My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive, and then it slips out when I get out of the car. But no problem on my previous phones, despite the Moto had cheap Panda glass front.
Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January, and I loved the phone for the camera and good specs. But alas after only 4 months, and single drop of just 30 cm while sitting on the porch, the glass back immediately cracked! The back now looks like an ugly mess, and the high water resistance is very likely gone too.
For sure the last time I buy a phone with a glass back!!!
I wonder why glass back is so popular, and I curse the media for reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S2 as “feeling a bit cheap”, because the back was synthetic, and drop tests showed it was 10 times as durable as the iPhone with its glass back.
Samsung did it right in the beginning, glass backs are a curse.
PS: I don’t use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it’s an obvious design flaw!!!
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it’s fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
I am not clumsy, that’s why I believe the phone should be able to last without cover. This was the first time the phone slid out of my packet, and I’ve NEVER dropped it out of my hands. One 30 cm slip and it’s broken. Where for instance my Moto had maybe 4-6 in all over the years, and remained unscathed, apart from some tiny scratches.
The sliding out of pocket does occur maybe a couple of times per year, but it’s a low drop, and the phone should absolutely be able to handle that tiny drop, as it’s an item for everyday use.
I’ve also never had problems with scratches on my screen on any phone, which is the reason people use screen protectors I guess, which I don’t either, because they are ugly, for instance they create a tiny ring around the camera, and they feel awful IMO, my phone came with it, and it took exactly 10 seconds for me to decide to remove it, because I could feel the edge of the screen protector when using the phone.
But please stop with the dropping my phone regularly comments! Just because I dropped my Moto a few times (slid out of pocket) over almost 4 years! Always from low height, which it should be able to handle a few times.
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Yeah, you have to either buy a case or buy a ruggedized phone. The sexy glass ones are just to look good in ads and in stores.
Yes I agree, and I added this to my post:
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it’s fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?I wouldn’t say it’s a flaw, but an intentional decision. They expect you to buy a case aftermarket.
Is it shitty? Maybe. But people also like being able to choose a personalized case, which you can’t get with a ruggedized phone. If you don’t care about that, I’d look at ruggedized phones like what Cat makes: https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-smartphone/
How about a nice aluminum frame with a plastic back? You can still use your personalized case with them but they aren’t really needed if you don’t want one. This was pretty much the whole industry until 2015-2016
My Moto held brilliantly without being ruggedized and without a case. And that’s despite it is big 6.8" screen and relatively heavy with 220 grams.
I’d say it’s absolutely a flaw, to chose a material that is way way worse and yet more expensive.
As I write in my post, with a case, there is zero advantage to the glass back, and you don’t get any premium feel from it.
Makes phone feel slippery too, which make some feel like it’ll pop out of my hands.
Yes, usually plastic backs have texture, that actually make them quite comfortable to hold IMO. Also the texture can be made so it looks very cool.
Also plastic backs aren’t usually just cheap plastics, they are high quality synthetic materials.
Plastic backs are also both thinner and lighter. Which all in all makes it the way superior material even over aluminium.
Glass backs are the dumbest idea in the history of stupid.
The only way things like that could be defensible if they were easy to replace (bring back Moto-Z style magnetic backs!), but since phones are all held together with glue now, that’s not a thing.
I think my Samsung Galaxy S10 did it right. Glass back for the feel, attached to a removable and replaceable plastic back panel.
Wow I didn’t know that, I agree that sounds like a great idea.
Wireless charging is really good though…
A glass back is not necessary for wireless charging. There’s many materials that can fit there, the glass choice is purely for “premium” feel.
Premium, aka so slippery it immediately goes in a case.
There is nothing premium about glass, that’s marketing lying to you. It’s designed to break easily being smooth and fragile, to make the phones more disposable.
Totally agree.
Oh okay. Well that is neat then.
It’s great for stuff like car phone holders. It sucks for basically every other use case. In particular, it means you can’t easily pick up, use, and put down your phone and maintain charging.
I have one of those slanted chargers for desktop use, so while I’m at my desk, I just set it there (bonus that the screen is kept visible in case of a call or message)
It’s reasonable to use it while it’s charging on the stand, though I wouldn’t enjoy doing anything landscape (it will still charge it’s just very precise)
Definitely cannot deny the utility of a regular power cable if you are in bed or something and you really want to use it while charging.
