I don’t think I’ve seen a “premium” phone with a plastic back in a LONG time

Well, they’re definitely less these days but the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, Motorola Razr 60, OnePlus 13, Motorola Edge 50 and Pixel 9a are all premium or even flagship phones (between 500€ and over 1000€) that have plastic backs.

There’s a wide range of plastics, it gets a bad rap

And glass also gets a bad rep. The time where your iPhone 4S back shatters because you dropped it from 30cm is no more, at least in premium phones. Sure, it can break, while plastics usually won’t, but they’re so much less likely to break from dropping, these days. Gorilla Glass and Apples Ceramic Shield do surprisingly well even with heavier abuse.

But yes, I wouldn’t mind some quality plastic options used on more premium phones. But it’s not quite as bad as you make it out to be.

Well, what’s the alternative? Metal won’t work because wireless charging is expected for most phones. Leaves glass and plastic, which are both found on premium phones. Glass more so because it feels and looks nicer than plastic and doesn’t scratch as easily, but you can still get premium phones with plastic backs.

Thanks! So about what I thought I knew. Shocker, that newer formats have better compression yet worse support. Who‘d have thunk?

Any thoughts on AAC compared to mp3 and Opus?

The glass is clearly half full, if you started with an empty glass and half empty, if you started with a full one.