Phone with a metal or plastic case. Recipes for choosing the right smartphone: which material is better

Why are smartphones made of glass? June 13th, 2018

Glass as a material for smartphone cases is a relatively recent invention. One of the first was the iPhone 4, then the Sony Xperia Z line picked up the baton, and a little later - Samsung Galaxy S. This year, glass finally captured not only the market, but also the brains of manufacturers: all modern flagships are made of it, including iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro. And what the users of all these phones do is stuff them into cases. What a stupidity to buy a beautiful and expensive thing and close it with a cover forever.

But really - glass has a lot of shortcomings, and they all terribly enrage. So why are smartphones made of glass?

Glass smartphones are slippery

In 2010, when the iPhone 4 was announced, no one was worried about the glass case. But since manufacturers started measuring screens, using glass devices has become more difficult. From now on, every time you run the risk of breaking the gadget when you intercept it in your hand. And this is not to mention the fact that the "glasses" strive to slip off even from an almost horizontal surface.

This is how they draw the technique of the future: it looks cool, but it is absolutely not functional

To curb a modern smartphone, it is desirable to have some kind of padding between the palm and the body - usually this function is taken over by a case. But plastic looks bad, wood is weird, silicone is disgusting, and leather, although not the worst option, is too short-lived. And in general, do you really like to hide an expensive and beautiful flagship in a “sock” for 500 rubles? Hardly, but there is still no alternative to covers. Or do you want to always carry with you, like a wrestling brother, a bag of talcum powder?

Glass collects fingerprints

The pores on our body constantly secrete sweat and fat - such a feature of the human body. And the palms have the most sweat glands. Alas, we cannot do anything with our own physiology, so the phone will remain clean only in one case: if it is never used. All the latest devices shimmer beautifully in the windows, but in the hands they are instantly covered with fingerprints and dirt. After some time, the “captured” device for a thousand dollars looks hardly more attractive than a state employee.

Manufacturers tried to solve the problem with an oleophobic coating, including on the back of the gadget. True, it only lasts a few months. No desire to walk with a portable fingerprint base? The cover will save - and only the cover.

Perhaps you will now object: what about frosted glass? It does not slip, and prints do not remain. Well, the idea is really good, but for some reason, manufacturers are reluctant to use matte materials instead of the sickly gloss. Without straining memory, we can name only a few models from the Xperia line, in which such glass was inserted. Alas, now Sony has moved away from this practice.

Glasses are scratched

If they are still trying to save money in budget and mid-segment devices, then modern flagships, spitting on costs, put two Gorilla Glass glasses at once. Or similar hardened mineral. What difference does it make how many dollars it adds to the final price if the buyer pays anyway?
But the problem is different - scratching even Gorilla Glass 5 will not be difficult. Yes, on modern smartphones you can safely chop vegetables. However, just one grain of sand that gets into your pocket is guaranteed to leave a noticeable mark on the body of the device. A "sandwich" of a pair of glasses increases this risk by about half.

Have you already guessed what the conclusion should be? That's right: use a cover. We weren't the only ones who came up with this. There is a suspicion that all brands have a wide range of branded accessories after the mass distribution of glass. Coincidence? We don't think.

Glasses are breaking

If it is still possible to protect equipment from scratches, then it is not possible to make it truly impact-resistant. A fall, even from a small height, is almost always fatal: the glass will shatter into smithereens, unlike metal, which will get off with only a small dent, or even a scratch. If you are not lucky, the device will be covered with a web of cracks. Even falling off your knees! And this is not fiction, but personal pain - this is exactly what happened with the author's Galaxy S7 Edge.

The need for repair

The following follows from the previous shortcoming: the back panel, if something happens, will have to be repaired. Yes, damage can be covered with a cover or simply forgotten about their existence. Think what nonsense. After all, this is why we bought an expensive flagship to walk around with a cracked earflap, which not every bum will covet.