In particular, it means you can’t easily pick up, use, and put down your phone and maintain charging.
I strongly disagree. While you can’t “maintain charging”, it’s extremely easy to change from charging to using and back again. If you want to use your phone while charging, wireless charging doesn’t make sense, but if you want to quickly use your phone (like sending a quick text), it’s nicer than having a cable attached.
And probably stiffness. Aluminum would both scratch more easily than glass and bend/dent more easily
Yes glass doesn’t bend or dent because it shatters. I had a Note 4 with an aluminum frame and never needed a case. I used it for 5 years before upgrading and still own it (it still works). The aluminum frame and plastic back are by far the most durable combination I’ve used thus far and it survived many drops hard enough to leave small gouges in the aluminum.
Now I have a thick ass case on my modern phone because it probably wouldn’t even survive a fall onto the carpet without some protection which is a huge downgrade in my opinion.
Anecdotally, I used to have an aluminum and plastic phone (HTC Evo) with no case. I didn’t abuse it, but one of the few times I dropped it, the screen shattered. Since then I’ve had other phones, most with glass backs, and all have had rubber-edged cases. No screen shatters (though the back of one of them did crack). And I’ve definitely been less gentle with them.
Glass backs are popular because it makes assembly easier, because if the front and back are made from the same material, then they would have the same thermal expansion coefficient, which means that you can get a less variable fit between the front and the back.
It is for the benefit of the manufacturer and not the customer.
It’s also partly because phones now require 60,000 antennae and radio waves don’t go through metal. Wireless charging, NFC, wifi (x2), bluetooth, cellular (x4), UWB… There’s some ability to reuse the antennas via TDM and other tricks but they just “need” so many these days. Also also, plastic is kinda evil from a pollution standpoint, although one could also argue that it could just be recycled with the rest of the phone.
Oh, I thought it was so that the phone would feel more premium!
That’s just marketing, since everyone put their phone in a big case immediately anyway.
it makes assembly easier,
Easier than plastic?
Waterproofing requirements makes everything harder, because there can’t be any gaps between the screen and the back.
It’s like we can’t have good phones. If you want Headphone Jack, SD card, Message LED, and synthetic back, you can’t get a phone with good camera, GPU and water resistance at the same time.
Why are phone makers so hostile to their own users?
Because if they give you everything you want, you’ll fix it and update it and you won’t buy another phone for like 8, maybe even 10 years. And that would destroy their short-term profits, which would obviously be disastrous. No, it wouldn’t kill the company or even require a single employee to be laid off, but the profits though 🥺
Google will stop supporting the android distro long before you have had it for ten years
Motorola is doing a lot of what you are looking for. And they’re a lot cheaper than the competition
Yes I really liked my Motorola phone, but I wanted a better camera, and now Motorola uses those IMO shitty curved screens except on a few cheaper models.
The Sony Xperia phones offer IP68 with an SD card slot and a 3.5mm port. They just have poor software support and cost a shit ton.
The newer Sony phones have improved software support of 3 OS & 4 years of security updates.
That’s good then. Still kind of low, but not terrible like before.
And it isn’t like the materials are the problem either. If they can make water resistant phone with glass they sure should be able to do it with plastic, right? But nope.
Well we would have premium metal back phones, but metal backs interfere with the other gimmick “wireless” charging
Metal often being Aluminum is also great for cooling, and my phone doesn’t even have wireless charging! It’s kind of a “budget” flagship, so some corners were cut. Now one of the corners is a bit smashed too. 😜
The Galaxy S5 had flagship specs, SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, IP67 water resistance, and a removable battery via a durable polycarbonate (plastic) back cover, back in 2014, a whole decade ago.
It was roasted by reviewers for being made out of “non premium” materials.
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro has all of those things plus a removable battery and can take a serious beating. I used to throw the phone almost daily to demonstrate it’s durability. The sides got dents and gouges, but I never once had a crack in the screen. The newer Xcover 6 Pro has all of the same features as well as an iPhone 12 quality camera.
