My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive, and then it slips out when I get out of the car. But no problem on my previous phones, despite the Moto had cheap Panda glass front.
Then I bought my $800 glass back Xiaomi 13T Pro in January, and I loved the phone for the camera and good specs. But alas after only 4 months, and single drop of just 30 cm while sitting on the porch, the glass back immediately cracked! The back now looks like an ugly mess, and the high water resistance is very likely gone too.
For sure the last time I buy a phone with a glass back!!!
I wonder why glass back is so popular, and I curse the media for reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S2 as "feeling a bit cheap", because the back was synthetic, and drop tests showed it was 10 times as durable as the iPhone with its glass back.
Samsung did it right in the beginning, glass backs are a curse.
PS: I don't use condoms for my phones, if they need that for daily use, it's an obvious design flaw!!!
The glass back is supposedly there to give a premium feel to the phone. But because it's fragile, people have to use a cover, but with the cover, the premium feel of a glass back is gone anyways?
How is glass back not a design flaw?
EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:
I am not clumsy, that's why I believe the phone should be able to last without cover. This was the first time the phone slid out of my packet, and I've NEVER dropped it out of my hands. One 30 cm slip and it's broken. Where for instance my Moto had maybe 4-6 in all over the years, and remained unscathed, apart from some tiny scratches.
The sliding out of pocket does occur maybe a couple of times per year, but it's a low drop, and the phone should absolutely be able to handle that tiny drop, as it's an item for everyday use.
I've also never had problems with scratches on my screen on any phone, which is the reason people use screen protectors I guess, which I don't either, because they are ugly, for instance they create a tiny ring around the camera, and they feel awful IMO, my phone came with it, and it took exactly 10 seconds for me to decide to remove it, because I could feel the edge of the screen protector when using the phone.
But please stop with the dropping my phone regularly comments! Just because I dropped my Moto a few times (slid out of pocket) over almost 4 years! Always from low height, which it should be able to handle a few times.
It's like we can't have good phones. If you want Headphone Jack, SD card, Message LED, and synthetic back, you can't get a phone with good camera, GPU and water resistance at the same time.
Why are phone makers so hostile to their own users?
Because if they give you everything you want, you'll fix it and update it and you won't buy another phone for like 8, maybe even 10 years. And that would destroy their short-term profits, which would obviously be disastrous. No, it wouldn't kill the company or even require a single employee to be laid off, but the profits though 🥺
Google will stop supporting the android distro long before you have had it for ten years
Motorola is doing a lot of what you are looking for. And they're a lot cheaper than the competition
Yes I really liked my Motorola phone, but I wanted a better camera, and now Motorola uses those IMO shitty curved screens except on a few cheaper models.
The Sony Xperia phones offer IP68 with an SD card slot and a 3.5mm port. They just have poor software support and cost a shit ton.
The newer Sony phones have improved software support of 3 OS & 4 years of security updates.
That's good then. Still kind of low, but not terrible like before.
And it isn’t like the materials are the problem either. If they can make water resistant phone with glass they sure should be able to do it with plastic, right? But nope.
Well we would have premium metal back phones, but metal backs interfere with the other gimmick "wireless" charging
Metal often being Aluminum is also great for cooling, and my phone doesn't even have wireless charging! It's kind of a "budget" flagship, so some corners were cut. Now one of the corners is a bit smashed too. 😜
The Galaxy S5 had flagship specs, SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, IP67 water resistance, and a removable battery via a durable polycarbonate (plastic) back cover, back in 2014, a whole decade ago.
It was roasted by reviewers for being made out of "non premium" materials.
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro has all of those things plus a removable battery and can take a serious beating. I used to throw the phone almost daily to demonstrate it's durability. The sides got dents and gouges, but I never once had a crack in the screen. The newer Xcover 6 Pro has all of the same features as well as an iPhone 12 quality camera.
I managed to kill one after breaking the charging port (ironically not related to years of repeatedly being thrown at concrete) and got a Unihertz Titan. Its basically an oversized modern Blackberry 8830 and has the same durability, battery life, and a physical keyboard. No removable battery unfortunately and the camera sucks though.
Never heard of the Samsung Xcover 6 Pro, that looks very interesting. But I don't think it's a match to the Xiaomi 13T Pro spec wise.