In the case of the victory of the aesthetic sense - prepare the cash. Replacing the back is cheaper than the screen, but still - they promise to supply a new glass on the Galaxy S9 on the Internet for a miserable 3,500 rubles. A similar procedure for the iPhone X will cost at least 6,000 rubles, but happy owners of Apple technology are no strangers to paying more. But who said that it will be a one-time action? You can change the socket at least every week, especially if you are overcome by hand tremors. And most importantly - why is there such a problem in the world where aluminum exists?

Glass is a poor conductor of heat

Move on. Glass is a poor conductor of heat. With a high processor load, the temperature inevitably rises, which, coupled with not the most successful cooling, leads to the so-called throttling. The frequency of the processor sags, and the FPS in games drops. The latter, however, does not apply to flagships: in expensive models, chipsets have a good margin of performance - just in case. The risk of overheating hurts not only battles in conditional PUBG: if this happens regularly, the battery will throw a white flag sooner than you expect.

Why glass?

So why do manufacturers, knowing about the many shortcomings of glass, stubbornly shove it into smartphones?
Firstly, glass gadgets look attractive in shop windows, renders and promo photos, pushing them to impulsive purchases.

Secondly, the material is successful for design tasks: you can create a "solid" device. In aluminum counterparts, you have to go to tricks to place modem antennas and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio modules.
Finally, the main argument in favor of glass is that wireless charging cannot be placed in a metal case.

However, do not forget about the alternatives! Plastics and ceramics also have no problem with antenna placement and wireless charging. And ceramics is also quite exotic, and even though it is inferior in strength to metal, it still surpasses glass. But manufacturers believe that these materials are unworthy of flagships, although once a bunch of gadgets were wrapped in such cases. What do you think, what material is preferable for smartphone cases?

sources

LG G6 - buyers are to blame

The very case when Korean engineers have the right to say "we are not like that - life is like that!". Because LG to the last resisted the fashion for thin, stuffed with glue and inhumane (in relation to the "repairmen") designed mobile phones. Because the LG G3 was a superbly built flagship and was not easy to repair, it was very easy to repair (8 out of 10 possible for repairability). The LG Nexus 5, even with its molded design that Google asked for, allowed for a simple replacement of any filling. It was not difficult to “wave” a battery, a speaker, a vibration motor, a micro-USB port, or even a microcircuit.

The G4 was not just a repairable, but a sensationally practical mobile phone with a removable battery and a case that could be opened after a little fiddling with screws, at a time when the Galaxy S6 was already molded and glass. The LG G5 already had a non-removable cover, but it was easy to disassemble it - you dismantle the screws in place of the “battery-clip”, and all the giblets of the smartphone are in front of your eyes.

Did the "human" design help the sales of the G-series? Absolutely not - Apple, Samsung and Sony sold smartphones that were difficult to repair in large numbers and did not know grief. Therefore, in G6 we have what we have.

The G6 has some symbolic impact resistance (MIL-STD-810G means that the smartphone was dropped 26 times on plywood from a height of 1.2 meters, and it survived). But the glass on both sides means that you will not have a “lucky ticket” - you will break either the back cover or the display. One such "unbreakable" (according to LG representatives) G6 smashed right at the Russian presentation.

Glass smartphone always falls not painlessly

The back cover of the G6 is filled with glue from the inside, so it has to be warmed up before being dismantled. The display is also glued almost tightly - the consequences of water resistance according to the IP68 class.

Even to replace the battery, you need to remove the protective panels

Otherwise, everything is not so sad: the processor cooling is of high quality and can be easily dismantled, the connectors (3.5 mm for headphones and USB-C) are modular, it is not difficult to replace them, the battery is super-fireproof - LG learned a lesson from the failure of colleagues with the Samsung fire Galaxy Note 7. But the iPhone 7, with the same water resistance and stereo speakers, and even hotter processor, is less troublesome to disassemble and much more durable. Therefore, the G6 does not give serious reasons for joy - the mobile phone is as troublesome to disassemble as the new brothers, only more fragile.

To get to the LG G6 display, you need to disassemble the entire smartphone.