I managed to kill one after breaking the charging port (ironically not related to years of repeatedly being thrown at concrete) and got a Unihertz Titan. Its basically an oversized modern Blackberry 8830 and has the same durability, battery life, and a physical keyboard. No removable battery unfortunately and the camera sucks though.
Never heard of the Samsung Xcover 6 Pro, that looks very interesting. But I don’t think it’s a match to the Xiaomi 13T Pro spec wise.
I wonder why glass back is so popular (…) How is glass back not a design flaw?
Because Steve Jobs. Seriously, many stupid “but it’s pretty”, as well as several anti consumer decisions (hard to repair, glued parts), can be traced back to Apple and Steve Jobs. Couple that with every fucking manufacturer wanting to emulate Apple, especially Chinese ones, and everything in the smartphone world makes sense.
Glass backs were already popular on Android phones when Apple started using them. Previously they used metal backs, but they aren’t compatible with wireless charging so manufacturers have to choose between plastic and glass — guess which one is more popular with reviewers?
Glass back is a premium design feature because it breaks easily, and customers who buy premium phones are expected to be rich enough to just buy another phone.
It’s a profit making feature.
Much like luxury cars, nobody actually expects BMW or Mercedes to last more than 3 years. People who buy them are expected to trade up for the latest model every few years.
Same with luxury fashion. Absolutely some of the cheapest and fragile clothing I’ve ever seen come from big fashion brands. And nobody cares, because by the time they break, they’re out of style and the buyer will be updating their wardrobe anyways.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, expensive luxury items = cheap and breakable. Midrange products are where the customers tend to be concerned with longevity and value.
I hate this so much.
I wonder why glass back is so popular,
They are being hyped up by marketing because people easily fall for it. Even you:
Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January
It works the same as with cigarettes: people think it’s cool. Most don’t care about the rest. Easy money for the suppliers.
Good for you for calling them out on their bullshit. Anyone else with a history of dropping their phones from their pockets (and yet buying a flashy glass back (and refusing to protect it with a case (and referring to it as a condom))) will benefit from reading about your awakening and they might go for something different.
Just remember, if you fell for this one, you might fall for another marketing gimmick unless you pay more attention.
Even you:
No I didn’t fall for it, it was absolutely on the negative list, and I’ve avoided glass backs on all my previous phones, but this time I couldn’t, without making heavy compromises in other areas.
Except for the Vegan leather, which is almost guaranteed to become ugly within a year. So I bet on the glass as the lesser of 2 evils.Good for you for calling them out on their bullshit.
Thanks, I’ve actually done that since 2011.
Just remember, if you fell for this one, you might fall for another marketing gimmick unless you pay more attention.
I didn’t fall for it, it was the least bad option I thought, because otherwise I’d have to compromise on other things.
I feel you. It’s not practical to buy a phone that doesn’t have some aspects that I hate (like a notch or punch hole, glass back, or an absurd overabundance of cameras).
Same deal with small phones. There hasn’t been a viable option in close to a decade. So yeah, I’ve bought some stupidly large phones. What’s the alternative? A “compact” phone that’s still too big to comfortably use one-handed? Not much of a choice.
Reminds me of the tiny or non-existent pockets that are so common in women’s clothing. Yes, there are some options, but they are few and far between, and it’s not like pocket size is the one and only priority.
Just get a case
If you’ve got a glass phone without a case or insurance then you kinda running this risk.
I hate insurance, but on a phone I’ll take AppleCare. Once it’s getting towards the end I purposely wreck the phone off a wall and get brand new (refurbished to new standard) one. Then I sell that and upgrade again.
If you’ve got a glass phone without a case or insurance then you kinda running this risk.
Yes I know, but I’ve never had any problems at all, I’ve never dropped the phone out of my hands, so I considered the risk to be very low. I must admit I’m shocked the phone cracked from such a minor drop.
Once it’s getting towards the end I purposely wreck the phone off a wall and get brand new
That’s fraud.
Edit PS.
Note this is the only time I’ve dropped this phone. When I mention it happens, it’s maybe a couple of times in a year, I’ve never really dropped my phone while holding it, it’s always slipped out of my pocket, it’s happened when I drive, I think it’s first time ever it happened on the terace.
That’s fraud.
Oh no big corpo lost some bucks whatever shall we do !!
