The screen kinda has to be made of glass, and even Dow Corning's finest will break if it hits a hard surface. I believe synthetic sapphire is available for watches and smartwatches but not for any actual phones?

Best solution is a case with rubberised corners.

Extending the bezel to the edge of the phone means there's no "crumple zone" to absorb energy of impacts - that shock goes to the screen.

Personally I think a mobile phone that looks lovely but has little chance of surviving metre drop is a design fail.

Modern phones are stupidly flimsy.

That was also the big era of replaceable phone cases. I think people who are worried about the frailty of the phone buy secondary-market protective cases these days.

I just checked -- the 2nd gen model Moto G is $149.99 on the Motorola website (free shipping). Add a few bucks of tax and it's still one third the price of these other offerings. MicroSD slot, water resistant, 5" display, pure Android experience. This is what the Nexus should have been. Except unfortunately it lacks NFC, ditto the 2015 model.

If it had NFC I'd consider getting one myself, but unfortunately that's a showstopper for me -- I write NFC apps for a living.

If Moto would put NFC in this bad boy, they'd have a killer phone!

Now, the Moto X for $400 does have NFC - plus a microSD slot. Hmmm.