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.
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.
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.
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 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 …
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 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Vegan leather is not as durable as a normal plastic made for covers. It’s generally made of Mycelium (mylo) the specific Xiaomi vegan leather is made in part of apple peel.
The term Vegan leather is reserved for “sustainable” materials, which means it can be made of reused plastic. But that’s still not as strong as the high end plastic materials that was originally used for premium phones.
If I knew for sure the vegan option for the phone was made of high quality PU, I would have chosen that.
Since my first moto g like 10 years ago, I only buy moto g since they are really resistant, I drop it all the time and I have never broke the screen in those 10+ years and like 3 different moto phones.
I was pretty happy with mine too, great value. But mine was with flat screen/front glass, I’m a bit reluctant about the curved screens. That’s something we used to curse like the plague on old tube televisions. To bring that shit back is almost as insane as glass back IMO.
