only devices I can give fault for using glass backs are ones without wireless charge (Tab S4 cough and there was one Huawei I can't remember). What's the point? Make it metal if there's no Qi.

My favorite phone back was the faux leather back on the Note 4 though and some of the Tabs on that generation

 

[methodman89]

I'd like my s5s user changeable battery back.
If they cared about high end and durability, we'd have carbon fiber backs. Marketing wise, it's high quality and high tech. But then it goes to the point that even though Samsung held out, they're more than happy charging up the wazoo for a piece of glass on the back of a phone, which almost everyone I know, including myself, put a case on. Smh. Planned obselence through user droppage frequency statistics.

 

[chanchan05]

I'd like my s5s user changeable battery back.
If they cared about high end and durability, we'd have carbon fiber backs. Marketing wise, it's high quality and high tech. But then it goes to the point that even though Samsung held out, they're more than happy charging up the wazoo for a piece of glass on the back of a phone, which almost everyone I know, including myself, put a case on. Smh. Planned obselence through user droppage frequency statistics.

Of course they'll use glass once they realize it's cheaper than carbon fiber but they can charge the same price. I mean, seriously. That's a no brainer from a seller standpoint. Why spend more on carbon fiber when I can spend less on glass and make bigger profit both in short term and long term?

Maybe if the S6 design wasn't so well received, we'd have carbon fiber phones, considering that Samsung does own a carbon composites manufacturing facility, one of their products being carbon nanotubes used for carbon fiber. But it won phone of the year and everybody else followed suit, further pushing back the possibility of carbon fiber phones for at least another 6 years or so.

Maybe the foldable Galaxy will have a carbon fiber back. I mean glass backs don't really fold.

 

[methodman89]

The G10 Plus supposedly will have an 'unbreakable' screen. No mention of the back material The demo looked good, but we will see.

 

[chanchan05]

The G10 Plus supposedly will have an 'unbreakable' screen. No mention of the back material The demo looked good, but we will see.

Motorola already has the unbreakable Shattershield screen. It's supposed to be unbreakable because it's a plastic screen. Scratches like crazy though so it's part of the idea why they use a completely flat screen and their devices come with screen protectors in the box.

Probably some variant of the this tech?

EDIT:
https://www.businessinsider.com/sam...eens-for-future-smartphones-wont-crack-2018-7

Looks like it is plastic. They claim to have treated the plastic to look and feel like glass, but from what we've seen with Shattershield, it looks like we have to choose between scratch resistance and shatter resistance.

 

[methodman89]

Motorola already has the unbreakable Shattershield screen. It's supposed to be unbreakable because it's a plastic screen. Scratches like crazy though so it's part of the idea why they use a completely flat screen and their devices come with screen protectors in the box.

Probably some variant of the this tech?

EDIT:
https://www.businessinsider.com/sam...eens-for-future-smartphones-wont-crack-2018-7

Looks like it is plastic. They claim to have treated the plastic to look and feel like glass, but from what we've seen with Shattershield, it looks like we have to choose between scratch resistance and shatter resistance.

Was hoping you would find it. When the folding S comes out, it's been expected to have a plastic, bendible, and now nearly unbreakable in consumer use, screen.. This is part of that evolution.
I'm watching YouTube on a plastic curved Samsung TV, and realize glass feel and experience from years ago is not as good as televisions today. Nor as large, light in weight, and less power consumption.
I would hope if they put it on a flagship device, it will be hard to differentiate from smooth glass, but I'm sure plenty of people will not buy it and I don't care. I want a folding smart phone, and glass will never be able to fold enough to do it.