Sony Xperia Z5 - loss of water resistance and "traps" during repairs

Unlike LG, complex cell phone repairs from Sony are an old story. In fact, water-resistant Xperias were the first to prepare craftsmen for what they are now seeing at LG and Samsung. For example, 4 years ago, using the Xperia Z as an example, service center employees got used to the fact that the non-removable back cover needs to be heated before being removed, and to the fact that in order to dismantle the motherboard, you need to ... remove the display, which was held on waterproof tape. In general, the guys were delighted with the Japanese engineering genius.

So delighted that the location of the cables, the rigid fastening of the motherboard inside (there is a chance to bend it when you remove it) and the inevitable backlash of the case + loss of water resistance after repair have become a signature feature of all 5 generations of the Z-series.

Sony was making smartphones that were difficult to disassemble even before it became a widespread trend.

In the flagship of 2015, the Xperia Z5, little has changed - a lot of glue on the back cover, which must be removed from the body with suction cups. The scanner is on the side, which is very difficult to approach, a huge amount of glue is everywhere: on the display (which is difficult to remove from the case and can only be replaced after complete disassembly), on the camera, microphones - everywhere! Only the battery can be reinstalled without problems, but even after that, the Xperia's water resistance will remain in question.

An abundance of glue and cleverly hidden trains everywhere

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge - the most inconvenient Samsung to repair

Masters simply hate to repair the Galaxy S7 edge (and “just S7” too), but the owners of the flagship Samsung are still accepted with open arms - the most “bread” customers.

When it comes to repairability, Samsung took a big hit in 2014 with the release of the Galaxy S5. The Quartet and older Galaxy could be repaired in any basement, quickly and at no serious cost. With the release of the Galaxy S5, which was also with a removable cover and a removable battery. Simply because for any Galaxy S5 repair, you first need to ... pick out the display, so as not to damage the frame. And it is better to release in advance the loop of the Home key, which is located at the back. Then you need to dismantle the screws under the screen, remove the plug above the motherboard, and then separate the chip from another plug. On the one hand, replacing the display itself has become easier (if you have the right glue to restore the smartphone's water resistance). On the other hand, the design, to put it more culturally, is crazy, and Samsung itself admitted this when it abandoned it in future models.

To replace the micro-USB connector, you need to remove the display and manage not to damage it

This is how you have to shred 15-17 thousand rubles

But you should not think that disassembly has become easier in the new Galaxy - starting with the S6, Samsung's flagships have become "beautiful in appearance, creepy inside." The same problems in all newfangled "Koreans" - a glass case that tends to crack when disassembled, the battery (the first candidate for replacement in an old smartphone, if the owner was careful) is hidden in the middle (!) Of a smartphone, and it is not so easy to replace.

Samsung's flagship maintainability has hit rock bottom with the Galaxy S7 edge. A huge amount of glue that is inconvenient to get rid of when disassembling, cables that are wrapped around the display frame (and there is a big risk of damaging them when disassembling. And everything is stuffed as tightly as possible - so much so that the super-expensive display needs to be removed to replace the burnt micro-USB port An ideal example of how a manufacturer makes tonsil masters remove through hard-to-reach places... For this reason, even replacing a battery or an audio jack will cost you 3000-4000 rubles, and you will have to pay 15 thousand for the display - this is half the cost of S7 edge in "gray" retail .

The battery is also hidden somewhere in the back of the case.

The Galaxy S8, oddly enough, causes less inconvenience in repairs - it is still very difficult to replace the protective glass without damaging the display, the number of seals has remained the same since the S7 edge. But without the ill-fated hardware “Home” key under the screen, replacing the idiotic fingerprint scanner and power button has become easier, the antennas in the case were not laid by misanthropes, and the screen itself is cheaper for repair shops than it was at the time of the launch of the S7 edge.

HTC One M9 - it's easier to throw it away right away

If the Galaxy S7 edge is always repaired for you, albeit for big money, then they won’t even take on the repair of HTC flagships. Surprisingly, HTC is so masterful that they managed to create a thick smartphone in a metal (not glass) case, without water protection (which prevents disassembly), but almost beyond repair.

At first it seems that disassembling the HTC One M9 is not difficult...

