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I also wouldn't mind slightly thicker phones, but not necessarily for modularity. I just want to see phones that can be dropped flat on their faces on a concret
by lewisl9029 10y ago
I also wouldn't mind slightly thicker phones, but not necessarily for modularity. I just want to see phones that can be dropped flat on their faces on a concrete sidewalk and still remain in usable condition (i.e. no shattered screen).
Making the screen completely modular would be one way to achieve this, since you can just replace the screen with a new one if the old one breaks in a drop. But it can be achieved much more easily and cheaply by simply slightly recessing the screen (or by slightly raising everything around the screen) so the glass never has to make direct contact with concrete in the event of a drop.
This is how bumper cases work, and my $3 bumper case has saved my $400 phone enough times that I'd never use a new phone without one. That said, I really wish this kind of resilience was built into the phone itself, so I'd never have to have to cover up the nice design and great feeling materials on my phone with a cheap, bulky, hideous case.
- SamReidHughes 10y agoYou could instead just make phones be cheap enough that you don't mind dropping them.
- mosselman 10y agoThat's the American spirit!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eloisant 10y agoThen just buy a case with a nice design. Buy a $20 case instead of a $3 bumper.
- lewisl9029 10y agoUsing a separate case still adds a lot more bulk than would be necessary if the protective layer was built into the phone itself. This is just yet another example of the unavoidable cost of modularity that people have been bringing up everywhere in this thread. And even the nicest and most expensive cases I've tried have never really been able to compare with my actual phone in terms of quality of material and design.
- emodendroket 10y agoYeah, absolutely. You can't buy a high-quality one if you want to.
- JulianMorrison 10y agoRuggedized phones exist. They look like childproof rubber bricks, but they exist.
- intoverflow2 10y ago> Making the screen completely modular would be one way to achieve this, since you can just replace the screen with a new one if the old one breaks in a drop iPhone 4/4S did this just fine, undo two screws and the glass comes right off ready to be replaced for like $10. iPhone 5> they started fusing the glass to the sensor IIRC so this became far more expensive/cumbersome
- jschwartzi 10y agoMy original Galaxy S was built like this. The screen was recessed slightly into the bezel.
- marcosdumay 10y agoSlightly recessing the screen may not be enough. It's certainly not enough for asphalt. You'll need several millimeters of distance, and are probably much better by just placing some protective screen above it (although that increases the chance of something getting damaged - it'll just be the protective screen instead of the real one). I've had good luck in choosing phones with cases just elastic enough to break a bit while protecting the screen (even without any kind of cover). But I never brought into the hard-case movement by Apple.