I also wouldn't mind slightly thicker phones, but not necessarily for modularity. I just want to see phones that can be dropped flat on their faces on a concrete sidewalk and still remain in usable condition (i.e. no shattered screen).

Making the screen completely modular would be one way to achieve this, since you can just replace the screen with a new one if the old one breaks in a drop. But it can be achieved much more easily and cheaply by simply slightly recessing the screen (or by slightly raising everything around the screen) so the glass never has to make direct contact with concrete in the event of a drop.

This is how bumper cases work, and my $3 bumper case has saved my $400 phone enough times that I'd never use a new phone without one. That said, I really wish this kind of resilience was built into the phone itself, so I'd never have to have to cover up the nice design and great feeling materials on my phone with a cheap, bulky, hideous case.

> Making the screen completely modular would be one way to achieve this, since you can just replace the screen with a new one if the old one breaks in a drop

iPhone 4/4S did this just fine, undo two screws and the glass comes right off ready to be replaced for like $10.

iPhone 5> they started fusing the glass to the sensor IIRC so this became far more expensive/cumbersome

Ruggedized phones exist. They look like childproof rubber bricks, but they exist.

Slightly recessing the screen may not be enough. It's certainly not enough for asphalt. You'll need several millimeters of distance, and are probably much better by just placing some protective screen above it (although that increases the chance of something getting damaged - it'll just be the protective screen instead of the real one).

I've had good luck in choosing phones with cases just elastic enough to break a bit while protecting the screen (even without any kind of cover). But I never brought into the hard-case movement by Apple.

Then just buy a case with a nice design. Buy a $20 case instead of a $3 bumper.

Using a separate case still adds a lot more bulk than would be necessary if the protective layer was built into the phone itself. This is just yet another example of the unavoidable cost of modularity that people have been bringing up everywhere in this thread. And even the nicest and most expensive cases I've tried have never really been able to compare with my actual phone in terms of quality of material and design.

Yeah, absolutely. You can't buy a high-quality one if you want to.

My original Galaxy S was built like this. The screen was recessed slightly into the bezel.

You could instead just make phones be cheap enough that you don't mind dropping them.

That's the American spirit!

> "modular" really comes down to "repairable" which means extra engineering would have to go in to the fact that you couldn't just glue most pieces together.

I think those are quite different: a phone that screws/clips together where you can replace a damaged screen is a very different prospect from one made of pluggable blocks.

>Some people are obsessed with weight/thickness in mobile devices, but not as many as the manufacturers think there are. "

That's not what sales numbers say. People repeatedly buy the thinner/lighter models (which also seem more "advanced to then") over heavier alternatives.

But often you don't even have the option for a thicker model... So how can anyone even claim that?

From the times that you do have it.

This could easily be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Focus most of your efforts putting the good stuff into the thin phones and then run the numbers how everyone is buying thin phones!

I'm not sure if your assertions are true, but I passionately want them to be so.