On the one hand, the back cover does not need to be warmed up before being dismantled - this is a plus. The shock resistance of the smartphone, if it does not land on the display, is also quite good. But the battery is glued to the motherboard and is located under it, on the side of the display. And the display itself can be replaced after a complete disassembly of the smartphone. After dismantling all parts that are held either by adhesive tape or glue. The reverse assembly is just as complicated and nerve-wracking, and everything will inevitably stay “on the snot” in comparison with the factory state, so be prepared for the fact that your One M9 or M8 (smartphones are structurally similar) no one wants to repair. And if there are such daredevils, then they will certainly win back on your wallet for “moral damage” in the process of disassembling / assembling the HTC flagship, which is disgusting in terms of organization of the filling.

And then you have to pick out the battery from under the microcircuit "on snot and electrical tape" ...

Although HTC also remains the ugliest smartphone from a constructive point of view, but already the debut One M7. In it, at first it was necessary to warm up and tear off the screen from the case, and then, without disconnecting the display from the microcircuit (because the cables are somewhere deep inside), carefully pick out “spoons” - yes, so as not to damage either the microcircuit, or the connectors, or the camera . The level procedure when you pick out cartilage from the bones in the soup, with the difference that you immediately do “yum-yum” with cartilage and do not care about their safety, and the filling of the smartphone can “grunt” and increase the cost of repairs at any time. And, of course, a huge amount of scotch glue, with which “a session of proctology named after. One M7" becomes even more fun and exciting.

And only after complete disassembly proceed to dismantle the display

Previously, almost all phones were made of plastic, but they were full of a variety of shapes. Today, almost all phones look approximately the same, but manufacturers offer us to choose between. The choice, of course, is also not great - either glass, or metal, or, again, plastic. But today, the case material can play a decisive role in choosing a smartphone.

Each material has its pros and cons. Colleagues from Authority tried to figure out which is better. We list the properties of various materials and then try to get your opinion on smartphones made of plastic, metal or glass. It just so happens that everyone has different preferences.

Metal

Pros:

Appearance: aluminum smartphone looks solid, and it is pleasant to hold it in hand. As a rule, aluminum cases are used for expensive smartphones, and they emphasize their high cost.
Thermal conductivity: the metal helps to dissipate the heat generated by the processor, which plastic cases cannot boast of.

Minuses:

Thermal conductivity: this is both a plus and a minus. If your smartphone's processor is very hot, its metal case can become so hot that you simply feel uncomfortable holding the smartphone in your hands. This rarely happens, but it does happen.
Damage resistance: If the plastic can bend and unbend back, bending the metal back is not so easy. Dents and scratches remain on metal cases, which spoil the appearance of the smartphone, and they can be seen much better than on plastic.

Glass

Tempered glass is now used in almost every smartphone to protect the display. However, some manufacturers also cover the back of the smartphone with glass. Today, you can see similar solutions in Sony's flagship smartphones and the Galaxy S6.

Pros:

Hardness: tempered glass is very difficult to scratch, unlike plastic or metal.
Scalability: Without complicating things with the idea of ​​using sapphire glass, glass panels can be produced on a large scale, and their use can reduce production costs.

Minuses:

Fragility: tempered glass is difficult to scratch, but easy enough to break. Replacing a glass case isn't always cheap, as evidenced by the huge number of people around us who use phones with cracked glass.
Design limitation: Almost all glass devices are even and flat. Curved models are starting to appear, but this does not give the freedom that designers have when working with plastic or metal.

Plastic

It is still the most popular material for making smartphone cases. LG, Samsung, Nokia and many other companies are actively using it.

Pros:

Does not affect reception quality: metal and glass cases often negatively affect the operation of the smartphone's antenna, which leads to poor reception. Plastic never has this problem.
Low cost: plastic is cheaper than glass and metal, and this affects the cost of a smartphone.

Minuses:

Appearance: a plastic smartphone often looks much simpler and more inconspicuous. In the same way, they are felt in the hand, unless, of course, the plastic is covered with genuine leather.
Thermal conductivity: Polycarbonate is a poor conductor of heat. This should mean that with the same characteristics, a plastic smartphone will be slower.

