Resistance against drops is one thing, but scratch resistance is equally as important, if not more so.
I had an HTC one with gorilla glass 3 which was near flawless after 2y, while this s9 with gg5 shows a good deal of mini scratches after only 3 months.
I do try to keep small change and keys seperate, but the occasional scuff is not avoidable.
Hey buddy! Hey! This is Anandtech where slapping glass on the back of your phone results in a premium feeling. Ignore the reality of breakage and the necessity of hiding said glass under a cheap rubberized or plastic case. If you disagree, you need to go back to the Best Phones article for Q3 2018 where that fact is clearly shoved down your throat sideways.
"An alternative to the 7X in Europe is the Honor 9 Lite which comes with the same hardware internals at a similar price of £199 / 199€ and comes in a much more premium feeling glass design."
If it's any consolation most tech editors these days swing dissonantly between opinions and can't decide what's more "premium" between metal or glass, what's useful and what's a gimmick between notches, fingerprint sensor placement, face unlock, and such.
Come back next year, who know what they'll be praising then.
The last time someone on AT actually pointed out that glass is not the best thing to make a phone out of was probably Anand in the iPhone 4 review 8 years ago.
"Only Apple would think to make the two surfaces most likely to hit something out of glass. It's like making mouse traps out of cheese, something bad is bound to happen."
Or, you know, they could pick a material for the frame that actually *is* premium, rather than faking it like metal and glass. It's rare stuff, but you may have heard of it... "plastic". Shockingly, it's both largely shatterproof and RF transparant - wow right? Best yet, it comes in any color, and in lots of varieties, giving manufacturer's real flexibility.
Myself I hate the glass thing. I firmly believe it's to please the only people who don't use a phone without a case - the journalists reviewing it and thus encouraging sales as it "feels great". I recently saw an iphone which was <2 years old and was utterly destroyed due to drops, etc. Not using a case on a phone which is so damned expensive and taken out of a pocket several tens of times a day is just madness. I had a couple of HTCs made of metal (M7 and M9) and they survived quite happily without a case. Sure a couple of drops left their marks but they didn't induce major cracks down the screen, just dents. You use these things daily and they'll get worn - see for example a car which gets little chips in the paint from the road but it is made of such material that it doesn't lead to real damage or dysfunction. Same with a wallet - you expect little scratches but if it fell apart after dropping it or got destroyed by your car key being in the same pocket you'd be raging and rightly so. Phones these days are made with sensible materials if they're cheaper but the top of the range ones (which are more likely to be used a lot because the people who buy them are computer / data whores) are made to break. It's outright disgusting. This glass should be used on screens but the rest of the phone needs to be made of something else - a decent metal or a decent plastic. I've had HTC phones made of both and they were fine without stupid cases in my clumsy hands.
Or you can use a metal back with a plastic/glass insert where the inductive coil is (after all, the similar solution is used for cameras and fingerprint sensors).
Glass or metal (specially poshied) scratch as easily as plastic. High quality textured plastic does not. Before premium phones had a nice texture plastic cover.
Easy for removable battery, dirt cheap to replace.
But also ridiculously cheap-feeling. For a device you hold in your hand 99% of the time it's in use, in-hand feel matters. The Galaxy S3 was a decent phone for its time, but felt like a horrible, cheap toy. I hated it. My old HTC Hero had a good plastic back, but it still can't compare to the feeling of quality and comfort when handling my old HTC One (M7) or current OnePlus 3T. I abhor glass backs, though. They don't scratch as easily as plastic, and feel a bit better, but it just feels too inert for me. Not to mention that the slippery smooth surface is very uncomfortable to hold.
Your hands must be ultra-sensitive if the difference between how plastic and glass feels in them matters that much to you. That's completely understandable. I think people that regularly use a large quantity of hand lotion would end up with skin that would be more soft and discerning.
I still use my old S3 LTE on a regular basis, mainly because of special software that runs on it. It is all around a great design, with a very well engineered skeleton and as far as modern glass-screen phones go, basically unbreakable.
I however would agree, that the plastic backside feels cheap. That's not an issue of plastic, it's an issue of the horrible glossy lacquer they applied for optical reasons.
I would argue that it can be done right, plain textured unpainted polymers are clearly the way to go. Nokia proofed that with the N9 with a polycarbonate exoskeleton.
Even better though was a prototype predecessor of the Samsung Galaxy S1, the Samsung H1 (sold exclusively with Vodafone branding), which used the same magnesium endoskeleton (no doubt inspired by IBM Thinkpads) as the S1 through S3, with a polyamid shell with great texture.
When I hear high quality textured plastic, I think of my old Nokia Lumia 920. That felt pretty good in my hands. Not as good as the HTC One (M7), but better than most phones and without sacrificing wireless charge capability. Like you, I hated the feel of the Galaxy S3. I would not consider it representative of high quality textured plastic phones.
To me, no phone I've ever held was better than the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX HD. That kevlar backing, with the smooth yet grippy feel, and fantastic texture... Glass is so overdone, and although I do admit to enjoying the aluminium of my old Desire HD, it's not all that practical to have a metal back for other reasons (Qi, NFC, phone signals). In fact, I just wish I could have my old RAZR MAXX HD again, but with newer innards. The form factor is absolutely perfect, and they still fit a huge battery in it.
