Everyone out here commenting about phone cases. How about we go back to plastic phones that could actually survive a drop and be fine? But nooooo that feels cheap people say.
I do not understand the need for a phone to "feel premium" and then need to to be put in a case when we already had phones that were nigh indestructible.
Edit: Guys smart phones used to have plastic bodies too. Its not just Nokias.
Itās more like having a 500hp car with a factory paint job and putting a vinyl wrap on it to protect the paint, but you also change the color and never see the factory paint. Then daily driving that car. Ā We have our phones everywhere and use them constantlyĀ
My phones last me 10+ years. It is clean without the need to specifically clean it. I just don't put it in shit? It's either in my hand, pocket, mounted on a magnet in my car, or on a stand at my desk.
Just opened mine for the first time since I got the phone 4 years ago. Completely clean asides from a tiny bit of dust around the outside of the charging port. I'm pretty sure I caused more damage in wear and tear than has been saved in wiping that dust up, that I assume will be back by tomorrow. However I'll make an effort to check in another 4 years.Ā
Lint and dust collect in it? Oils from your hand and face get on it? Its set down on numerous surfaces and touched by your dirty hands all day. Why tf dont you clean your phone.
Problem is that since the bezels are so thin it would barely make a difference. Phones used to be relatively bulky and distribute force better. But if you made that super thin casing out of plastic it might be even more prone to cracks and scratches
Plastic is an insulator as well, and our phones are tasked with much higher performance than they used to be. Ā That computing performance creates heat. Ā Aluminum is highly heat conductive, so even in a case, the heat is spread throughout the aluminum away from the source of heat. Ā This makes our cases act as a. Heat sink, which Iām sure helps with performance as well. A plastic shell would keep the heat more localized which would allowing specific components to get hotter and hotter. Ā Ā
Yes it spreads across the aluminum instead of being localized, even if it is trapped within the case. Ā And sure maybe some plastics could conduct heat better than others, but still not as well as aluminum. Ā Aluminum is recognized as a good heat conductor amongst other metals which conduct heat well. Ā Itās one of the reasons itās more complicated to weld aluminum among other things like aluminumās protective oxide layer which has a melting point 3x higher than the actual aluminum.Ā
When I take apart electronics, like a gaming console for instance, there are generally thin layers of aluminum between the components and the plastic. Similarly, a CPU heatsink is just thin aluminum or copper fins. Wouldnāt it be better to use a similar process in cell phones, utilizing both the thermal properties of aluminum and the durability of plastic?
I mean they very well may, Iāve never opened an iPhone, but yeah, heat sinks would usually be copper, aluminum or silver because they have some of the highest thermal expansion rates of any metals. Ā Generally if itās a good conductor of electricity itās a it is good at conducting heat.Ā
However they may sacrifice the plastics for space saving. Ā Ā
This. My phone is a tool not a fashion statement. As long as it works, I don't care what random scratches are on it. But I do use screen protectors, I can't handle a scratched screen. The body, don't care. Hell half the time I run caseless. With insurance of course.
I don't give two shits about scratches. My otter box is to protect my phone from severe damage lol.Ā
But I'm hard on stuff so maybe I'm an edge case.Ā
The people that worry about trade in value etc baffle me. I actually just traded in a phone for the first time recently. Made the new one a little cheaper but eh.Ā
Oh, I don't give a damn. I either buy a device I can afford to break or replace or I leave it be. Who wants to walk around eggshells for two years just so you can sell your $1000 phone for 400 instead of 300?
Iām not gentle with my phones. Ā Iām in the trades and Iām doing welding and machine tool classes. Ā My phones are subject to falling from ladders, dusty environments, high heat from the proximity to my welding, small metal shavings from grinding and drilling. Ā My iPhones last years. Ā Iām not an upgrade every year type of guy, my current phone is probably about 3 years old right now and still going strong. Ā Just need a case, and screen protector. Ā Which I donāt think is too much to ask. Ā
People forget how much more computing performance is packed into these compared to the old phones in the early 2000s.Ā
Man I used to buy these cases for the first few years of iphone called Mophie.. they were manufactured near my home town too so a bonusā¦ those things survived a deployment and a decade in the trades afterward. I would throw my iPhone 4 against a concrete wall like a baseball pitch. My brother actually dropped his whole loaded 240 right on top of it and .. nothing.
Yeah, likewise. I have a pretty active job and sometimes end up fumbling my phone when moving around. Iāve dropped mine a bunch and am at 4 years or so.
I canāt imagine losing a second of peace of mind because a low profile highly complex device needs a $20 case. Who cares? People will literally waste more time repeatedly arguing the point over time than the time cost of the case
Yes our phones in 90s 2000s etc are looked scratched and messed up, but people just didn't care about it so much then. Now they cost 500-1000 we want them to stay nice because well they cost so damn much.
Using an iPhone gets significantly better when you realize how much abuse they can actually take. Aside from the screen obviously, but I donāt care about scratches and dings in it and Iāve used many iPhones until the wheels fell off. All my corners are kinda fucked up but the screen is fine soā¦ the phone is good
I remember the Nokia phone I had. Literally dropped it and ran it over in the driveway. It was damaged but I could still call people on it. Thatās design quality.
