What would be your preferred panel for your smartphones

Your preferred panel material for a smartphone

  • Plastic

    Votes: 14 26.9%

  • Polycarbonate Alloy

    Votes: 25 48.1%

  • Ceramic Glass

    Votes: 10 19.2%

  • Stainless Steel

    Votes: 11 21.2%
  • Total voters
    52
M

maverick786us

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Aug 24, 2006
Messages
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Keeping build quality, form factor design and weight into consideration, what would be your favorite panel for mobile phone.

If you want to consider weight into consideration then plastic is the best option. But look at SG-2 it is such a good smarphone but its made up of CHEAP plastic.

Polycarbonate alloy sounds good, stronger than plastic but then again not strong enough as metal.

Panels stainless steel and Ceramic glass seems to be the best option, but then it will make it bit heavy and there are other problems that arise because of metal Example Death Grip issue of iPhone 4

For me 20-30GM of extra weight is not an issue. I am impressed with the Ceramic metal used in iPhone 4s. Although I've never touched a smartphone made up of total handmade stainless steel. But I would prefer a panel made up of stainless steel or ceramic glass irrespective of weight.

What would be your perferred material that should be used on the panel of your smartphone?
 
I thought this thread was gonna be an AMOLED cs SLCD poll (display pannels?).

Anyway, the choices don't make much sense... Polycarbonate is just a fancy word for plastic, what makes some recent phones touting polycarb special is the fact that they boast a UNIBODY polycarb shell, as seen on the Lumia 800/900 and One X. Using a single piece of thicker plastic makes the shell feel much more rigid plus it stands up better to nicks and bruises since its usually not painted (gouge it and it'll look the same color inside the scar).

Nobody makes phones out of stainless steel, aluminum sure, but not steel... Aluminum can be as rigid as plastic while being thinner, but you can't make the entire shell out of aluminum as you'd kill radio reception (see the Transformer Prime's GPS/Wifi issues). Most aluminum phones get around that by having a window or panel made out of plastic, sometimes its better executed and sometimes it stands out (EVO 4G LTE's glossy plastic lid side by side with the Al shell and kickstands).

Making the back of a phone out of strengthened glass (its not ceramic...) was just a dumbass move in the name of design and the most of the industry just let Applenget away with in the same way they ignore the humongous bezel around the iPhone's 3.5" display (seriously a 3.5" with half as much bezel would actually be pretty sweet).

As far as actual ceramic, the HTC One S is made of treated aluminum that's apparently converted into ceramic (at least on the outside) thru some sorta plasma bath. I'm sure it leads to a unique feel on hand (less cold & more rough than alu?) but i doubt it changes the build and construction in any significant way, except maybe being more resistant to scratching.

Personally I think aluminum is the best choice as it gives you more room to work with, which is probably why HTC went inthat direction with the EVO 4G LTE (in order to cram a couple more features than the One X boasts)... Its more expensive tho and can complicate the design in other ways. Polycarb unibody designs like the Lumia are sexy but it almost always means a sealed battery, whereas we've seen aluminum designs with side/bottom battery lids (battery slides in rather than drops in).
 
I'd have to +1 for Aluminum as well. Love how solid the HTC Titan feels in my hand.
 
Where's the aluminium option on the poll tho? Who's running this thread, Florida?
 
Impulse said:
I thought this thread was gonna be an AMOLED cs SLCD poll (display pannels?).

Anyway, the choices don't make much sense... Polycarbonate is just a fancy word for plastic, what makes some recent phones touting polycarb special is the fact that they boast a UNIBODY polycarb shell, as seen on the Lumia 800/900 and One X. Using a single piece of thicker plastic makes the shell feel much more rigid plus it stands up better to nicks and bruises since its usually not painted (gouge it and it'll look the same color inside the scar).

Nobody makes phones out of stainless steel, aluminum sure, but not steel... Aluminum can be as rigid as plastic while being thinner, but you can't make the entire shell out of aluminum as you'd kill radio reception (see the Transformer Prime's GPS/Wifi issues). Most aluminum phones get around that by having a window or panel made out of plastic, sometimes its better executed and sometimes it stands out (EVO 4G LTE's glossy plastic lid side by side with the Al shell and kickstands).

Making the back of a phone out of strengthened glass (its not ceramic...) was just a dumbass move in the name of design and the most of the industry just let Applenget away with in the same way they ignore the humongous bezel around the iPhone's 3.5" display (seriously a 3.5" with half as much bezel would actually be pretty sweet).