But I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Note 8. Glass on the back and front is bullshit. The phone does NOT look "stylish" because you have to hide the fragility inside of a rubber case... Which also traps in thermals, which means reduced SoC performance due to throttling on warm days.
I'm conflicted about it. I would want a solid feel like metal gives, but I also want wireless charging. Glass might just be a decent middle ground... then again it is true you end up using a cover making it all but ugly again.
I think they have focused more on durability than scratch resistance.. probably because that's what the cell phone manufacturers want and that's probably because people tend to destroy their screens a lot through cracking. With the phones becoming bigger and bigger and thinner and thinner the glass has to become more and more durable. If people move back to 3.5 inch phones that are 1/3 inch thick then I'm sure they'll come out with some very scratch resistance glass for it.
I myself have not had any scratching or breaking problems. I dunno what people do with their phones. I did have some minor scratching with my old iphone 4... Which suggests how much better the glass is today than back then. It's thinner, more scratch resistance, and much more durable.
I rarely pay much heed to mobile phone reviewers as they end up in a different world to us normal consumers when they have another new phone to play with week on week. What we find important doesn't even cross their mind. They just rave about what made this weeks phone different from last weeks.
If only Samsung's Active line of smartphones wasn't so ugly. These glass backs are the dumbest thing for consumers. Pay more for less and inconvenience.
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33 Comments
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babadivad - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Gorilla Glass 3 was the last great gorilla glass. It was the only one I was able to forgo using a screen protector on my phone.Spoelie - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
+1Resistance against drops is one thing, but scratch resistance is equally as important, if not more so.
I had an HTC one with gorilla glass 3 which was near flawless after 2y, while this s9 with gg5 shows a good deal of mini scratches after only 3 months.
I do try to keep small change and keys seperate, but the occasional scuff is not avoidable.
notashill - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
Luckily there are still some new phones being made with GG3, i.e. the recent Nokia models.Gunbuster - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Or instead of trying to engineer your way out of glass cracking maybe just lay off slathering on the back of phones in the first place.PeachNCream - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Hey buddy! Hey! This is Anandtech where slapping glass on the back of your phone results in a premium feeling. Ignore the reality of breakage and the necessity of hiding said glass under a cheap rubberized or plastic case. If you disagree, you need to go back to the Best Phones article for Q3 2018 where that fact is clearly shoved down your throat sideways."An alternative to the 7X in Europe is the Honor 9 Lite which comes with the same hardware internals at a similar price of £199 / 199€ and comes in a much more premium feeling glass design."
close - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
If it's any consolation most tech editors these days swing dissonantly between opinions and can't decide what's more "premium" between metal or glass, what's useful and what's a gimmick between notches, fingerprint sensor placement, face unlock, and such.Come back next year, who know what they'll be praising then.
The last time someone on AT actually pointed out that glass is not the best thing to make a phone out of was probably Anand in the iPhone 4 review 8 years ago.
"Only Apple would think to make the two surfaces most likely to hit something out of glass. It's like making mouse traps out of cheese, something bad is bound to happen."
peevee - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Of course Anand was not correct, as the first hit practically always happens at the corner.emn13 - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
Or, you know, they could pick a material for the frame that actually *is* premium, rather than faking it like metal and glass. It's rare stuff, but you may have heard of it... "plastic". Shockingly, it's both largely shatterproof and RF transparant - wow right? Best yet, it comes in any color, and in lots of varieties, giving manufacturer's real flexibility.philehidiot - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
Myself I hate the glass thing. I firmly believe it's to please the only people who don't use a phone without a case - the journalists reviewing it and thus encouraging sales as it "feels great". I recently saw an iphone which was <2 years old and was utterly destroyed due to drops, etc. Not using a case on a phone which is so damned expensive and taken out of a pocket several tens of times a day is just madness. I had a couple of HTCs made of metal (M7 and M9) and they survived quite happily without a case. Sure a couple of drops left their marks but they didn't induce major cracks down the screen, just dents. You use these things daily and they'll get worn - see for example a car which gets little chips in the paint from the road but it is made of such material that it doesn't lead to real damage or dysfunction. Same with a wallet - you expect little scratches but if it fell apart after dropping it or got destroyed by your car key being in the same pocket you'd be raging and rightly so. Phones these days are made with sensible materials if they're cheaper but the top of the range ones (which are more likely to be used a lot because the people who buy them are computer / data whores) are made to break. It's outright disgusting. This glass should be used on screens but the rest of the phone needs to be made of something else - a decent metal or a decent plastic. I've had HTC phones made of both and they were fine without stupid cases in my clumsy hands.BedfordTim - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
It is meant to crack so you buy a new phone. Why else would you use a heavy fragile material.UpSpin - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
If you use a metallic back you can't use inductive charging, if you use a plastic back it does scratch easily.peevee - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Or you can use a metal back with a plastic/glass insert where the inductive coil is (after all, the similar solution is used for cameras and fingerprint sensors).Lolimaster - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Glass or metal (specially poshied) scratch as easily as plastic. High quality textured plastic does not. Before premium phones had a nice texture plastic cover.Easy for removable battery, dirt cheap to replace.
