It feels so much better without a case.

[Mike Dee]

They did and customers already chose - they prefer glass/metal phones.

I'm not so sure the customers chose. The OEMs had to go the route they did to offered wireless charging and water resistance while keeping a thin form factor and costs down.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

I'm not so sure the customers chose. The OEMs had to go the route they did to offered wireless charging and water resistance while keeping a thin form factor and costs down.

Didn't have to move to glass to do that. Can make a plastic phone that has wireless charging and is water resistant, and plastic would keep costs down further than glass would. Absolutely didn't have to go to glass to achieve that.

Glass won out because it feels better, looks better and has the perception of being premium. Consumers overwhelmingly purchased phones with glass materials over phones with plastic builds.

 

[TraderGary]

What people don't understand is that there are all grades of plastic. The word "plastic" has been made synonymous with "cheap". In actuality NASA developed very high grades of plastic to use in the space program. ABS plastic is one of the highest grades and is used in space applications because it is stronger and lighter than metal and impervious to ultraviolet rays. ABS plastic is used for durability in piano hammers. And of course high grade plastic has been used for phones. Unfortunately for people today the word plastic means "not premium".

 

[Mike Dee]

Didn't have to move to glass to do that. Can make a plastic phone that has wireless charging and is water resistant, and plastic would keep costs down further than glass would. Absolutely didn't have to go to glass to achieve that.

Glass won out because it feels better, looks better and has the perception of being premium. Consumers overwhelmingly purchased phones with glass materials over phones with plastic builds.

That's your opinion but I'm not buying it unless you have empirical data to back it up.

First off, I believe the industry was driven by playing follow the leader is a more realistic reason. Also I was referring to higher costs because the post in which ypu responded to about a plastic phone a removable battery was included in the discussion. It costs more to add water resistance with a removable back. The industry also went in the direction of glass phoned because of planned obsolescence. Making a phone more durable and with a replaceable battery would result in the average consumers holding onto phones much longer and resulting in less sales. I don't believe for one minute that it was all about pretty phones with a "premium feel". Ridiculous term by the way

 

[Mike Dee]

What people don't understand is that there are all grades of plastic. The word "plastic" has been made synonymous with "cheap". In actuality NASA developed very high grades of plastic to use in the space program. ABS plastic is one of the highest grades and is used in space applications because it is stronger and lighter than metal and impervious to ultraviolet rays. ABS plastic is used for durability in piano hammers. And of course high grade plastic has been used for phones. Unfortunately for people today the word plastic means "not premium".

The notion that glass is premium is absurd. It may look nice but it's utterly diabolical that the industry has gotten the average consumer to buy into it. As P.T. Barnum was known to say, "there's a sucker born every minute".

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

That's your opinion but I'm not buying it unless you have empirical data to back it up.

First off, I believe the industry was driven by playing follow the leader is a more realistic reason. Also I was referring to higher costs because the post in which ypu responded to about a plastic phone a removable battery was included in the discussion. It costs more to add water resistance with a removable back. The industry also went in the direction of glass phoned because of planned obsolescence. Making a phone more durable and with a replaceable battery would result in the average consumers holding onto phones much longer and resulting in less sales. I don't believe for one minute that it was all about pretty phones with a "premium feel". Ridiculous term by the way

I don't buy your planned obsolescence argument at all unless you have empirical data to back it up - we can both play that game.

And yes consumers absolutely chose glass. If they didn't, then phones with glass backs wouldn't have sold well. Looks like the market leaders use glass back phones, consumers are happy with them and so they've purchased them. If plastic or metal or whatever other material were so important, consumers would be buying phones with those materials and reject ones that don't.

Premium feel isn't a ridiculous term at all. Android Central has used it to described the feel of a phone in the hand: https://m.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review

Quick search managed to find the AC Galaxy S7 review where they talk about the materials and and the feel in the hand - describing them as premium.

You may not like the term, but it's a legitimate term that has merit.

The notion that glass is premium is absurd. It may look nice but it's utterly diabolical that the industry has gotten the average consumer to buy into it. As P.T. Barnum was known to say, "there's a sucker born every minute".

