Premium phones make little sense, based on what I’ve seen everyone puts them in cases anyway. “Premium materials” are slippery and “premium thinness” results in insufficient battery capacity so accessories like phone rings get put on them, and people carry around external battery packs.
Why not just make a grippy, practical phone that I can use as a tool, with removable batteries, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and expandable memory?
Stop making sense!!!
I don’t need the audio jack, but I guess it doesn’t hurt. There are phones that have all that, but unfortunately they are at most mid-range phones which isn’t what I’m looking for.
Because that phone would last and you would only need a new one every 4-5 or however many years instead of 1-2 so capitalist companies won’t see that as having any value.
I think companies know what people want and how to make a great phone like that, just none of them will or want to be the first.
The only thing premium phones have going for them are really good cameras. I love midrange phones but the photos they produce are not as good as flagships.
Burn the witch!
so fairphone?, look it up, it’s a phone maker that do exactly that
Fairphone dropped the 3.5mm jack too :(
“Glass is glass, and glass breaks” I want a metal back phone. I don’t care about wireless charging.
- 8GB ram
- 250 GB memory
- “>6000 mah” battery. Thickness doesn’t matter.
- Fast charging
- 120hz display
Can anyone suggest me an Android that has all these?
I may have found a phone for you. It’s called the unihertz tank 2
- 12gb ram
- 256GB memory (expandable)
- 15500 mah battery
- 60W charging
- 120hz display
https://www.unihertz.com/products/tank-2
Comes with a few other really interesting features you don’t see on any other phone (like a goddamn laser projector?), though i think the processor is a little underpowered.
That’s kind of insane. From the name I think it’s safe to assume they’re angling for some military contracts.
From this comparison, I would guess they chose the G99 to cut costs, as the 1300 was announced two months earlier and beats or matches the G99 in every category, including battery life (which is the only thing it seems to be good at).
That is one clumsy hiker.
How’s unihertz track with providing updates? This is an important factor to avoid artificial obsolescence.
What do you mean by track? Unihertz is a small Chinese manufacturer - it makes no guarantees around support and barely delivers any updates to its devices, as is the norm within much of the non-Google, non-Samsung Android market. It’s really only within the last couple of years that the industry has actually made a bit of progress in this area.
Track record.
This is a norm to be avoided. A phone without updates (at least security updates) should be avoided at all costs considering the potential consequences.
I want a metal back phone
Steve Jobs did too, they still needed a plastic window for some antennae on the OG iPhone, then went to full plastic. It has become worse now, the back isn’t just for wireless charging. It is also for NFC, UWB, and often cellular/gps/wifi/bluetooth may share antenna connections through the back.
Right there with you though. NFC could probably be packed in a band at the top of a phone. UWB seems of dubious value thus far.
Metal back is bound to get dented and scratched. Plastic is the way to go.
I did a search on GSM Arena and if you lower the battery capacity to 5000 then there’s a single result. If you change some of the other spec requirements there’s some other stuff available but nothing that matches what you want one-to-one.
I can’t think of anything plastic that I’d consider premium, let alone a phone.
That’s the thinking the article is arguing against.
But I do have an example.
High end polycarbonate prescription lenses for glasses.
The high index, thinnest, lightest lenses, are plastic. Not glass.Also Carbon fibre parts and silicone sextoys and cable shielding
None of that is plastic.
How is that not plastic?
Carbon fibre without plastic is just a hairy string
And with silicone I don’t even understand where the confusion is coming from? What else would it be?You sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole and now I’m less sure of what plastic actually is. Epoxy, which is used for carbon fiber among many, many, many other things, isn’t something I’d say is plastic but I looked it up and it was about 50/50 on plastic vs not. I found similar conflicting information about silicone but it was leaning more toward not being a plastic.