I think it is more about creating even more e-waste by deliberately destroying a working phone.
Oh yeah that’s fair .
You literally mentioned dropping the phone occasionally in your post, now you’re claiming to never have done that?
Read again, I write I’ve never dropped it out of my hands, meaning I’ve never dropped it more than about the 30 cm, because it’s always from my pocket while sitting down.
Always may sound like it something that happens frequently, but it’s not, it’s maybe 1 or 2 times per year, but over many years with smartphones, a trend still appear.
Lol “I regularly drop my phone. I knowingly bought a fragile phone for $800 even though there are alternatives and i also refuse to use drop protection on this expensive device. Now i dropped it which is my fault and it broke the glas back which has no functionality and i can still use it. But for me it’s totally destroyed and i blame the manufacturer for this”
Wow, blame the user for manufacturing decisions. Give me an example of alternative with quality camera, wireless charging, water resistance, …
I laughed at Apple (BTW Samsung too) for the aweful cutoff at the top of the screen, for the lack of headphone jack, SD card reader. Now it’s impossible to find powerful phone with these things. So please don’t blame users for stupid corporate decisions.
Also broken glass back compromises water resistance and could be safety hazard if the shards fall of.Here is an alternative:
The same phone but with a cover and a tempered glass protector
And the apple fanboys appear. Let’s blame the consumer for what is a design flaw …
Wow way to misrepresent what I wrote. No I don’t “regularly” drop my phone, But it happens, and when it does it has ALWAYS been from a sitting position sliding out of my pants pocket, making the drop only about 30-45 cm. Most drop tests are done at 1m, and since the damage is exponential to the height, a drop of 30 cm maybe 3 or 4 times in the lifespan of the phone shouldn’t be a problem.
But thanks for the strawman argument.
Your phone isn’t broken. It still works fine. So you have more than 4 months of durability on your phone
Just put some tape over the broken glass, or put it in a case. And the phone is 100% functional
Yes for now I haven’t noticed any problems with functionality, but that doesn’t change the phone absolutely is broken, It’s ugly now IMO, and the water resistance is compromised, and the body of the phone is compromised so now protection is 100% necessary.
Your totally correct, but you also have been throwing around a piece of glass and are surprised it broke eventually… its to be expected.
Not ordinary glass, glass that is hyped for its durability.
What do you want me to tell you that you weren’t responsible? Sure okay. It’s the company’s fault you refuse to use a case on the thing you knew was going to break.
Is the glass on the back of the case more durable than normal glass? Yes absolutely. It survived several falls as you told us. Is it infinitely durable? No as you have also demonstrated
I.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0SItAzEXg
And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCenbmcF2Qc
Can you get lucky when you drop your phone? Yes. You can also get unlucky. There might be a tiny pebble that focuses all the force of the drop on a single point which causes it to shatter. There could have been stress already incumbent in the phone that gets released through thermal expansion or thermal contraction. There’s a lot of variables. That’s why we look at the probabilities and decide oh this is needless in for fashion, we don’t want it.
it survived several falls as you told us.
No the other falls were other phones, that all did fine, and they did not have glass backs. It’s the first time I drop this phone, it’s not something I do regularly as some seem to have misinterpreted what I write as.
I don’t know why people get the idea I run around and drop my phones all the time, and they all somehow endure except this one???
Because you did that whole bit about how you don’t use a case. That makes you cavalier. That makes you responsible
If you said I don’t use a case because I’m not clumsy and I won’t drop my phone. Fair enough more power to you. But what you effectively said was I don’t use a case, and now it is somebody else’s fault that I drop my phone and the completely fashionable glass shattered when it got dropped, it’s a design fault. And I agree it is a bad design, but it’s also not unexpected from your perspective. You knew you should have used a case. That’s why you told us you didn’t
No I honestly believe the phone should have been able to withstand a drop of 30 cm. This is the only time this phone has slipped out of my pocket, I have never actually dropped it from my hands.
A one time drop of 30 cm, and the phone is broken is 100% a design flaw.
Many people use the case to protect the screen, I have NEVER had problems with scratches on the screen on any phone, including this one.
