Other Is plastic more durable than aluminium/titanium/glass?

[Populus]

I dropped my Nokia phone once. Broke the floor. Phone was fine

My awesome Nokia 3220 was my cell phone for almost 7 years before I got my first iPhone. Then it was my mom’s phone for another 6 years. Never got a battery replacement (although I replaced the rubbers of the lights and the keyboard), and it always worked wonderfully.

It was, indeed, indestructible.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Not all plastic is equal. I have Glock pistols made of plastic and they still look like new after years of hard use. I remember when the older blackberries were a dark plastic and were the same color all the way through. If you scratched it it did not show.

 

[Sami13496]

Could it be that at a time people just were not so stressed about their phones condition? So now perceived as more durable.

 

[headlessmike]

I think some people are kinda of missing the point and getting too complicated.

1) Old 'brick' plastic phones are well-known for being indestructible.
2) Admittedly, plastic touch screens scratch too easily.
3) The logical conclusion for a durable phone would be to use hard plastics like the old brick phones, with a glass front.
4) Would Apple do this? Of course not. But it's not "progress" to have phones that cost 10x more than they used to, and are 10x more likely to break.

The old phones were mostly made of softer plastics like ABS for their shells with a harder plastic like polycarbonate only for the display lens.

 

[Reverend Benny]

I remember back to the early 2000s, when people had brick phones made from plastic, with plastic screens.
Even the thinner ones never experienced any crazy amounts of damage when dropped. The plastic shells could get scuffed, but it hardly even mattered.
Even flip phones back then were really durable. If one fell out of your hand, it wasn't going to break in half.

So the question is, is plastic more durable than all the premium metals and glass of modern iPhones?

I think it depends on what plastic you are talking about.
Its also a matter of the durability of plastic in different scenarios and that some types become less durable after some age and in what type of environment its being used.

 

[MacProFCP]

I’d rather fly in a plane made out of titanium than plastic.

Nearly all new jetliners are made from carbon fiber these days. Plastic strands…

 

[NoGood@Usernames]

I remember Lumia 920 was made up of Polycarbonate alloy, which is actually plastic, it was a tank.

Oh man, I miss my 920…what a wonderful phone that was! I’ve had a lot of phones over the years but that was one of my favorites.

I would buy a new iPhone so fast if they were to replace the “dual ion” glass back (that hasn’t been improved upon in many generations) with polycarbonate, or made the body of PC.

Sadly, I don’t ever see that happening as that would go against their “premium” perception and hurt their case sales. Can’t have that!

 

[ignatius345]

I remember back to the early 2000s, when people had brick phones made from plastic, with plastic screens.
Even the thinner ones never experienced any crazy amounts of damage when dropped. The plastic shells could get scuffed, but it hardly even mattered.
Even flip phones back then were really durable. If one fell out of your hand, it wasn't going to break in half.

So the question is, is plastic more durable than all the premium metals and glass of modern iPhones?

I think plastic can be very durable in the short to medium term (impact resistance, for instance) but it doesn't wear very well in the long term. As much as people gripe about scratches and stuff on Macs and iPhones, that stuff looks a ton better than what happens to plastic after a while.

I still remember those polycarbonite MacBooks from the early 2000s. They all ended up stained and chipped around the palm rest area. I fortunately had the black one which fared a lot better -- but it was still starting to show some signs of chipping on the front edge.

Not saying plastic couldn't be done well. If Apple put out an ultralight and lower-cost MacBook in plastic I'd be interested just based on the weight savings. But it would have to be less expensive to compensate for how much I'd anticipate the resale value dropping from wear and tear.

 

[TokyoKiller]

Well, that's partly because it was released right beside the vastly superior 5S. The 5C should've been announced alone, like the immensely popular iPhone SE.

No it was unpopular due its cheap feel and how easy it was to have the screen pop out or even fall out when dropped.

The enclosure of the cracked as well after a drop or two.

There is a reason it was the most short lived iPhone on the market and it wasn’t because the 5S was in the line up too.

I fixed and replaced many 5C’s in my time as a retail employee.

 

[jsmith1]

For the environment…aluminum would be best choice of those 3, especially if real recycled goods were done right

 

[rui no onna]

Really it's not that old phones were tanks so much as we didn't use them enough to damage them.

I lived in the Philippines back then (“text capital of the world”) plus I played Snake, Bantumi or Space Impact a lot to pass the time. There were no iPads yet so I probably used my 3310 a lot more than I do iPhones nowadays.

Older phones may have had very limited functionality but that doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t still get used often. I’ve dropped my 3310 on concrete several times (high school and college). I don’t think a caseless iPhone with glass front and back would’ve fared quite as well with similar carelessness.

 

[WOODYDOG1]

Kind of miss that iPhone 3G/3GS body style

3gs was my favorite phone ever. It felt great in hand and I had the old boot room was jailbroke for life. I had so much fun with it

 

[mcled53]

I remember back to the early 2000s, when people had brick phones made from plastic, with plastic screens.
Even the thinner ones never experienced any crazy amounts of damage when dropped. The plastic shells could get scuffed, but it hardly even mattered.
Even flip phones back then were really durable. If one fell out of your hand, it wasn't going to break in half.

So the question is, is plastic more durable than all the premium metals and glass of modern iPhones?

I always put a rubber-like case on it so plastic or cheap metal would make no difference to me.

 

[sack_peak]

I remember reading articles in 2007 about how the 3.5" iPhone was too large to be successful in the cell phone market. I still prefer the 3.5" phones over today's ones.