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. - Wikipedia
: a plastic substance specifically : any of numerous organic synthetic or processed materials that are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight and that can be made into objects, films, or filaments -Merriam Webster
plastic, polymeric material that has the capability of being molded or shaped, usually by the application of heat and pressure. This property of plasticity, often found in combination with other special properties such as low density, low electrical conductivity, transparency, and toughness, allows plastics to be made into a great variety of products. These include tough and lightweight beverage bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), flexible garden hoses made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), insulating food containers made of foamed polystyrene, and shatterproof windows made of polymethyl methacrylate. -Brittanica
Composites like CF and fiberglass use those materials as a stress distributing component and a plastic component as the rigid layer.
Historically fiberglass composites used things like polyester resin - a polymer derived from oil - as the rigid component.
If that’s not a plastic, what is it then?
Metal? Wood? Glass?
Yep, I’m incorrect. Learned something new today.
What would you define as plastic then?
Or maybe share some source claiming epoxy isn’t plastic?
So your idea of premium is fragile and expensive?
Plastic has superior usability in every way, weight, bulk, durability, shock absorption, less slippery than glass, meaning it doesn’t drop out of pockets handbags or even hands as easily.
So what part about a high end plastic is that isn’t premium in this situation?Utility is for poors. People who don’t count money want something shiny or whatever their peers have. They can easily replace it if it breaks.
Which is a problem of perception and marketing, given that in many cases a plastic that has been specifically engineered to perform a function will, unsurprisingly, be better than an alternative.
nah phones aint premium until the price is lower f*cking phone costs so you dont have to spend half a months salary just to not have it become junk in 3 years and not be a buggy mess at launch premium is not paying an arm and a leg and not having your every move tracked and sold to the highest bidder
I just want replaceable batteries on my phones again. The last two Samsung phones I owned ended up with swollen batteries, requiring sending them back to Samsung for repairs. I really miss the days of just being able to pop the back off and buying a replacement battery.
Only fashion victims thought that.
Companies happily obliged them, bumping the price of phones that break much more easily.
I certainly would prefer a plastic backing than a glass one. Why the fuck does every phone have to be encased entirely in glass? It breaks and it’s slippery as fuck, making it more prone to slip out of your hand and break. It’s so ubiquitous and universally fucking stupid that I am convinced it’s purposely designed so you will drop and break it so you have to pay to fix or replace it.
Every heavy duty aftermarket phone case is mostly plastic and rubberized silicone. Because that shit is 1000 times more durable and shock resistant than glass. Glass’s great only for being scratch resistant. There’s no reason that every phone couldn’t have an otter box-like outer shell built in.
It is actually better for durability if the outer shell is removable as well. Eg, having a durable phone case on a midrange phone is better than a rugged phone. Simply being as you can easily swap the case
I’m going off of hearsay here from a video I saw years ago, but it was comparing a decently durable android in a rugged case with a purpose built rugged android phone. Both sustained similar damage but at least the one with the case could be fixed by a case swap. Other one would need a full on repair.
Fuck plastic & the oil industry where it comes from.
I understand what you mean, but I disagree, there are places where it isn’t necessary, needless use of plastic is a problem. But for the back of a phone, it can avoid buying an even bulkier plastic cover, it can extend the lifetime of the phone, in both cases it reduces waste.
Totally agree! I can’t wait to put that granite-cased phone with wood-backed PCBs in my pocket.
I remember seeing people mod the iPhone 4 to replace the glass back with a nice wood back.
Metal and wood can’t be a worse idea than glass. Grippy too. Although without the right treatment it can get gross I guess.
Shhh then it has more planned obsolescence under a veil of greenwash for being biodegradable.
That would be sick
There are plastics that aren’t oil derived. Some of them are even compostable in an industrial setting.
I never thought they couldn’t. Glass phones were an absolutely ridiculous idea.
It’s time to stop thinking a phone should be premium
True, too many people treat phones like a status symbol or fast fashion instead of a tool that should be maintained and used for many years.
It’s time to stop thinking a phone should be premium
too many people treat phones like a status symbol
Honestly just be glad you’re not among those misguided and move on.
