Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The smartphone world is no longer just a quagmire of plastic, metal and glass. Manufacturers now offer equipment back plates in a variety of materials from ceramics to glass. But which one do users prefer?
We raised this question in a recent public opinion survey, and the result was very significant. Read on to learn more!
What is your favorite material on the back of your smartphone?
result
We saw more than 4,000 votes in this opinion poll released on August 6, and the results were unexpectedly close.
The first three choices all received more than 20% of the votes, and metal (26.2%) surpassed the popularity of glass (21.6%) and plastic (20%). Overall, these three accounted for more than two-thirds of the total votes, which proves that smartphone manufacturers’ reliance on these materials is reasonable.
However, they are not the only options available. Among the remaining options, ceramics received 12.6% of the votes, surpassing glasstic (9.7%) and vegan leather/leather (7.2%).
Although it has glass properties on some Samsung devices, it is not a widely used material throughout the industry. Ceramics are also favored by Xiaomi and Huawei flagships, but they are expensive and have their own shortcomings. Vegan leather and alternatives are usually only used in special edition devices, unless you still carry your LG G4 with you.
But what about the “other” option? Well, many readers (3.2%) weighed them with their own material in the comments. Some anecdotes indicate that “rubberized” plastics are popular among the general public and are often used in rugged and durable equipment. Motorola’s experiments on Kevlar fiber have also been mentioned, and carbon fiber and wood also seem to be outliers. Finally, other readers suggest that they don’t care what the phone is made of, because they almost always put the phone in a protective case after purchase. Carefully read more user views below.
Your comment
- need one: plastic. Better yet…rubber plastic.
- Javier Hollos: My favorite is rubber plastic.
- Desert whale: When Motorola returned to Kevlar, I liked it!
- Jindan: I want to see a real carbon fiber phone.
- Conrad Uroda-Darraque: Polycarbonate:)
- Phil Gartman: My preference is zero. I have never used my phone without a protective case, so it really doesn’t matter.
- Scott: I don’t care about the material on the back of the phone, because I put a protective cover directly on it, and I didn’t see the back of the phone at all. This is why the camera bump is so frustrating. Simply thicken the phone to dissipate heat or put a larger battery in it. In any case, every case I placed overcame the bumps of the camera.
- Anonymous 42: It doesn’t matter, because I always use a phone case. Even if I don’t use a protective case, I would rather have a phone that will not break when dropped than a phone with a glass back cover. However, I do want the phone to have wireless charging and water resistance, so this will limit the options.
- Alan Gilbertson: LG has an extraordinary plastic, even if it is not sticky at all, it is almost impossible to drop. It is also self-healing, so tiny scratches will disappear. That is the best I have encountered so far.
- Mike Gardner: I like the wooden back of Moto Z, and then I will use bumpers instead of boxes.
- bossfan61: I really like the leather back cover of the LG G4.
- Sky high: My favorite back is the Pleather back on the Galaxy Note 4. I wore it in white with artificial stitching around it, which looks great and has a good grip.
- Jingma: I chose metal because it is my preferred material, but plastic is also good, or leather, or anything other than glass, which is by far the worst material, more than absolutely necessary on mobile devices .
This is this poll. Thanks for your voting and comments. If you have any further explanations about your favorite phone profile or voting results, please be sure to put them below.