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Why is it glass with a plastic coating instead of solid plastic? Apple's use of glass has to be part of a scheme to make money replacing glass parts.
by postalrat 3y ago
Why is it glass with a plastic coating instead of solid plastic? Apple's use of glass has to be part of a scheme to make money replacing glass parts.
- fishpen0 3y agoYeah, it makes sense for phones, since the touchscreen feel affects perception of quality. But this is literally just a gimmicky non-touch display and didn't need to be real glass
- staticautomatic 3y agoMaybe it has desirable properties compared to plexi.
- postalrat 3y agoPolycarbonate would be a better choice than plexiglass/acrylic. What advantages does glass have? More likely to break and more repairs?
- jdc0589 3y agoscratches. its all about scratches. any poly will scratch pretty easily compared to glass, which is a bad thing when its a lens you are looking through. You could make the argument they could just design an easily replaceable poly lens at a reasonable price, but.....its 2024 device manufacturers hate the idea of any user replaceable parts.
- gpm 3y agoThe part that is cracking is plastic on the outside glass on the inside, it doesn't get the scratch resistance benefits.
- postalrat 3y agoDo you wear glasses or know someone who does? Most of us have plastic lenses with an anti-scratch coating. It works pretty well. What advantage would there be to switch from plastic lenses for practical items like glasses to glass lenses with a thin soft plastic coating?
- jdc0589 3y agoI don't, and the couple people I'm close to that do have glass lenses. But, my sample size is pretty bad. I legitimately didn't know it was that common; I had to switch to glass lens non-prescription sunglasses a few years ago because even the upper end plastic ones weren't durable enough for me.
- skyyler 3y agoJerryRigEverything did his usual scratch test with an AVP and the "front glass" scratches with picks of Mohs hardness 3... What kind of poor quality glass is this? Maybe it's just the coating that failed?
- jbverschoor 3y agoYou don't have to have a full cover.. Only the cameras would need to have a window of (sapphire)glass. The rest of the ski-mask could easily be plastic, as it's only used to display eyes. My guess is that it gives them a few cycles to improve the weight. The iPhone X was a monster in terms of weight
- detourdog 3y agoPolycarbonate is better in some ways but more susceptible to scratches than plexiglass. Glass is great because unlike the plastics it is UV resistant.
- jkestner 3y agoPolycarbonate is great for UV resistance, though not sure that matters for something you use indoors. I’ll grant you scratch-prone. There are additives and coatings for everything now, and the glass Apple is using is also highly engineered so you can get just what you want no matter what. I’ll bet it comes down to feel and consumer experience.
- detourdog 3y agoOnly with a UV film installed to protect it. I think all plastics degrade under UV light and polycarbonate is no different. It will yellow and lose it's strength with unprotected UV exposure.
- postalrat 3y agoI wore polycarbonate for lenses in my glasses before switching to trivex. Never had a problem with them turning yellow.
- detourdog 3y agoDue to a protective coating.
- jkestner 3y agoNot so. Sure, everything degrades eventually, but HDPE, PC and acrylic are notably UV resistant, and even polypropylene, which is normally weak in UV, is used in outdoor furniture. Thickness and color matter, but inexpensive UV stabilizers can be added to most plastics as well, and you can get a guaranteed 7-10 years of outdoor life, let alone the sheltered life of a Vision Pro. Source: I make plastic products (sorry, world, that’s why I care about making them well). Anyway, additives or coating, we agree one can get good outdoor performance with plastics. But forget glass, I’m waiting for the sapphire Vision Edition.
- saurik 3y agoBut plastic easily scratches? The real question is why it is plastic over glass instead of plastic under glass. Though, I'm kind of thinking they might have realized this could happen and so wanted to safety of the plastic in front of the glass lest users accidentally cut themselves on the broken glass :/. https://youtube.com/shorts/kuiwxZS4GJE https://youtube.com/shorts/kuiwxZS4GJE https://youtube.com/shorts/5Wsmz7sjOb4 https://youtube.com/shorts/5Wsmz7sjOb4
- postalrat 3y agoI wear glasses and every lens I've ever owned has been some type of plastic. Yes small scratches add up over a year but it isn't that bad. The coatings they have do a pretty good job to reduce scratching. Apple is using thin glass covered with a soft plastic. Why possible advantage could that ever have over solid plastic with an anti-scratch coating?
- throwway120385 3y agoIt feels cool to the touch and therefore feels more "high quality" than a plastic would.
- saurik 3y agoYou have to actually then coat it with anti-scratch coating, you have to make sure people carefully clean the device in ways that don't destroy this coating, and the result--as you admit--still gets scratched, and routinely it is these scratches that cause me to eventually get new glasses. I don't think "treat this device with the implicit care that you treat your primary pair of glasses" is fair, as even if I carry around a second pair of glasses they tend to get scratched as they don't have any of the automatic protections my primary ones do (due to being on my head or only put down for limited periods of time).
- huytersd 3y agoSolid plastic is cheap. It’s the same reason the body is aluminum and not some plastic.