Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by intoverflow2 on Friday September 02, 2016 @07:16AM
(#12412221)
> 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
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by JulianMorrison on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:36AM
(#12411905)
Ruggedized phones exist. They look like childproof rubber bricks, but they exist.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by marcosdumay on Friday September 02, 2016 @12:28PM
(#12414187)
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.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by eloisant on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:18AM
(#12411865)
Then just buy a case with a nice design. Buy a $20 case instead of a $3 bumper.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by lewisl9029 on Friday September 02, 2016 @05:33AM
(#12411898)
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.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by emodendroket on Friday September 02, 2016 @10:45AM
(#12413347)
Yeah, absolutely. You can't buy a high-quality one if you want to.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by jschwartzi on Friday September 02, 2016 @08:00AM
(#12412400)
My original Galaxy S was built like this. The screen was recessed slightly into the bezel.
Re:Google shelves plan for phone with interchangeable parts
by SamReidHughes on Friday September 02, 2016 @04:52AM
(#12411785)
You could instead just make phones be cheap enough that you don't mind dropping them.
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.