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My wife dropped her N5 a few weeks ago and cracked the screen (why are phones still so delicate?). We bought the new Moto G that night from Best Buy. Its pretty
by drzaiusapelord 11y ago
My wife dropped her N5 a few weeks ago and cracked the screen (why are phones still so delicate?). We bought the new Moto G that night from Best Buy. Its pretty much a Nexus 5 but with a 720p screen instead of a 1080p screen. She loves having twice the battery life and the $179 pricepoint was mindblowing. The low and mid range in Android is very competitive. I'm not sure what this new N5 is bringing to the table other than the AOSP Nexus experience. A slightly faster SoC and maybe a little extra battery life? For $400 with tax and shipping, I'm just not seeing the hype that's been dominating /r/android for months.
$499 for a decent 6 inch phone seems like the real story here. Especially if it gets the typical Nexus price cut 6-9 months out. $449 or $399 for this could happen sooner than later, which would be an amazing deal. $499 is still really good, considering the previous N6 launched at $650. I'm surprised Samsung didn't balk at this, its pretty much a shot at their Note line which typically sells for $600+ unsubsidized. I think Google is trying hard to make phablets happen for non-techies any way they can, even to the point of pissing off their biggest OEM's. I also suspect there's some politicking here as Google is trying to groom Huawei to go after Samsung's massive marketshare. Samsung being the defacto Android product isn't good for Google or Android.
- mattmanser 11y agoWhy are screens still so delicate? It's not even been 10 years since the original iPhone.
- raisedbyninjas 11y agoThe design of the Nexus 5 has a razor thin plastic bezel surrounding the edge of the screen glass. Minor bumps push through the plastic and crack the glass from the edge where the glass is weakest. The push for thin phones and tiny bezels is a cancer on phone design.
- 0942v8653 11y agoI've never seen anyone decide not to get an iPhone because the screen is too fragile. I have seen people decide to upgrade their phone because the screen on their old one is broken.
- pjc50 11y agowhy are phones still so delicate? The screen kinda has to be made of glass, and even Dow Corning's finest will break if it hits a hard surface. I believe synthetic sapphire is available for watches and smartwatches but not for any actual phones? Best solution is a case with rubberised corners.
- DanBC 11y agoNokia screens were glass and it was unusual to crack those. Extending the bezel to the edge of the phone means there's no "crumple zone" to absorb energy of impacts - that shock goes to the screen. Personally I think a mobile phone that looks lovely but has little chance of surviving metre drop is a design fail. Modern phones are stupidly flimsy.
- pjc50 11y agoThe 3210 glory era of 'indestructible' Nokias had the glass under plastic (polycarbonate?), and weren't touchscreens. That was also the big era of replaceable phone cases. I think people who are worried about the frailty of the phone buy secondary-market protective cases these days.
- DanBC 11y agoBut protective cases makes my point about poor design. If the only way I can stop my phone being damaged during normal use is to wrap it in 3rd party protective case then the design failed.
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago+1 on the Moto G! I just checked -- the 2nd gen model Moto G is $149.99 on the Motorola website (free shipping). Add a few bucks of tax and it's still one third the price of these other offerings. MicroSD slot, water resistant, 5" display, pure Android experience. This is what the Nexus should have been. Except unfortunately it lacks NFC, ditto the 2015 model. If it had NFC I'd consider getting one myself, but unfortunately that's a showstopper for me -- I write NFC apps for a living. If Moto would put NFC in this bad boy, they'd have a killer phone! Now, the Moto X for $400 does have NFC - plus a microSD slot. Hmmm.