Technology

I have had few phones over the years, few of them I damaged by using them in bad conditions, mainly on construction sites.

As far I can remember I have never cracked the screen. Phones are and always were fragile, its a piece of condensed technology, with large glass screen. What do people expect from glass dropped from 1m? Just take care of your shit.

It always amazes me how can people cary their phones in back pocket or just throw it in the bag with keys or other sharp objects.

The article is disappointing. It appears author of that article only has one narrow view and assumes the rest of the world has the same.

They buy the most fragile and aesthetically pleasing phones, and complain they are fragile. They advocate for manufacturers to stop making fragile aesthetically pleasing phones, and only make rugged or repairable phones instead. They make an inference that phones should be repairable like cars with accessible parts and non-proprietary tools, but they appear to not know that today's cars have difficulty getting replacement parts and absolutely contain mechanical and electronic proprietary tools to repair the cars.

Mr/Ms author, if you want a phone that doesn't break so easily when dropped, you can buy such a thing right now. Something like CAT phones:

... or other ruggedized Android phones.

I think the last time I dropped a phone an broke the screen on it was maybe 2007. I don't even use phone cases. If your particular use case has you dropping your phone more, buy one that exists and is designed to take those kind of conditions. There's no shame in that, but don't advocate for an entire industry shift because of just your own use case.

Smartphones/technology are still incredibly young in the grand scheme of things. Each of the new generation of devices that comes out adds more functionality for features that people want. Until that stops, it doesn't make sense to try to switch everyone to a "buy it for life" approach. My Commodore 64 computer still works, and is very easy to service, however I wouldn't have wanted technology to stop back then just because its a sturdy built machine. Today I have the paper thin laptops with 8 hours of battery and high speed CPUs are not as rugged or repairable as my venerable C64, but I'm quite glad to have the fragile laptop instead.

Smartphones are fragile without a case. They should have one, and maybe manufacturers should make that clearer, but a world where removable cases didn't exist would just mean that the case you get is the one that the manufacturer chooses for you and permanently attaches to the smartphone. Less options for you.

Just get a case.

I am also more than willing to carry a slightly thicker device if it means greater durability and easier repairability.

Me too. It's why I have a case.

And I am certain many others would gladly trade their bulky, overpriced cases and bumpers for a sturdier device that inherently provides the protection we now have to purchase separately.

If you want a built-in case, you can get them. There is a whole collection of "ruggedized" smartphones from various manufacturers in China that are large, usually have a hefty battery, and have shielding built into the device.

Look at Doogee for one such manufacturer.

https://www.doogee.com/

Oukitel for another:

https://oukitel.com/

Ulefone for another:

https://www.ulefone.com/

Personally, I think that the built-in case isn't very interesting relative to a removable case, but the large battery might be, depending upon your needs.

EDIT: A number of manufacturers will even make official cases for their phones, if you can tolerate a removable case and just want something endorsed by the manufacturer.

Apple, for example:

https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/accessories/cases-protection

Or Google:

https://store.google.com/product/pixel_8_phone_case?hl=en-US