Well I guess you disagree with Android Central about the Galaxy "All in all, it's a really good feeling in the hand. "Premium," even."

That's fine, you can disagree with whatever you want, but the notion that glass isn't premium is something I'd say is absurd.

What I don't find premium is metal pained with a thick plastic feeling coating, so much so that it no longer feels like metal at all.

 

[Mike Dee]

I don't buy your planned obsolescence argument at all unless you have empirical data to back it up - we can both play that game.

And yes consumers absolutely chose glass. If they didn't, then phones with glass backs wouldn't have sold well. Looks like the market leaders use glass back phones, consumers are happy with them and so they've purchased them. If plastic or metal or whatever other material were so important, consumers would be buying phones with those materials and reject ones that don't.

Premium feel isn't a ridiculous term at all. Android Central has used it to described the feel of a phone in the hand: https://m.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review

Quick search managed to find the AC Galaxy S7 review where they talk about the materials and and the feel in the hand - describing them as premium.

You may not like the term, but it's a legitimate term that has merit.



Well I guess you disagree with Android Central about the Galaxy "All in all, it's a really good feeling in the hand. "Premium," even."

That's fine, you can disagree with whatever you want, but the notion that glass isn't premium is something I'd say is absurd.

What I don't find premium is metal pained with a thick plastic feeling coating, so much so that it no longer feels like metal at all.

I don't need evidence to back up my statements because I state mine as my opinion. If you presented your statements as opinions it would be a different story.

Let's leave it that... we have different opinions.

 

[PaulQ]

I had plastic phones. I put a case on them. Which produces a plastic back.

Now I have glass backed phones. I put a case on them. Which produces a plastic back.

I appreciate the water resistance of the sealed design.

In the removable battery days, I do think I brought some extra batteries on an international trip but I was uncomfortable with carrying thin batteries in my bag. I remember sticking them in plastic bags so the contacts wouldn't touch anything (possibly pointless) and worrying they would snap in half and blow up the plane (possibly neurotic).

For me, an external battery pack is much better because I can use it on other gear as well. I usually have periods where I can let my phone charge from the pack, even fast charge with my more recent phones (Google may have ended that now). Plus the packs are durable, toss in my backpack, run a cord into another pouch - charge on the train/plane/automobile.

As far as "premium feel", we put cases on our phones and never feel or see it again. Unless you're nak... I mean go naked.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

And yes consumers absolutely chose glass. If they didn't, then phones with glass backs wouldn't have sold well. Looks like the market leaders use glass back phones, consumers are happy with them and so they've purchased them. If plastic or metal or whatever other material were so important, consumers would be buying phones with those materials and reject ones that don't.

The consumers never were given the option of two devices that were identical other than build materials. This is a false premise. They chose a combination of feature sets and design decisions that were pre-configured. And that feature set includes many more important things than build materials. And that's for the few that chose at all. Marketing is still a thing, it influences choice. And most people don't choose, given that most people, at least in the US market, which is a huge flagship market, buy whatever device their carrier representative tells them to.

Premium feel isn't a ridiculous term at all. Android Central has used it to described the feel of a phone in the hand: https://m.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review

It is a ridiculous term because it is ill-defined and somewhat based on erroneous circular logic. The tech blogs decided that glass felt premium and then started describing glass phones as premium. It "feels premium" because it's made of glass and because those, in this industry, are somehow synonyms.

Also, not sure if you realized this, but Android Central tanked on their editorial review quality over two years ago and cannot be trusted in any way to provide objective analysis regarding the quality of devices or any components therein. There are four major long term editors that have all acknowledged that one camera or display may be more accurate, but choose the other as better. That is dishonest. They have authors writing about Chromebooks that have apparently no idea what ChromeOS is or what the pros/cons of Chromebooks are. That's dishonest.

Phil moved on and Android Central became about selling ads, not about being "the best damned Android site anywhere".

That's fine, you can disagree with whatever you want, but the notion that glass isn't premium is something I'd say is absurd.