Good philosophy. I’ve found that I’m much happier on the internet since I stopped being bothered about other people being “wrong”. I cannot save the world, but if I can help out a few people then that’s enough.
A tool can also be premium, and there is definitely a difference between an average phone and a premium phone.
The problem is all the nonsense about the premium FEEL, it’s not a feature when it degrades durability, or requires a cover that removes that premium feel anyway. Glass covers are also more slippery, making it more likely to drop out of a pocket or hand bag or even your hands.
Glass is detrimental in every way for usability, just the extra weight of it, makes drops more likely to cause damage. All the reviewers that push “The Premium Feel” without consideration to the downsides, like being slippery, adding weight, being more fragile and making the phone slightly more bulky, should be banned from making reviews.pandering to reviewers who use the phones for a couple of days imstead of actual consumers who want to use it for a few years is probably the stupidest thing they do in this industry
give me a fucking replaceable battery so i can use it for more than a couple of years, stop removing features we all use just so it can feel futuristic and new. give me a reparable fucking phone.
like holy shit please take this off the hands of bean counting capitalists and marketers, and please put computers back in the hands of engineers.
Absolutely, but I think they feel they have to, to get good reviews.
Yes, I completely agree on the complicity of reviewers parroting the same PR buzzwords in every single review. It definitely feels like they have played their part in normalising many of these objectively bad and anti-consumer design decisions.
I find the cheap phones are often the “premium” ones.
Those are the ones with plastic backs, headphone jacks, multiple SIMs, smaller size, lighter weight, good physical fingerprint readers, etc.
Loved my Nokia Lumia phone back in the day. Plastic body and glass screen. Solid af.
It’s time to stop thinking phones are anything but commodity hardware with variable degrees of shittiness. There are no such things as premium phones, just premium prices.
Who wants to pay premium for prices?
No
I have never once thought that. The fact I have always wrapped my smartphones in an S view style leather case means I could give less than one shit about what the back of my phone has been made of. I watched knuckleheads freeballing their phones, dropping them, cracking the screens, and noped the fuck out of that noise before I even owned my first smart phone. Been doing the leather envelope style case ever since. Knock on wood, never cracked a screen, not tryin to win any beauty contests, just keep my thousand dollar pocket mini computer up and runnin.
When I was younger and more naïve, I used to think a case was useless. I kept my phones in my pocket most of the time, and didn’t feel particularly clumsy or reckless. Then I got a phone that happened to have a glass back, and it broke not because I fumbled it, but because it slid out of my pocket onto time floor while I was sitting down. Glass backs on phones are bullshit.
Ha the exact same thing happened to me. Most expensive phone I ever bought, and it broke first time it was “dropped” slipping out of my pants while I was sitting down. it was such a tiny drop, only half of dropping from a dining table, and probably a third if I was standing with it in my hand.
The effect of the drop being exponential to the height, the about 35-40cm is really a minuscule drop for an everyday tool. Yet it was enough to break the backside glass, which doesn’t even have a purpose, beyond moronic reviewers claiming it FEELS premium.
Well IMO it’s way inferior to high end plastics, that have way better durability, weigh less, is less bulky, and is less slippery. There is simply no comparison, it’s infuriating that Samsung made the Galaxy originally with plastic back, but changed it because ALL reviewers claimed it didn’t feel premium. Completely disregarding it won ALL durability tests against iPhone by far, it wasn’t even a competition.
Fuck idiotic reviewers that scold a feature that is actually hugely beneficial!!! Fuck the Apple way is always better mindset, even when it clearly isn’t.
Yup, I agree 100%. I usually go with a slim case because I follow a few self-imposed rules.
- Phone does not leave pocket when drinking or around people who are drinking.
- I don’t need to take my phone out if I’m visiting friends or family.
- I immediately pocket my phone if I’m moving, even just around the apartment.
I’ve not dropped my phone once since owning my first 12 years ago. I do not care what it’s made of.