Valantar - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
But also ridiculously cheap-feeling. For a device you hold in your hand 99% of the time it's in use, in-hand feel matters. The Galaxy S3 was a decent phone for its time, but felt like a horrible, cheap toy. I hated it. My old HTC Hero had a good plastic back, but it still can't compare to the feeling of quality and comfort when handling my old HTC One (M7) or current OnePlus 3T. I abhor glass backs, though. They don't scratch as easily as plastic, and feel a bit better, but it just feels too inert for me. Not to mention that the slippery smooth surface is very uncomfortable to hold.PeachNCream - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
Your hands must be ultra-sensitive if the difference between how plastic and glass feels in them matters that much to you. That's completely understandable. I think people that regularly use a large quantity of hand lotion would end up with skin that would be more soft and discerning.MrSpadge - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
You're talking about Peach'nCream lotion?thomasg - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
I still use my old S3 LTE on a regular basis, mainly because of special software that runs on it.It is all around a great design, with a very well engineered skeleton and as far as modern glass-screen phones go, basically unbreakable.
I however would agree, that the plastic backside feels cheap. That's not an issue of plastic, it's an issue of the horrible glossy lacquer they applied for optical reasons.
I would argue that it can be done right, plain textured unpainted polymers are clearly the way to go.
Nokia proofed that with the N9 with a polycarbonate exoskeleton.
Even better though was a prototype predecessor of the Samsung Galaxy S1, the Samsung H1 (sold exclusively with Vodafone branding), which used the same magnesium endoskeleton (no doubt inspired by IBM Thinkpads) as the S1 through S3, with a polyamid shell with great texture.
BurntMyBacon - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
When I hear high quality textured plastic, I think of my old Nokia Lumia 920. That felt pretty good in my hands. Not as good as the HTC One (M7), but better than most phones and without sacrificing wireless charge capability. Like you, I hated the feel of the Galaxy S3. I would not consider it representative of high quality textured plastic phones.piroroadkill - Tuesday, July 24, 2018 - link
To me, no phone I've ever held was better than the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX HD. That kevlar backing, with the smooth yet grippy feel, and fantastic texture... Glass is so overdone, and although I do admit to enjoying the aluminium of my old Desire HD, it's not all that practical to have a metal back for other reasons (Qi, NFC, phone signals).In fact, I just wish I could have my old RAZR MAXX HD again, but with newer innards. The form factor is absolutely perfect, and they still fit a huge battery in it.
StevoLincolnite - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
You can actually get self-healing polymers.But I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Note 8. Glass on the back and front is bullshit.
The phone does NOT look "stylish" because you have to hide the fragility inside of a rubber case... Which also traps in thermals, which means reduced SoC performance due to throttling on warm days.
jospoortvliet - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
I'm conflicted about it. I would want a solid feel like metal gives, but I also want wireless charging. Glass might just be a decent middle ground... then again it is true you end up using a cover making it all but ugly again.flyingpants1 - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
They've had "unbreakable" flexible screen tech for a while now. It's just not released.Lolimaster - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
At this point is snake oil, GG was good till version 3 then it was a mix of "we lower the quality then up the quality for a new Gorilla Glass "***"Yojimbo - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
I think they have focused more on durability than scratch resistance.. probably because that's what the cell phone manufacturers want and that's probably because people tend to destroy their screens a lot through cracking. With the phones becoming bigger and bigger and thinner and thinner the glass has to become more and more durable. If people move back to 3.5 inch phones that are 1/3 inch thick then I'm sure they'll come out with some very scratch resistance glass for it.I myself have not had any scratching or breaking problems. I dunno what people do with their phones. I did have some minor scratching with my old iphone 4... Which suggests how much better the glass is today than back then. It's thinner, more scratch resistance, and much more durable.
flyingpants1 - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
You're a moron. Phones break because they're made of glass, end of story.Yojimbo - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
If you have children may I kindly request you give them up for adoption?jabber - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
I rarely pay much heed to mobile phone reviewers as they end up in a different world to us normal consumers when they have another new phone to play with week on week. What we find important doesn't even cross their mind. They just rave about what made this weeks phone different from last weeks.zodiacfml - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
If only Samsung's Active line of smartphones wasn't so ugly.These glass backs are the dumbest thing for consumers. Pay more for less and inconvenience.
mkozakewich - Sunday, July 22, 2018 - link
People should stop dropping their phones so much! It's not hard to just drop your phone once every three years instead of seven times a year.jabber - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
I have to say I think in nearly 23 years of mobile phone ownership I've dropped a phone twice.tipoo - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
Doubles durability, so 90% of phone manufacturers will make it half as thick and the same net durability no doubt.BurntMyBacon - Monday, July 23, 2018 - link
Wasn't that the whole point of making the new glass? (O_o)LiverpoolFC5903 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
My Galaxy S9 with GG5 scratches easier than my 20 year old 12mm aquarium glass. They are not scratch proof at all. Micro scratches all over the place.