4 months durability for an $800 phone!
4 months durability for an $800 phone!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.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 13T Pro, as well as the standard 13T, come in two versions - dual-glass design and glass front with vegan leather back, both featuring plastic frames with matching colors and metal-like finish. [1]
The Xiaomii 13T Pro is available with a vegan leather back (plastic) which won't break from a drop. Instead vegan leather likely deteriorates in look and feel over the years, but I'd prefer it over broken glass.
Searching in google
why do phones have glass backs And all the top results explain why in a single sentence: wireless charging.
You can’t have wireless charging with metal backplates, hence the glass, which is often not your ordinary glass but things like gorilla glass which is much harder to crack.
I know it still sucks; I have an iPhone 12 that was still in great condition after 4yrs, never used a case on it; but one day at the pool of my son recording a video and dropping it just right, cracked the back. I just stuck a dbrand sticker onto the back to hold the glass in place and it continues to work without issue!