Ordinary things can be made from the same ordinary materials, but at the same time they can be made like this. that they will seem unusual. You can take, for example, anything. Here, for example, leather boots, they include leather, bedding and material for the sole. Nothing more is needed, but they all look different at the same time: some are higher, others are lower; some with rough soles and others with thin ones; after all, they all have different shapes. That is, any thing, no matter what it is, slippers or a car, can have completely different interpretations of its appearance, although the materials needed are approximately the same.
So, for example, without digging "in depth" and in the spare parts of a car, any person who knows absolutely nothing about its internal structure can determine that outwardly we see a metal case and glass. But in different cars, the metal body is also made differently: somewhere it is embossed, somewhere straight, and somewhere there are such and such places. Glasses have different placement. Somewhere there are more glasses, and somewhere less, somewhere they are interconnected, and somewhere they are separate.
It is these opportunities for the flight of imagination of designers that have become key to creating a variety of cars, and sometimes even very original ones. So, the car designed by designers Liu Shun, Gao Zhiqiang, and Chen Zhilei is one of those original cars. Its originality lies in the fact that its entire body is made of glass cover. That is, its appearance is very original, it is difficult to describe it, it is better to admire the photo.
In addition to being handsome, the Dolphin (that's the name of the car) is also a sports car. But the fact that this car is sports does not at all become an obstacle to placing the whole family in it, since it is very roomy.
Its cover is made from carbon fibers, which are now and again popular as sports car covers due to the fact that they are very light.
Beauty, originality. lightness, spaciousness - what else do you need for an ideal car!?
Transparent phone
The phone market is so full that, it would seem, there is nowhere for it to develop! At first, we could only communicate without leaving the house, using a wired phone, which we still had to twist to dial a number. Now even home telephones exist with a database, that is, with a telephone directory in which all the numbers you need are recorded. Previously, such a “database” was a phone book, or, well, phone numbers in the brain’s memory. Her need simply disappeared, and, by the way, this is bad, because often phone numbers are stored in the phone’s memory, and not on the SIM card, so if your phone is broken, then all contacts cannot be restored. But now not about phone books, but directly about phones.
Those home phones have been replaced by mobile wireless communications, which we all now successfully use. Phones are not the end of wireless communications. Now you can also communicate via Skype, while not only hearing the voice of the person you are talking to, but also seeing him on the monitor screen, if he, of course, has a webcam.
The phones themselves were originally unpretentious, black and white, they still remember. Now the phone is not only a means of communication, it is also a means of entertainment. Recently, phones have been trying to be made as light as possible, so they acquire not only lightness in weight, but also visual lightness.

Everyone knows that the normal outer frame of the phone (that is, what we see visually) is a metal or plastic case and a screen, often a touchscreen lately. But all these "stereotypes about the phone" may soon come to an end! This is due to the fact that the Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies is engaged in a project to manufacture a glass phone. The whole phone cannot be absolutely glass, rather its base is glass, but the “insides” due to which it functions at all, the flash card and the SIM card are not glass.

The idea is certainly interesting, but from a practical point of view, it is unnecessary, since we already have multifunctional gadgets. In addition, lovers of "dropping the phone" will not be able to be content with a glass phone for so long.

A metal smartphone looks solid and expensive. So it was before, so it is to this day, although the metal has already descended from the top segment to the budget one and, in general, does not add much value to the smartphone.

pros

1. Looks expensive. If you have a metal smartphone, then you are definitely not a poor person. At least, many will think so.
2. Fashionable. Metal has become the main material of the current industrial design. It's a thing in itself. If the body is made of metal, then no additional elements and tension of design ideas are no longer required. The metal is beautiful as well.
3. Thermal conductivity. The metal is cold. That same feeling when you hold a smartphone and feel how pleasantly it cools your palm. Tactile sensation is also important.

From these pluses, a feeling of high cost is created.

