4 ms·

I think this "cheap plastic" meme is completely fabricated by competitors with heavier and less durable products. Plastic is more elastic than metal, so if you

I think this "cheap plastic" meme is completely fabricated by competitors with heavier and less durable products. Plastic is more elastic than metal, so if your phone falls on the floor, it takes some of the shock and significantly reduces the chance that the screen breaks. Samsung's "cheap" plastic is also lighter than metal. The Galaxy S2 for example is much, much larger than the iphone 4s, yet the iphone feels like a brick in your pocket compared to the Galaxy. Why do we associate "heavy" with "valuable" all of a sudden? Shouldn't it be the other way around? After all, a coin is not more valuable than a bank note, and a heavy bike is not better than a light one, right?

gnaffle 14y ago
"Cheap plastic" is not a meme. People have compared build quality as long as manufactured goods have existed. Many people associate heavy with valuable because traditionally, making things out of metal cost more and increases durability. Maybe the use of composites will change this perception. Does using a glass display instead of a plastic display increase the chance that the display breaks? Yes. Does it increase weight? Yes. But glass is more scratch resistant and has a better feel to it, so most people think it's a worthwhile tradeoff (Samsung seems to agree).
tluyben2 14y ago
People have been connecting heavy with expensive/valuable for a long time for some goods; watches for instance; a heavy Rolex. Cars; if you drive a light car you are one of those environmental turds. I overheard a group of guys in an expensive restaurant saying things like; 'yeah of course, but then my car weighs 2500 kilos hahahaahaha'; a lot of senseless weight-dropping to show value and wealth. I do agree with you on some levels, but PERSONALLY I find the SII feeling like something cheap compared to the iPhone 4. Like a lot of people thought the 3g felt cheap compared to the 4 as well because of the plastic. I guess Apple thought that as well? I like my 3g more in a lot of ways; I dropped it on concrete a lot of times and it has a few cracks in the plastic; I dropped the 4 once and the screen is gone (might be bad luck, but this is the perception I have now). My Lumia, which feels actually better in many ways than the 4 or SII, but it scratches really easy and has a lot of other bad things I talked about before. The feeling of flimsiness has nothing to do with my usage; as I said above; I use my SII far more than my other phones. I build apps/games for a living so I need A LOT of phones (especially Android testing is hell; you'll get negative reviews for all the phones you skip buying/testing on often; it's like going back 10 years for mobile dev :) and I currently do like the SII best esp with ICS. For pads the iPad still wins though, although the Prime is a close 2nd. Both feel rock-solid to me.

gnaffle 14y ago

"Cheap plastic" is not a meme. People have compared build quality as long as manufactured goods have existed. Many people associate heavy with valuable because traditionally, making things out of metal cost more and increases durability. Maybe the use of composites will change this perception. Does using a glass display instead of a plastic display increase the chance that the display breaks? Yes. Does it increase weight? Yes. But glass is more scratch resistant and has a better feel to it, so most people think it's a worthwhile tradeoff (Samsung seems to agree).

tluyben2 14y ago

People have been connecting heavy with expensive/valuable for a long time for some goods; watches for instance; a heavy Rolex. Cars; if you drive a light car you are one of those environmental turds. I overheard a group of guys in an expensive restaurant saying things like; 'yeah of course, but then my car weighs 2500 kilos hahahaahaha'; a lot of senseless weight-dropping to show value and wealth. I do agree with you on some levels, but PERSONALLY I find the SII feeling like something cheap compared to the iPhone 4. Like a lot of people thought the 3g felt cheap compared to the 4 as well because of the plastic. I guess Apple thought that as well? I like my 3g more in a lot of ways; I dropped it on concrete a lot of times and it has a few cracks in the plastic; I dropped the 4 once and the screen is gone (might be bad luck, but this is the perception I have now). My Lumia, which feels actually better in many ways than the 4 or SII, but it scratches really easy and has a lot of other bad things I talked about before. The feeling of flimsiness has nothing to do with my usage; as I said above; I use my SII far more than my other phones. I build apps/games for a living so I need A LOT of phones (especially Android testing is hell; you'll get negative reviews for all the phones you skip buying/testing on often; it's like going back 10 years for mobile dev :) and I currently do like the SII best esp with ICS. For pads the iPad still wins though, although the Prime is a close 2nd. Both feel rock-solid to me.