Not gonna happen, but make me an iPhone with a polymer body similar to what they use in Glock handguns and I'd be all in.
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iPhone SE (2016) Will we ever see a plastic iPhone again?
- Thread starter ehfz
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Count me in as well. Those state of the art polymers are amazing.
Wait, a 5c was a 5…it would have been stupid to go to it. Apple never explained it, but their reasoning was obvious. Apple supply chains struggled to make enough 5 cases. So had they gone to a 5s while the 5 was still being produced, the supply chains would would have been in chaos. Switching the 5 to plastic and rebranding it 5c was a brilliant was of avoiding the problem.
As for those who say the 5c flopped, that’s clearly not true. It was a year old phone and should never have been compared to a new model. It sold really well as an old phone. I never had it, but always was intrigued. I love my 12 mini and plan to get the 13 mini when the 14 is announced. I don’t want a bigger phone…api love how I can actually momentarily panic that I can’t find my phone while it’s in my pocket.
I have used the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, and iPhone SE 2016
Out of all those 4 inch display phones, I liked the iPhone 5c the most... Because of the metal support inside, despite having a plastic body, I find it tougher compared to the other 4 inch display iPhones which has an aluminum body...
Will Apple create another plastic body iPhone? No one knows for sure but if it is built similar to the iPhone 5c, I may buy one...
Out of all those 4 inch display phones, I liked the iPhone 5c the most... Because of the metal support inside, despite having a plastic body, I find it tougher compared to the other 4 inch display iPhones which has an aluminum body...
Will Apple create another plastic body iPhone? No one knows for sure but if it is built similar to the iPhone 5c, I may buy one...
I don't see the need for glass backs my s21 has a plastic back and you can never tell with a case on it.
The 12 and 13 lineups have been incredibly rugged. The screens are, in a lot of tests I've seen, demonstrably more drop resistant than they've ever been, and I don't know what witchcraft they're using with the colored coating on the side rails, but I actually haven't managed to damage it on any of my phones since they started using it. I really take exception when people claim that Apple wants these things to break. It seems to me that they try harder and harder every year to make them NOT break without the need to use cheap materials and create a cheap looking/feeling device.
Also, even putting environmental issues aside, the 5c does seem to me to have been a fail relatively speaking. I personally thought they were really cool looking and performed well enough for most users. I even sort of liked the weird hole punch case they made for it. I saw them out in the wild here and there, but clearly there were far more people walking around my area with the more premium models. But that was about the extent of it. 2-3 years later, it seemed most 5c users had moved on to a new model. This is a lot different from models like, say, the 5s or 6s. Both of those (and a few others) stuck around a LONG time because people LOVED them.
So if you're Apple, having thoroughly proved that people are willing to pay a premium price to have the best model they can afford of probably the most useful device ever created, why would you ever go with a "cheap" iPhone again? My son has the current "cheap" model--the SE--and it's still a premium looking/feeling phone, not made of plastic, and was dirt cheap relative to what I paid for my 13 Pro Max a few months ago. What's more, he LOVES it, and it was fairly inexpensive to add him to our Verizon account. I like having the peace of mind that I can see/talk to him if there's an emergency and he needs my help. (Case in point--he was just in a car accident last week while a friend was driving him home and needed us to come pick him up.) So why would I want a plastic one again?
Also, even putting environmental issues aside, the 5c does seem to me to have been a fail relatively speaking. I personally thought they were really cool looking and performed well enough for most users. I even sort of liked the weird hole punch case they made for it. I saw them out in the wild here and there, but clearly there were far more people walking around my area with the more premium models. But that was about the extent of it. 2-3 years later, it seemed most 5c users had moved on to a new model. This is a lot different from models like, say, the 5s or 6s. Both of those (and a few others) stuck around a LONG time because people LOVED them.
So if you're Apple, having thoroughly proved that people are willing to pay a premium price to have the best model they can afford of probably the most useful device ever created, why would you ever go with a "cheap" iPhone again? My son has the current "cheap" model--the SE--and it's still a premium looking/feeling phone, not made of plastic, and was dirt cheap relative to what I paid for my 13 Pro Max a few months ago. What's more, he LOVES it, and it was fairly inexpensive to add him to our Verizon account. I like having the peace of mind that I can see/talk to him if there's an emergency and he needs my help. (Case in point--he was just in a car accident last week while a friend was driving him home and needed us to come pick him up.) So why would I want a plastic one again?
Well perhaps leaving the plastic part aside for a moment, I do hope that the iPhone Mini form factor can live on as an iPhone SE model. A plastic back for it would be great, but at least some hope for the small-phone loving crowd would be welcome.
I'm definitely all for there being a small phone sku, and I still think there's more to this iPhone mini story than we know yet. It can be a little annoying trying to read the tea leaves--Apple never seems to want to clean up their naming conventions and make them uniform across all lines.
In general metals are easier to recycle than "plastic"(a term that is wildly misused) and even most polymers but I completely agree with azhava and Hombre53 about the amazing polymers that are available these days. I am guessing(hoping) Apple is spending quite a bit of money on materials research not just for the iPhone but for all of their products including whatever the "Apple Car" turns out to be.
Agree. This is why I’m actually wanting phones with plastic again. Lighter, larger battery, and wireless charging. Case in point, my S21. Plastic doesn’t have to feel cheap. Textured ones like the S21 feels as premium.
But I don’t think Apple will look at plastic. Apple is about upselling. They would rather go to Titanium and charge people even more money.
the thermal conductivity of glass is 10x that of plastic. it's way better for dissipating heat.And glass is a good heat sink?