As far as actual ceramic, the HTC One S is made of treated aluminum that's apparently converted into ceramic (at least on the outside) thru some sorta plasma bath. I'm sure it leads to a unique feel on hand (less cold & more rough than alu?) but i doubt it changes the build and construction in any significant way, except maybe being more resistant to scratching.

Personally I think aluminum is the best choice as it gives you more room to work with, which is probably why HTC went inthat direction with the EVO 4G LTE (in order to cram a couple more features than the One X boasts)... Its more expensive tho and can complicate the design in other ways. Polycarb unibody designs like the Lumia are sexy but it almost always means a sealed battery, whereas we've seen aluminum designs with side/bottom battery lids (battery slides in rather than drops in).
Click to expand...


Sorry for the confusion. When I said panel, I mean body panel
 
I much prefer plastic, I don't give a crap about how it "feels" in my hands, I give a crap about how it handles a drop and how it handles my reception. So far my Atrix has done both better and everyone is telling its due to the solid plastic design. Not to mention I don't have to worry about dings in my phone, just scratches.

Seriously, from here on out I would rather all phones be made out of plastic, this shit seriously just works.
 
I chose everything but glass. I could give a shit about perceived build quality. The iPhone feels pretty good in the hand, but it's more fragile than most phones out there. What's the point in making a phone like that if you have to put thick plastic/rubber case on it to protect it?

I still put a case on my Gnex, but only so it doesn't get scuffed up from a fall. I've dropped it a couple times (once on concrete when it jumped out of my pocket while doing a light jog) without a case and the screen was still perfect, but it scuffed the housing up a bit. $25 later I got a new housing though and it looks like new again. Now I have a thin case on it.
 
Iphones glass design has issues with durability. I like the kevlar backing on the razr and whatever material they used for the one series seems pretty awesome. samsung phones may feel cheap but plastic is much more durable than most other materials.
 
Plastic. My Vibrant is an indestructible tank and is proof that perceived build quality is different than actual build quality.
 
Impulse said:
I thought this thread was gonna be an AMOLED cs SLCD poll (display pannels?).

Anyway, the choices don't make much sense... Polycarbonate is just a fancy word for plastic, what makes some recent phones touting polycarb special is the fact that they boast a UNIBODY polycarb shell, as seen on the Lumia 800/900 and One X. Using a single piece of thicker plastic makes the shell feel much more rigid plus it stands up better to nicks and bruises since its usually not painted (gouge it and it'll look the same color inside the scar).

Nobody makes phones out of stainless steel, aluminum sure, but not steel... Aluminum can be as rigid as plastic while being thinner, but you can't make the entire shell out of aluminum as you'd kill radio reception (see the Transformer Prime's GPS/Wifi issues). Most aluminum phones get around that by having a window or panel made out of plastic, sometimes its better executed and sometimes it stands out (EVO 4G LTE's glossy plastic lid side by side with the Al shell and kickstands).

Making the back of a phone out of strengthened glass (its not ceramic...) was just a dumbass move in the name of design and the most of the industry just let Applenget away with in the same way they ignore the humongous bezel around the iPhone's 3.5" display (seriously a 3.5" with half as much bezel would actually be pretty sweet).

As far as actual ceramic, the HTC One S is made of treated aluminum that's apparently converted into ceramic (at least on the outside) thru some sorta plasma bath. I'm sure it leads to a unique feel on hand (less cold & more rough than alu?) but i doubt it changes the build and construction in any significant way, except maybe being more resistant to scratching.

Personally I think aluminum is the best choice as it gives you more room to work with, which is probably why HTC went inthat direction with the EVO 4G LTE (in order to cram a couple more features than the One X boasts)... Its more expensive tho and can complicate the design in other ways. Polycarb unibody designs like the Lumia are sexy but it almost always means a sealed battery, whereas we've seen aluminum designs with side/bottom battery lids (battery slides in rather than drops in).
Click to expand...


If I remember, long time back there was a device from Nokia (Nokia 8800 I think) that was purely handmade, made up of stainless steel, feels very comfortable on your hands. Similarly there were couple of samsung slider handsets made up of stainless steel.

Although I do agree there hasen't been a touch screen smartphone made up of stainless steel

Imagine if Galaxy S3 would have been made of stainless steel. Just 20-30 gram extra weight won't matter much, but its build quality will be excellent
 
maverick786us said:
If I remember, long time back there was a device from Nokia (Nokia 8800 I think) that was purely handmade, made up of stainless steel, feels very comfortable on your hands. Similarly there were couple of samsung slider handsets made up of stainless steel.

