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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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 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.
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.
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.
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’m more likely to lose my wallet than my phone.
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?
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
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.
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.
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
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.
And the apple fanboys appear. Let’s blame the consumer for what is a design flaw …
