This is why I as a multi billionaire believe we need to work on plan B on Mars.
I know that won’t help the billions of people left on Earth, but at least they can die peacefully, knowing that the richest people will have a chance.
/s

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

it makes assembly easier,

Easier than plastic?

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.

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.

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.

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?

True, but they are still desperate for money, that’s all it’s about now.

You are 100% right it improves the lifespan, and when selling it, a battery in better condition makes the car worth more.
I think somehow some people misunderstand your post? Or they don’t get how it can be an advantage to have a bigger battery than you pay for?

Mind you I don’t condone this business model, which to me feels like cheating.

I admit I didn’t until you mentioned them.

The Microsoft Windows Phone probably failed because we forgot to give it a real keyboard.
-Balmer

No he didn’t really say that, it’s a joke on how he laughed about the iPhone not having a real keyboard.

Services reached its highest result ever, with a 14% increase over the same period last year.

Apple still manages to make people spend more money on their phones even when they aren’t buying new ones.

IDK Musk is taking pretty drastic action, but I suspect that will make it fail faster.
They need to fire more people IMO, but only 1 more.