Bc we canāt function as a society without compact computers and gps systems anymore. I canāt even clock into work without a smartphone that has location enabled. Since this is the place weāre at and a device we rely on for a crazy amount of things, we want it to be nice. Since I have a nice thing that allows me to access allllll of my information I obviously want to protect it from breaking.
People with no phone case probably bang randos with no condom then act shocked when someone winds up pregnant or with a sti.
People forget that plastic phones of the past looked shit in a few weeks after being scratched to oblivion. It's just that nobody care much back then. Won't fly these days when devices should look pristine for years. That's why glass and metal are the most durable option.
I got myself Ulefone Armour 34 pro and I can literally throw it against a wall or do some other shit and the phone is just fine. I've even made demonstrations of that to other people (well, chipped the table in the pub one time when I smashed it screen down :D).
Downside is the phone is quite heavy (900 grams) but I don't really mind that, since I work out anyway.
plastic would scuff and scratch from everything you you did. and it doesn't absorb enough shock for the weight that phones are now and the type internals in phones.
Remember when phones got more advanced they used drop and the internals would bounce around and the phone was non functional. But there are still plastic cheaper phones if you wanted to go back. mostly google phones you could get for free from most carriers. they never break but they have only basic features
People knew what the phone was made of before spending $1400 on it.
Its not like people have been tricked into spending $1400 on a lower quality product. People are just paying stupid amounts of money because corporations, and the caner that is influencers, invented the idea of FOMO!
It's all about heat dissipation and being water and dust proof. That plastic phone you remember had the computing power of your current toaster. The latest flagship has the computing power of the laptop you bought five years ago. If you want that computing power, you need to do something with the heat or else you are performance throttling within seconds of loading a webpage, thereby eliminating the point of having said performance at your fingertips.
I was jsut in AT&T the other day trading in some phones. They still do sell plastic flip phones and I think even some base model android. They never disappeared. Consumers just choose performance over out-of-the-box affordability 999/1000 times. Especially true when a relatively inexpensive case improves durability by a wide margin.
I loved my Nokia in high school. The thing was a tank. But so was my calculator lol. They're just completely different devices these days. The only real similarity is that they can make calls and texts.
My father has an iPhone without case and drops is daily. Sure itās not looking the best but it survives and works normally, just gotta change the screen protector sometimes.
iPhones are pretty resistant but obviously if you want to keep it in pristine condition, which is what people are expecting, you will want a case.
Listen, not every plastic phone was built like a Nokia or GZone Boulder, Iāve had previous phones like the Razr literally explode from a drop (not fiery explosion, but just pieces flying outwards)
And those pieces of shit had very rudimentary hardware inside. Todayās phone chips literally power laptops (Mac Neo). Just use a case.
The aluminum may have other purposes. Ā As far as metal alloys go, its strong, being that its and aluminum/zinc alloys. Ā It has strength and is lightweight, and aluminum conducts heat much better than plastic, so the heat created during heavy performance tasks dissipates over the whole surface of the aluminum. Ā Even wrapped in an insulating case, the aluminum body spreads the heat away from the source acting as a heat sink.
The materials used my serve more purpose than you think. Any one whoās had some welding classes or a metallurgy class would be able to understand Iād think.
I would take a bulkier phone if it was fully serviceable. I want a shell I can replace easily, a removable battery, a headphone jack and an SD Card slot. They keep taking away features.
I miss Nokia Windows Phones made out of that polycarbonate magic plastic they used. That stuff was awesome and still felt premium and you could make so many fun colors with itā¦. I miss Windows Phones and BlackBerry now that I mention it. Back when the market actually had some competition.
If Iām paying thousands of dollars for it, it needs to feel premium. Doesnāt matter if itās a watch, shoes, car parts, clothes, PC stuff, phones, etc.
thousands of dollars = should feel substantial and high quality
tbf this phone is also completely fine, its like the most minor cosmetic damage possible. If youre not going to use a case, this is inevitably going to happen to any phone.
Nobody with half a brain is saying this. I was shocked to find out they're still making phones with glass backs. Glass... like the breakable screen, but on the back where they could choose a less brittle material.
Waste is the reason. Apple doesn't use plastic because plastic is not as recyclable as it seems, which they learned with the beautiful iMac G3 and iBook, which created a huge pollution problem, while metal cases can absolutely be recycled if taken apart properly.
Because apple said its premium and Iāll pay premium prices for apple phones that donāt change at all from year to year. Except one more camera now my I phone 58 has 67 cameras smh
Maybe because those old phones did 3 things: make phone calls, play snake, and always work after being broken into pieces. We donāt use phones as phones as much as portable computers so if you can find a way to make a Nokia brick able to scroll social media, pay your electric bill and check your email you might be on to something.
Not everybody has a desire for aesthetics in their life and thatās fine, but stop speaking for others w your disgusting preferences. If you want a plastic phone go get one. And itās always easier to ruin a beautiful phone with a plastic case than the other way around, in fact the other way around youāre shit outta luck. So next time before you open your mouth take a second to think
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u/bigeyez 19d ago edited 19d ago
Everyone out here commenting about phone cases. How about we go back to plastic phones that could actually survive a drop and be fine? But nooooo that feels cheap people say.
I do not understand the need for a phone to "feel premium" and then need to to be put in a case when we already had phones that were nigh indestructible.
Edit: Guys smart phones used to have plastic bodies too. Its not just Nokias.