Minuses

1. It bends and deforms. Moreover, in order to bend a smartphone, you don’t need to scoff at it at all - just put it in the back pocket of your jeans and sit down. In this way, many smartphones turn into iPhone 6 Plus. Remember what a bendgate is? Exactly.
2. Shields. Metal does not transmit radio waves. LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth - it's not easy for all these signals to break through the metal case, so you have to make ugly external conclusions for the antennas. This became clear for the first time under Steve Jobs, when Apple released the iPhone 4 and it did not catch the network well. A few years later, Samsung stepped on the same rake, launching a line of all-metal Galaxy A smartphones. The novelties received the network 20% worse than the plastic Samsung Galaxy S5. Also, the all-metal case does not allow for wireless charging.
3. Thermal conductivity. A plus can easily turn into a minus. When powerful metal smartphones are running at full strength, the case can get so hot that it’s just right to fry scrambled eggs on it!

So, the paradox: the very material that makes a smartphone premium does not allow premium functions to be implemented in the device. And yes, it bends!

Plastic

Smartphones made of plastic can be of any color and, in general, any shape, for example, curved, which was once the LG G Flex. Plastic also opens the way to a variety of finishes. Glossy, matte, leather-look, metal-look - with plastic, designers get absolute freedom. Despite the fact that plastic is cheaper than other materials, the smartphone itself can be more expensive than metal and even glass competitors.

pros

1. Price. Plastic smartphones are cheaper to manufacture.
2. Elasticity. In general, plastic is a very durable material, it is resistant to bending, twisting, perfectly absorbs impact energy. Sony has used this property in the creation of many smartphones, such as the Sony Xperia Z5. Its body was made of metal, and the corners were plastic. When the smartphone fell at an angle, the energy was not transferred to the internal components of the device, but was extinguished by plastic. Note that complex composite materials, such as fiberglass-reinforced plastic, have even greater strength. Developed for the military industry, it is now used to create smartphones. For example, the new Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact.
3. Doesn't shield. Plastic is an excellent conductor of radio waves, regardless of thickness and strength. That is why in metal smartphones we see plastic wiring for antennas.
4. Color. Plastic can be of any color, and Nokia used this when releasing orange, light green and yellow smartphones.

Plastic gives the manufacturer more freedom when creating a design, besides, the material is interesting enough to be used even in expensive top-end smartphones.

Minuses

1. Feels cheap. Many plastic smartphones are perceived as simple crafts, although they can cost a lot.
2. Looks cheap. Making a plastic smartphone look expensive and rich is not so easy.
3. Dyed. When in contact with other colored surfaces, the plastic may change color. For example, a white smartphone, having been in a jeans pocket, can become the color of denim.

As a rule, a plastic smartphone is a cheap device in every sense.

Glass

Glass first appeared in the iPhone 4 and Nexus 4, but the real boom began after the release of the Samsung Galaxy S6. Glass smartphones look expensive, are expensive, but are quite fragile. Glass backs break just as well as glass screens. Even despite Gorilla Glass 5.

pros

1. Doesn't shield. Glass does not interfere with radio waves, therefore, unlike metal smartphones, glass ones do not need any plastic inserts for antennas.
2. Looks amazing. Glass allows you to create beautiful visual effects, such as a sense of depth, change the color of the panel depending on the angle of light, catch light spots and reflect them in the form of rays.
3. Feels expensive. Like metal smartphones, glass ones pleasantly cool the palm, delight with the smoothness of the surface and evoke the feeling that you are holding a luxury item in your hand.

A glass smartphone is usually an expensive device with a claim to premium status.

Minuses

1. Fragile. No one has yet managed to create an indestructible glass, so dropping a glass smartphone is strictly prohibited.
2. Scratched. It doesn't matter what the manufacturer says, but the glass gets scratched once or twice.
3. Slippery. Glass smartphones slip out of your hands like an ice cube.

With a glass smartphone, you need to be extremely careful, because it is not only an expensive thing, but also very fragile.

So which is better?

Aesthetes will love smartphones made of glass, no matter how fragile they are. Plastic, on the other hand, is universal, found in all segments and can be presented both in the form of a budget material and an expensive high-tech composite. But metal is the worst thing that can be. It is deformed and does not transmit radio waves. However, it is metal smartphones that are especially popular today.

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