A few years ago my wife left her caseless Samsung S7 Active on the top of her car & took off with it still up there. Fell off the roof while she was doing highway speeds. She actually managed to back track to find her phone just in time to watch a box truck run straight over it.
It still worked fine. Gained a single scratch.
OK I had to look it up, that phone also has a glass back. That’s impressive, I wish I had been as lucky.
My phone should have better glass than that one, but it broke from little more than looking at it wrong.No it didn’t.
I just watched a review to find out, and that says it did.
Glass backs are dumb. I always use a simple case that can hold my driver’s license and a card. I never use a wallet. I think it’s been at least 20 years since I’ve carried a wallet.
I don’t understand why people do this. Surely if you lose your phone or it is stolen then you are without your phone, ID and bank card?
I’ll take my chances. Good thing is, if I lose my phone, I won’t be able to whine about it on Lemmy.
I’m more likely to lose my wallet than my phone.
Another thing is that now they make “vegan leather” as the new “premium feel”, which of course won’t break like glass, but it still doesn’t have nearly the durability of a decent synthetic/plastic back, which IMO feels great to hold and makes the phone lighter and despite being better it’s cheaper.
With the glass you get extra weight, and with a cover, you get extra bulk and weight on top of that.
It’s drives me nuts how insane this design decision to use glass is! Vegan Leather isn’t that much better, I had the LG G4 with leather back, and it got pretty ugly after a couple of years. But at least that could be easily changed/swapped by the user. And according to every source I can find, vegan leather has lower durability than real leather.Vegan leather is such crap and I say that as a vegan. I DO always put my phone into a full vegan leather wallet case, but I absolutely will go through a case or 3 before I chuck the phone.
I wish they could come up with a more honest term for it than “vegan leather”. Call it “upholstery vinyl” or something. Frustrating how there’s no good standard quality grades for that stuff too. Like, the seats in my Prius don’t wear the way my belt and my boots do, and they’re all made of pleather vinyl.
It’s called vegan because it’s made from mushrooms or plants. The vegan option for my Xiaomi 13T pro is allegedly based on apple peel.
PS: I don’t use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it’s an obvious design flaw!!!
You don’t use a condom because you know you’ll get a girl pregnant, you do it on the slim possibility. There’s always going to be outliers, and refusing to prepare for the possibility because it’s remote is playing with fire. It’s asking for a worst case scenario when the preventative measures are so very easy out of pure arrogant principle.
The only difference here is, you’re born with the tools you have, so you use what you need to make them do what you want. He bought this one specifically with the flaw when others without the flaw are available (though with different specs or price).
I see this post as a rant by someone who didn’t do some research, refused to use what was available to protect the purchase, and is blaming the manufacturer for them buying it.
Doesn’t change the fact that glass back is a design flaw. Yes obviously I should have used a case with this stupid phone, but I didn’t have to with any of my previous phones, 14 years with smartphones with full glass fronts. most of which I’ve had for about 3 years. But they all had plastic/polymer/leather backs. None of them ever broke, because I’m generally careful. If I drop them, it’s from my pants pocket while sitting down, so it’s a low drop, just like it was in this case. Except the phone broke its back because it was made of glass. I have small scratches on my old Motorola for being dropped at the exact same angle, a phone that cost a fourth of my current phone!!!
This is why I always use a case. I think OEMs intentionally use glass backs to make sure more phones break so they can make more money from replacement parts and repairs/replacements.
Yes I suspect so, question is then why the fuck were reviewers so much after the Samsung Galaxy S2 way back in 2011 for having a better polymer back in every way? All tests showed the Galaxy was way more sturdy in drop tests than iPhone, but reviewers scolded it for felling less premium!!!
Already back then it was obvious that using glass was a very bad design choice IMO.Because they didn’t think it through? Plastic is a pretty good choice of material: It doesn’t interfere with radio, it is impact resistant, it’s light, and it’s inexpensive.
They were also easily replaceable back then!
Actually, now that I think about it, Apple started the trend and Samsung copied them, so let’s blame Apple!
IDK, tests showed that Apple phones broke way easier, so I blame reviewers for disregarding that fact when they reviewed phones with both great feel and looks for appearing or feeling cheap.
The only feeling cheap as I see it, was often lower weight. People associate weight with quality, but reviewers really should know better.That’s fair.
