I was just wondering if anyone else would be in favor of a plastic back on a budget iPhone? I would rather the XR type of the phone for the future have a plastic back for durability and the ability to charge. I loved the 3G iPhone plastic back and they could even use a higher quality back to meet their current standards. I personally hate the glass back that is currently being used and allows Apple to collect enormous fees for repairs.
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Other Plastic Back?
- Thread starter czbuckeye
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Plastic is useless in new iteration of iPhone’s as glass back is a must to enable wireless charging.
You can charge through plastic, how do you think charging through a case works?
I agree for a flagship product, but for a budget phone I feel like it is a viable option. Still, a very good point.
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Apple tried that.
They called it the iPhone 5C. If you don't remember the iPhone 5C, well there's a reason Apple hasn't repeated the design.
PS. The 5C's plastic was described as 'premium'.
The 5c was set up for failure right out of the gate. Basically a 5 repackaged in plastic, or you could spend $100 more and get the premium 5s with its aluminum casing, all new TouchID, 64 bit chip, much better performance, etc. It was a no brainer to get the 5s. If they were to try this experiment again today, hopefully they could come up with a more compelling option. So a plastic casing adds thickness, ok, but you wouldn’t have to put a case on it and the camera bump might be gone. Could be a good idea.
100% agree, slightly thicker but for a budget phone that is more durable, who cares? I looked and the 5C was 17% thicker than the 5s.
Maybe that’s the right formula for a SE2. Spec it like a XR and give it a 5-ish inch screen in a plastic housing... I’d buy it. They could easily sell that for $599, or $150 less than the XR.
Another consideration might be thermal design. Unlike the iPhone 5 era, the A12 now consumes around 5W peak. This would be difficult for a plastic chassis to handle without throttling. So for $599, a hypothetical XRc might also perform like an iPhone from a year ago.
iPhones from three years ago still perform well, so with more recent and efficient chips surely they could find the right balance of performance and heat management.
I thought the 5C was pretty successful? I saw them everywhere when it was released.
I have to say that many people cover their phone in a plastic case. So they basically have a plastic phone anyway.
Although your correct about glass is conducive to wireless charging, Apple could have used a different material like a poly- carbonate plastic, that’s still would be sufficient for wireless charging, they simply chose glass probably because of aesthetics as well.
Looks like Google might be considering just such a device.
https://9to5google.com/2018/11/16/alleged-pixel-3-lite-leaked-images/
https://9to5google.com/2018/11/16/alleged-pixel-3-lite-leaked-images/
What makes you think plastic is a durable material?
https://www.wired.com/2008/07/whats-cracking/
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Less durable! Plastic is way less durable than glass. That’s why it needs to be much thicker to not break instantly.
I have a 5c. Doesn't feel cheap, it's durable, I use it daily. It's reasonably fast (even though it was updated to iOS 9), and I really like it.
Apple apparently didn't seem it successful enough to repeat the design, but that doesn't make the 5c a bad device.
Apple apparently didn't seem it successful enough to repeat the design, but that doesn't make the 5c a bad device.
There’s a solid argument for a new version today in my opinion if they could make it smaller and cheaper than XR. And offer it in black!
You can’t make a general statement like that when there are thousands of types of plastic all with unique levels of hardness, durability, density etc etc. It’s nothing to do with thickness and you only have to look at the grades of ABS and polycarbonate that phones casings have been made from over the past 20 or more years. Like metals, plastics come in a huge number of varieties.
Yes, I can! There are equally as many variants of glas and aluminum, yet the underlying chemistry is always the same. I dare you to permanently bend a glass pane at normal temperatures without breaking it. Also find me a translucent radio-transparent aluminum alloy. You have thousands of varieties to choose from.
Ask your mother for some kitchen foil to test your theory that thickness and frangibility of a material have nothing to do with each other. The Pentagon will make you a billionaire, if you build them indestructible tinfoil tanks.
Actually, the 5C was a successful design choice and it was very popular phone. But like Apple, they don’t specifically always offer the same thing every year. Sort of like the Jet black iPhone 7, that was a limited anodized color that they never returned, even though it was favored to be one of the best looking iPhones of all time, aside from that it could scratch easily.