In 2010 Steve Jobs said no one's going to buy a big phone.

Goes to show even the greatest can be so wrong.

 

[headlessmike]

In 2010 Steve Jobs said no one's going to buy a big phone.

Goes to show even the greatest can be so wrong.

Here's a good rundown of events leading up to the release of the iPhone 6:

Before Apple's iPhone was too small, it was too "monstrously" big | AppleInsider

Apple is widely expected to introduce new, larger iPhone 6 models this year, after ignoring the "phablet" market for years. Somewhat ironically, it was Apple that initiated and perpetuated the trend toward larger smartphones phones while its competitors, including Samsung, worked to popularize...

appleinsider.com

My favorite part is Samsung's internal documents evaluating 2.8" and 3.2" phones as their preferred sizes.

 

[LevorgPenmancho]

In 2010 Steve Jobs said no one's going to buy a big phone.

Goes to show even the greatest can be so wrong.

I think if he respawned and saw a 15 PM, the first thing he’d complain about would be the thickness. He was obsessed. The iPhone 5 had the smallest internal volume of any iPhone, and I think he wanted to continue down that path. iPhone 6 must have been in the pipeline while he was alive, but he probably only signed off on that design because it was the thinnest iPhone ever (I think?), at 6.9mm.
I’d honestly love to see what an iPhone 5 sized phone with the current screen tech would be like.

 

[profcutter]

Incredible! I always thought Sanyo was a black & white TV, rice cooker and battery brand.

Sanyo actually made really good video projectors for a while. They also made our knock-off Betamax that I had as a kid. Betacord if I remember correctly. And knock-off Walkman. Oh yeah, and there were a huge solar panel and lithium battery company for a while too.

 

[headlessmike]

Sanyo actually made really good video projectors for a while. They also made our knock-off Betamax that I had as a kid. Betacord if I remember correctly. And knock-off Walkman. Oh yeah, and there were a huge solar panel and lithium battery company for a while too.

They made everybody’s favorite Eneloop NiMH batteries until Panasonic bought them out, too.

 

[Dhonk]

The iPhone 5C was plastic and it wasn’t a popular phone

This is a myth. The 5c was in effect the 5 repackaged, not an entirely different phone. It also continued to be sold for a couple years. It was popular, and sold well. But if you view the 5c in a vacuum without the 5, then it dramatically cuts down on the sales numbers. If they had kept the 5 in the lineup instead of the repackaged 5c, you’d be talking about how well it sold. Why did they repackage it? It was obvious. Apple suppliers struggled to manufacture enough aluminum frames for the 5, so they had no chance of making enough for both a 5 and 5s at the same time. I wish I had gotten the 5c, as I saw students with it. It was very durable. When dropped the screen might slightly pop out could easily be snapped back in. With Aluminum or other metals this would have broken the glass.

 

[sack_peak]

They made everybody’s favorite Eneloop NiMH batteries until Panasonic bought them out, too.

That's the staple of any photographer's Speedlite.

 

[mectojic]

Here's a good rundown of events leading up to the release of the iPhone 6:

Before Apple's iPhone was too small, it was too "monstrously" big | AppleInsider

Apple is widely expected to introduce new, larger iPhone 6 models this year, after ignoring the "phablet" market for years. Somewhat ironically, it was Apple that initiated and perpetuated the trend toward larger smartphones phones while its competitors, including Samsung, worked to popularize...

appleinsider.com

My favorite part is Samsung's internal documents evaluating 2.8" and 3.2" phones as their preferred sizes.

That's a really interesting article, thank you!
Looks like the iPhone 6 and 6+ really sealed the deal for iPhone dominance. Apple wasn't going to both much with small phones after their immense success. (Though Apple still hasn't sold any model better than the 6/6+...)

 

[SusieS]

I dropped my cute little LG flip phone so many times without damaging it, until one fateful day when the hinge broke. I duct taped it together for awhile. Nowadays I wouldn’t want to be out and about without a smart phone, but back in the olden times, I loved that little phone that fit so easily in my purse or pocket, and I never had to put it in a case or worry about scratching it.

 

[kc9hzn]

Lot of what if(single event , cumulative multiple events, impact vs bending, etc), configuration details (type plastic) but in general:
Plastic is more susceptible to damage but the phone is more likely to still be somewhat operational. Catastrophic damage (total failure of all phone functionality) is probably slightly less likely.

Plastic also weakens and becomes brittle with time, especially with exposure to heat or UV. Plus, the plastic shells these phones used were quite a bit thicker than modern phone shells.

Let’s remember, though, there’s a reason Apple used plastics in the iBooks but metal in the PowerBooks. My 2007 MacBook with the white polycarbonate definitely had plastic case longevity and discoloration issues even within five years.

 

[sack_peak]

That's a really interesting article, thank you!
Looks like the iPhone 6 and 6+ really sealed the deal for iPhone dominance. Apple wasn't going to both much with small phones after their immense success. (Though Apple still hasn't sold any model better than the 6/6+...)

Apple could have avoided bendgate if they made those phones thicker to accomodate larger mAh batteries.

I was fortunate to have a 6s Plus back then.

 

[mectojic]

Apple could have avoided bendgate if they made those phones thicker to accomodate larger mAh batteries.

I was fortunate to have a 6s Plus back then.

Well yeah, bendgate was a thing but that hardly impacted the iPhone 6 sales, the best-selling smartphone of all time to this day.