Yeah for weight purposes. My Maui Jim sunglasses have glass optics instead of polycarbonate lenses. Much more durable & the clarity is fantastic. I would buy glass lenses for prescription eyewear if I could get it.
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Other Apple should release another polycarbonate iPhone - SE4 would be perfect
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I'm not sure it is. "Baking" carbon fiber takes a lot of energy compared to plastic. Not saying its a "bad" material for all applications, but it is for use in cell-phones that isn't lasting for more than a few years.
For use in an aeroplane or spaceshuttle, fine, there it really serves a purpose (lightweight).
Carbon Fiber is like plastic, it generally ends up as landfill.
If we look at aluminum its a material that can be reused over and over again so I'd prefer that apple use something like that.
Technically absolutely not. The kind of glass used in modern smartphones is even stronger than polycarbonate, has much much better thermals qualities, and scratches less easily
It is a fact only android cheaper phones are using plastic.
Even Samsung stop using plastic on mid-low range models like A35
Plastics are not recyclable unless they make same chassis for every future SE phone. Since Apple made a few climate commitments, they will probably stick to it. I had regular 5 – it had same processor and RAM as your 5C, but I miss the small form factor, space grey (in fact space dark blue basically) color and the good grip. Aluminum+glass back would be totally ok for me
Of course plastic is recycable and it doesn’t have to be used in an iPhone afterwards.
There is a whole industry recycling plastics
You are right, plastic can be recycled. But there is a difference on how things are recycled.
Aluminium can be recycled without any loss of quality, that isn't the case when it comes to plastic.
Recycling plastic leads to degradation and is more complex than aluminium, when it comes to products using recycled plastic its generally less compared to aluminium.
But its a lot more complex if you add in where its used (cellphones, planes, bottles/cans) and also if you add in greenhouse emissions etc. Both materials has their pros and cons.
I think Apple only talked about replacing plastic in their packaging, but not how much recycled plastic was used in the product.
Wow I had no idea this thread went on for another two and half pages. I guess my email alerts weren't happening.
I think some of you are putting up more of a fight to this idea than is necessary. I'm not suggesting we replace all iPhones with plastic models, just the SE. The lowest end iPhone available. Make it fun, bright, colorful, plastic.
I still have my iPhone 5C. I remember it as a great phone that I used for years. I even reactivated it on a cheaper plan and used it back in I think 2019 for a bit. Always was a solid phone for me. The plastic back on it holds up just fine today. I have it in my hand right now. There are barely any scratches on it, but it's also had an Apple case on it it's whole life. But even with all the holes in the case, it's fine.
Recently I had purchased a Pixel 8a which has a plastic back on it as well. Along with an aluminum frame. That's a mid range android phone in the $500-600 price range. Many Android phones still use plastic backs with modern chips and do just fine with thermals while having wireless charging. That's not even to mention my fifteen year old car that has an all plastic interior that's holding up just fine under the sun all day long. Or bringing up issues with plastic recyclability when the big issue is all the plastic bottles being used and thrown out every day, which is no where near comparable to a small bit a plastic being used on the back of a phone that someone will keep for years, made by a company somewhat committed to recycling that could commit to recycling those plastic phones. So I think some of you are blowing this plastic hate and impracticality idea way out of proportion. As others have pointed out, Apple still makes a lot of plastic products and no one here seems to be bringing up issue with those not being made out of aluminum and glass. So it strikes me more as just elitism toward premium materials on iPhones instead of a real issue with the plastic material itself. I think you're just nit picking. Or maybe you just had a bad experience with the 5C compared to me. But something tells me if Apple made a modern polycarbonate iPhone SE with a large screen and modern chipset, you might change your position.
So I guess I don't see what all the resistance is about. You can still have your regular aluminum iPhones and titanium pro models. I'm not asking to get rid of those. I like those too. Especially that natural titanium pro max. Nice!
But fun, bright, cheap, and that soft feel of polycarbonate would be a nice change again.
I think some of you are putting up more of a fight to this idea than is necessary. I'm not suggesting we replace all iPhones with plastic models, just the SE. The lowest end iPhone available. Make it fun, bright, colorful, plastic.
I still have my iPhone 5C. I remember it as a great phone that I used for years. I even reactivated it on a cheaper plan and used it back in I think 2019 for a bit. Always was a solid phone for me. The plastic back on it holds up just fine today. I have it in my hand right now. There are barely any scratches on it, but it's also had an Apple case on it it's whole life. But even with all the holes in the case, it's fine.
Recently I had purchased a Pixel 8a which has a plastic back on it as well. Along with an aluminum frame. That's a mid range android phone in the $500-600 price range. Many Android phones still use plastic backs with modern chips and do just fine with thermals while having wireless charging. That's not even to mention my fifteen year old car that has an all plastic interior that's holding up just fine under the sun all day long. Or bringing up issues with plastic recyclability when the big issue is all the plastic bottles being used and thrown out every day, which is no where near comparable to a small bit a plastic being used on the back of a phone that someone will keep for years, made by a company somewhat committed to recycling that could commit to recycling those plastic phones. So I think some of you are blowing this plastic hate and impracticality idea way out of proportion. As others have pointed out, Apple still makes a lot of plastic products and no one here seems to be bringing up issue with those not being made out of aluminum and glass. So it strikes me more as just elitism toward premium materials on iPhones instead of a real issue with the plastic material itself. I think you're just nit picking. Or maybe you just had a bad experience with the 5C compared to me. But something tells me if Apple made a modern polycarbonate iPhone SE with a large screen and modern chipset, you might change your position.
So I guess I don't see what all the resistance is about. You can still have your regular aluminum iPhones and titanium pro models. I'm not asking to get rid of those. I like those too. Especially that natural titanium pro max. Nice!
But fun, bright, cheap, and that soft feel of polycarbonate would be a nice change again.
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You underestimate how much plastic negatively affects thermal conductivity and sustained performance. The plastic Pixel 8a throttles down to 50% compared other mid-range aluminum devices like Galaxy A55 which stays at 90%.
Keep in mind iPhone SE3 performs much faster than Pixel 8a to begin with.
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Plastic may be fun and colorful, but it comes at a great cost in terms of thermal performance. Apple's upcoming SE4 will ship with A18. I'd hate to see it crippled at 50% because they decided to use plastic.