My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive, and then it slips out when I get out of the car. But no problem on my previous phones, despite the Moto had cheap Panda glass front.
Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January, and I loved the phone for the camera and good specs. But alas after only 4 months, and single drop of just 30 cm while sitting on the porch, the glass back immediately cracked! The back now looks like an ugly mess, and the high water resistance is very likely gone too.
For sure the last time I buy a phone with a glass back!!!
I wonder why glass back is so popular, and I curse the media for reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S2 as "feeling a bit cheap", because the back was synthetic, and drop tests showed it was 10 times as durable as the iPhone with its glass back.
Samsung did it right in the beginning, glass backs are a curse.
PS: I don't use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it's an obvious design flaw!!!
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it's fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
I am not clumsy, that's why I believe the phone should be able to last without cover. This was the first time the phone slid out of my packet, and I've NEVER dropped it out of my hands. One 30 cm slip and it's broken. Where for instance my Moto had maybe 4-6 in all over the years, and remained unscathed, apart from some tiny scratches.
The sliding out of pocket does occur maybe a couple of times per year, but it's a low drop, and the phone should absolutely be able to handle that tiny drop, as it's an item for everyday use.
I've also never had problems with scratches on my screen on any phone, which is the reason people use screen protectors I guess, which I don't either, because they are ugly, for instance they create a tiny ring around the camera, and they feel awful IMO, my phone came with it, and it took exactly 10 seconds for me to decide to remove it, because I could feel the edge of the screen protector when using the phone.
But please stop with the dropping my phone regularly comments! Just because I dropped my Moto a few times (slid out of pocket) over almost 4 years! Always from low height, which it should be able to handle a few times.
Very good specs for the price all around, but admittedly there are many other good phones. But for me there is always some minor detail I don't like.
One Plus has opposing button that causes miss clicks.
Flat screen, many phones have curved screen that makes them less suitable as readers IMO, and can also cause input mistakes.
Some dont have IP68 or an IP rating at all.
Some don't have good software support, this has 5 years.
I might have sprung the extra dough for the Samsung S24 Ultra, except for the unpleasant sharp corners, and I'm not that enthusiastic about Samsung products in general anymore.
The biggest drawback with Xiaomi used to be the OS, but the new HyperOS is way better than MIUI. Although it looks the same, it somehow has a better feel to it, and they've gotten rid of a lot of crap-ware.
Now the biggest drawback IMO is that it's made in China. Which considering recent political developments I will do more to avoid in the future.
That does make sense, I guess. I forget that most people aren't hardcore privacy nuts sometimes. I'm currently on a OnePlus with a custom rom, which'll probably be good for a few more years, but the only new phone I'd consider at the moment would be a pixel with Graphene.
I used to use Android AOSP without Google apps for that reason, I am still observant on privacy, but I don't see why a one plus should be any better than Xiaomi, or why a random ROM with possible unknown interference should be safer/better regarding privacy.
It likely isn't. I just got it very cheap some years back, and don't see a good reason to replace it while it still works.
You could always have bad actors, of course, but these Roms tend to be mostly open source community projects, so the incentive structure leading to bad behaviour seems less clear to me, and such behaviour would theoretically be more detectable (how much anyone actually audits the code in practice is another question, of course.) In the end, running any Software you haven't written yourself involves a certain amount of trust.
Yes that's true, and problems with it are very rare AFAIK. We know Google is the #1 bad actor already, which is why I avoid a lot of the Google stuff, like search and Chrome.
Companies are generally bad actors to make money, while some claim Chinese phones have political motivated problems.
Considering the current political climate, with China being steadily more confrontational, I will absolutely look more for a phone that is NOT made in China next time.
But for me there was no good alternative to the Xiaomi 13T pro back in January.