Just about every article around has been giving the upcoming
Samsung Galaxy S III generally good reviews except for one downside: the
casing. Everyone, including us, were convinced that the Galaxy S III was using
a plastic case, but we just got word from Samsung that the phone is better than
you think. There had been some confusion over the Samsung Galaxy S III casing,
but the word straight from Samsung is that the case is in fact made of
polycarbonate, not just regular plastic.
The word that we got straight from Samsung was that the
Galaxy S III casing is in fact polycarbonate, but we wanted to make sure that
mean the entire case, including the battery cover, and it took a bit of time
for the confirmation to come back, but here it is direct from Samsung:
Polycarbonate is used
on the battery cover. Polycarbonate is lightweight, solid and is already being
widely used in the mobile industry. It was chosen as the best material to
represent the minimal organic design of GALAXY S III. Using three layers of
high quality, pure and clear polycarbonate, not only is the phone’s aesthetic
elevated, but the durability and scratch resistance is maximized.
This is a pretty big deal because once you get past the
flowery marketing language given by Samsung, the basic fact is that the case is
polycarbonate and not plastic.
Polycarbonate is one of those strange "premium
materials" because it's not always apparent by sight and touch that it is
higher quality. With glass and metal, we know automatically that we're dealing
with premium materials. But, polycarbonate can look and feel just like regular
plastic, even though it is far stronger and more durable.
From the research we've done, polycarbonate can be as much
as 300 times stronger than average plastic. Unfortunately, the hardness scales
and various impact resistance scales are different for plastics/polycarbonate,
than things like glass or metal, so it's difficult to get measured comparisons
of polycarbonate and say Gorilla Glass, aluminum, or the LiquidMetal that Apple
is said to be using in the upcoming iPhone. However, we were able to get some
numbers that were pretty interesting.
One material that can be measured on the same scale as
polycarbonate is the Kevlar fiber that is famously used on the Motorola RAZR.
Depending on the type of clear polycarbonate used in the Galaxy S III casing,
it should be harder, but possibly not quite as strong as the Kevlar fiber.
Clear polycarbonate can have tensile strength in the range of 10,000-10,500,
flexural strength between 12,000 and 17,000, and compressive strength around
11,000; meanwhile, Kevlar fiber has a tensile strength around 12,500, flexural
strength around 17,000, and compressive strength around 16,000. However,
polycarbonate does rate slightly higher on the Rockwell Hardness scale at R118
compared to R115 for the Kevlar fiber, and polycarbonate is also a bit higher
on IZOD impact resistance.
Tensile strength and flexural strength are very similar, and
determine how much a material can bend before developing localized deformations
or breaks in the material. Compressive strength is the measure of a material's
ability to withstand crushing force. It's reasonable to expect that
polycarbonate won't have the compressive strength or scratch resistance of
various metals that can be used in device construction, but it certainly could
provide tensile/flexural strength on par with those materials.
So, all in all it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S III will
have a much stronger, durable, and scratch-resistant surface than we all
expected. It may not be the strongest material available, and given that it
still can look similar plastic, it may not be the most visually impressive
material available, but it should be better than we expected, and certainly far
better than standard plastic. Of course, we know that looks play as big a part
in device construction as many other factors, so it remains to be seen if the
"plasticky" look of the Galaxy S III can be overcome with the added
strength of the polycarbonate casing in the eyes of consumers.
We told you all that the Samsung Galaxy S III has a case and
battery cover that is made of polycarbonate, not just regular plastic, which
means the case is much stronger, more durable, and more scratch resistant, even
though the case may still look and feel like normal plastic. Probably not to
anyone's surprise, there was an outcry by those who stood by the idea that it
doesn't matter if it's polycarbonate or regular plastic, because it will still
have a similar "feel and look" to plastic. It seems to us that
there's a fundamental problem with this line of thinking, which is tied
directly to one of our favorite topics: word usage.
We were careful to not lump polycarbonate together with
regular plastic despite the fact that polycarbonate is a type of plastic, is
because of the general connotation that "plastic" is cheap and
flimsy. This is not at all the case with polycarbonate, which we found can be
on par with the Kevlar fiber case found on the Motorola RAZR. Trying to lump
together polycarbonate and regular plastic is like lumping together the Samsung
Galaxy S III and the G1 in the same "smartphone" category. Sure, it's
technically correct, but you lose quite a lot of meaning by doing so.
Still, this idea that plastic is cheap and generally bad
came through along with the cries that the phone still looks and feels bad. The
trouble with making statements like this is that, unfortunately for polycarbonate,
not only is the word "plastic" tied to the idea of being cheap and
flimsy, but the look and feel of plastic is tied to that idea as well. And,
with the rise of polycarbonate, it may be time to reset our definition and
ideas about plastics. Polycarbonate isn't just a "fancy name", it's a
completely different class of material.
This kind of reset on how we view material is a new and
strange idea. Glass and metal have always had the benefit of having
associations with strength and beauty, but plastic has not. That's why we
wanted to make the distinction between polycarbonate and plastic. The casing of
the Samsung Galaxy S III is not the same as the material used on keyboards,
mice, game controllers, or remote controls. That's regular plastic, which can
certainly be cheap and not feel very nice. But, polycarbonate is no more the
same material as that as is Gorilla Glass compared to glass used in a champagne
flute.
As ever, it comes down to the question: why? People are
certainly allowed their own opinion as to what looks and feels better than
something else, but before you judge, just ask yourself, "Why do I feel
this way?" Because, there are a lot of things in our lives these days that
are made of plastic, so we have a certain idea of what plastic is, how it
feels, and what that feeling means. We know that if we drop the remote control
on a hardwood floor, there's a good chance that battery cover is going to
break, because it's just simple plastic. And, if another device has a similar
feel, we may assume the same build quality, and transfer the same biases to
that new device.
But, the truth is that polycarbonate is far stronger and far
more impact resistant than the plastic found in most consumer electronics. If
you drop a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, or if you take the battery cover off too many
times, one of the notches may break because that is plastic. The same shouldn't
happen with the Galaxy S III, and the polycarbonate is the reason. It may look
and feel similar, but that doesn't mean we should think of it as the same as
regular plastic. Plastics can cover an extremely wide range of quality,
texture, and strength. Plastic is everywhere, but not all plastics are made
equal, and that's something we should keep in mind when it comes to
polycarbonate.
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