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A scratch is at most an eyesore. A crack is at least an eyesore. Most people I know have their phones permanently in a case and half also have a glass screen pr

A scratch is at most an eyesore. A crack is at least an eyesore. Most people I know have their phones permanently in a case and half also have a glass screen protector. Together they’re guaranteed to protect from scratches but still not from cracks. Thinking of the impact and likelihood of either, in the real life usage as described above, I would have imagined people focused more on impact resistance rather than hardness. Was still surprised to read the comments on the original Ars article. If people who understand tech better than the average put that much wight into aesthetics, why would any of the majority of regular buyers think past “glass must be premium and good”?

jeroenhd 3y ago
I don't think this has much to do with tech at all. This is a combination of design and materials science, with a bit of product development sprinkled in. You can design CPUs all you want, or write kernels for Mars rovers in your spare time, your opinions on what should be on the back of a phone are no more or less valid than the average consumer. In the end, someone with more experience in this field weighed different options, and came to the decision to use this type of glass for this phone. My phone has a glass back as well and honestly I don't really care either way. I haven't cracked it by accident, but perhaps my phone is less hard than the new iPhone? I do prefer the feel of glass or ceramic over the feel of most phone plastics, though. The Oneplus One did something special with their plastic back which I appreciated, but the bendable plastic of previous phones felt a lot more like cheap, disposable devices. Other people swear by their plastics and power to them, it's just a matter of opinion anyway. Plastics have the same crack-versus-scratch problem when it comes to design, most plastics are just optimised to scratch much quicker so they don't crack.

jeroenhd 3y ago

I don't think this has much to do with tech at all. This is a combination of design and materials science, with a bit of product development sprinkled in. You can design CPUs all you want, or write kernels for Mars rovers in your spare time, your opinions on what should be on the back of a phone are no more or less valid than the average consumer. In the end, someone with more experience in this field weighed different options, and came to the decision to use this type of glass for this phone. My phone has a glass back as well and honestly I don't really care either way. I haven't cracked it by accident, but perhaps my phone is less hard than the new iPhone? I do prefer the feel of glass or ceramic over the feel of most phone plastics, though. The Oneplus One did something special with their plastic back which I appreciated, but the bendable plastic of previous phones felt a lot more like cheap, disposable devices. Other people swear by their plastics and power to them, it's just a matter of opinion anyway. Plastics have the same crack-versus-scratch problem when it comes to design, most plastics are just optimised to scratch much quicker so they don't crack.