Why can't you just say this as, "I like glass phones". There's nothing, at all, objective about stating that glass phones feel premium. It's definitely not a premium material from an economic sense. Some of the best feeling phones, in my opinion, had soft touch plastic backs - while two others had leather instead. It isn't absurd for you to like glass and for someone else to like plastic and for someone else to like metal.

It is absurd to throw all this subjective garbage out there and state is as fact, based on the sales volumes of devices that were going to sell tens of millions of devices no matter what they did. Example, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6 Edge, iPhone 5c, iPhone X - no matter what Samsung and Apple did right or wrong with these devices, they are going to move units.

As an example, the S6 Edge was one of the worst devices of 2015 (software issues, poor battery life, resource management, major connectivity issues with WiFi, low signal strength (ironic given that's one of the main benefits of glass), fingerprint scanner issues, false touches on the edge, display not registering touches, lag, reboots, overheating, etc, etc), yet it outsold every other Android flagship, including the regular S6 - which was a better device, if only because it lost the "edge" problems. The S7 and S7 Edge fixed a lot of those issues. Yet, the Galaxy S4 outsold the S7 by 45.5% - does that mean the S4 was a better phone? Does that mean that the S4 had more premium materials?

See why sales volume doesn't equate to quality of device?

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

As far as "premium feel", we put cases on our phones and never feel or see it again.

True for a huge number of people.

 

[mustang7757]

I'll say it glass phones feel premium, brings out the beauty in the color of the device.

 

[J Dubbs]

Wish phones were more durable without a case and screen protector having to be added...

I was in the store today and a younger lady that had no case on her LG all glass phone, just one of those "handles" stuck on the back, dropped it right next to me... and the phone exploded. I've never seen a phone self destruct so easily. I suspect the companies are purposely making them more breakable to try and keep sales up....as well as making batteries with shorter lifespans. My wife has an original Kindle that's a million years old and gets the hell abused out of the battery and it still holds a great charge.... along with all three of the others in the household of varying ages, none of which cost over 50 bucks. And the million year old Kindle was also in a multiple roll over wreck.....flew out of the car and was found way down the road..... and still works great. And all it had for protection was a magnetic closing folio style case. That's a 7 inch tablet which was originally $39 if I recall correctly. I wonder if any modern tablet size $1000-$1500 smartphone could match that kind of battery life and toughness? Well we know they couldn't hang battery-wise lol..... and I seriously doubt the toughness part as well ;-)

Things that make you go hmmm........

 

[Mike Dee]

I was in the store today and a younger lady that had no case on her LG all glass phone, just one of those "handles" stuck on the back, dropped it right next to me... and the phone exploded. I've never seen a phone self destruct so easily. I suspect the companies are purposely making them more breakable to try and keep sales up....as well as making batteries with shorter lifespans. My wife has an original Kindle that's a million years old and gets the hell abused out of the battery and it still holds a great charge.... along with all three of the others in the household of varying ages, none of which cost over 50 bucks. And the million year old Kindle was also in a multiple roll over wreck.....flew out of the car and was found way down the road..... and still works great. And all it had for protection was a magnetic closing folio style case. That's a 7 inch tablet which was originally $39 if I recall correctly. I wonder if any modern tablet size $1000-$1500 smartphone could match that kind of battery life and toughness? Well we know they couldn't hang battery-wise lol..... and I seriously doubt the toughness part as well ;-)

Things that make you go hmmm........

It's sad actually. They should go with Corelle or ceramic backs.

 

[mustang7757]

+1 ceramic

 

[Mike Dee]

+1 ceramic

I actually like the Kevlar backed Droids

 

[mustang7757]

I actually like the Kevlar backed Droids

That's a good one I hear never had a chance to see one in person

 

[Mike Dee]

That's a good one I hear never had a chance to see one in person

Theres a company that makes cases out of the same material

 

[mustang7757]

Theres a company that makes cases out of the same material

Which ?

 

[Mike Dee]

Which ?

https://www.ipitaka.com

They make a very thin one but it doesn't protect the entire phone. They also make one that offers more protection but adds bulk. Not cheap though

 

[chezm]

I got a decent tpu case from Amazon for $10 Cdn, but went back to the fabric case...it just feels so good and looks awesome