Although I do agree there hasen't been a touch screen smartphone made up of stainless steel

Imagine if Galaxy S3 would have been made of stainless steel. Just 20-30 gram extra weight won't matter much, but its build quality will be excellent
Click to expand...

S3 isn't out, so I take it you mean S2.

Reception would be terrible, it would jar the hell out of the phone if dropped, and it would easily be 3 or 4mm thicker. It also wouldn't just be 20-30 extra grams.... Stainless is heavy as hell. You look at phones made of aluminum, which are heavier than plastic obviously. Well aluminum weighs 0.098 pounds per cubic inch (give or take a bit based on alloy). Stainless Steel ranks in at 3x that heavy.

Let's do some rough calculations. The One S is 119.5 grams. I'd say 50 grams for the battery, 25 for the components. That leaves 44.5 grams worth of aluminum. That means 133.5 grams of Stainless Steel -- so you've practically just doubled the weight of the phone (would make it a 208.5 gram phone).

The S2 is actually very solid, with no creaks.... it's just how people perceive shiny polycarbonates. All Samsung needs to do is make their polycarbonate shells matte soft-touch instead of gloss.
 
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maverick786us said:
Sorry for the confusion. When I said panel, I mean body panel
Click to expand...

Who calls the material a phone is made out of "body panel"?

Totally misleading title and very bad phrasing...

Either way, I'd go with stainless steel given the choice.
 
That new material HTC is using for the One X feels really nice, I'd pick that over glass or metal.
 
I prefer metal (be it titanium, stainless, aluminum, etc)

It looks nice, gives the phone rigidity and gives it a little bit of weight/mass. The only downside to metal is, when I owned an original iphone (especially in the winter) and happened to be wearing in-ear headphones, I would often end up shocking the inside of my ears do to the static buildup. Not fun!

Plastic is nice for keeping the weight down, but in general feels cheap and cracks easily. My iPhone 3G/3GS held up pretty good, but cracks were starting to form around the corners by the time I got rid of it. It also scratched really easily compared to other materials.

Glass is nice looking and feels good in the hands, but it's too brittle IMO. Even gorilla glass leaves a lot to be desired.
 
The problem with the SGS3 is really aesthetics... It has a battery lid so it's probably a bit more prone to creaking than a polycarb unibody like the Lumias & One X, but you do have access to the battery which is a huge advantage. The bigger problem is really the look and texture of the plastic they use, I think the body design is fine but the faux metal or glossy plastic look is just cheap and makes minor scratches stand out.
 
i love the feeling of my sgs2's plastic body specially the back cover. too bad sgs3 didnt have such textured finish. i have dropped my phone several times on the floor hard enough to pop the back cover open but not even a scratch let alone any crack.
 
Yes the white SGS2 having the glossy back panel looks good compared to black one. Its pretty surprising that Samsung had such a good hype about Galaxy S3 and its design and look was a failure. I would'nt say that its a bad design. But compared to SGS2 it looks bad
 
Glass is junk, an accident waiting to happen. It's almost become a game to count the number of iPhones 4s I see and dividing them between those in a tank like case, and those that are shattered.

Polycarbonate and plastic are the same thing, so it's really down to plastic vs. metal. Personally I've had both and I'd say plastic but with a big condition. What makes the biggest difference is the engineering/construction, not the material. With plastic it's easy to go either way, a cheap thrown together toy or a solid built device. With metal you need a minimum build quality or it will literally just fall apart.

Metal blocks radio waves and is also a strong temperature conductor - it gets cold or hot depending on its surroundings. As a result I've found a metal phone needs to be rubbed for a few seconds to heat up the back before it is confortable to use in a winter climate. There is a positive to this but it can wait a second.

Plastic can feel really cheap, but if built solid it can have a superior feel to metal with a lot of room for soothing textures. The one bad thing even on a well designed plastic shell is heat - I've found that with faster processors a lot of heat can be transfered into the plastic shell, so after a gaming session the phone becomes uncomfortable to hold.
 
How about plastic AND metal? :p Still waiting for Wirefly to ship my damn EVO 4G LTE. Seems very solidly built, but I'll more than likely still use a thin TPU case... They've served me well in the past and I always re-sell my phones in a year or year and a half.
 
Impulse said:
How about plastic AND metal? :p
Click to expand...

Nokia makes a number of budget phones that combine plastic and metal well. I used the C3 a while back which is a relatively solid plastic frame combined with a tight fitting metal back plate. It was very solid and inspired a lot of confidence when carrying it around.
 
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