The Material World of Smartphones

It would seem that smartphone technology is getting flexible, with South Korean manufacturer LG, believed to be launching a curved smartphone, the LG G Flex, next month.

Pictures of the six-inch device are doing the rounds just days after Samsung revealed the world’s first curved screen smartphone in the form of the Galaxy Round. This latest development in mobile tech comes from the use of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, which are forged from plastic rather than glass, meaning that they can be bent more easily.

Research firm IHS Display, has already predicted that the global flexible display industry will see a dramatic growth over the next few years, particularly as manufacturers look to making other handset components, such as the battery and circuit board, more flexible.

But does this new trend signal the end for premium metal smartphone designs? And what will consumers think if more phone makers start using flimsy plastic to construct their devices, when current feelings are very mixed? We take a look at the material world of smartphones to discover what the future holds for handset creation.

Polycarbonate posse

Manufacturers have used polycarbonate, a versatile and tough form of plastic, for a number of years. Steering away from metal and glass for the first time, Apple’s new iPhone 5c features a colourful design, which is made from a single piece of steel-reinforced polycarbonate. Jony Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of design, described the 5c as, “beautifully, unapologetically plastic”, and it is.

However, the use of plastic in the construction of smartphones has received its fair share of praising and panning. For instance, there have been many negative reviews about Samsung’s ‘plastic-y’ devices, such as the Galaxy S4, which consumer feedback has described as ‘flimsy and too lightweight’.

Although Samsung may have been criticized for its use of polycarbonate, Finnish firm Nokia has experienced a somewhat stellar reception for its plastic range of Lumia smartphones, which have received several design accolades.

Nicola Ralston, Nokia’s head of color and material technology design, says that materials are a very important part of Nokia’s design approach to product making.

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She said: “What we were looking for was a material that could define a new character for Nokia and would allow us to make a great visual impact. We chose polycarbonate because of the color approach we wanted to take – the ingredients that make up polycarbonate allow us to get the best intensity of color.”

Metal mob

Going up against some of the major mobile players, HTC believed it had outsmarted its competition with its HTC One flagship. Built using an all-aluminium construction, the company stated its design would set the phone apart from other handsets.

Taking premium to the next level, the flagship has become one of the best-looking devices of 2013. The One’s ‘zero-gap construction’ has also been deemed an engineering breakthrough, as previous all-metal handsets blocked mobile signals. But the HTC’s seamless aluminum chassis has an antenna built in the back, eradicating the problem.

A couple of months later, Nokia ventured into the world of metal smartphones, by producing the Nokia Lumia 925. Encased in an aluminum chassis, the handset won plenty of admirers, but the manufacturer clearly saw where its skills lay and soon reverted back to its polycarbonate creations.

Verdict

Although metal devices like the HTC One and Nokia Lumia 925 are undeniably high-end, it seems the future of mobile materials is steering towards flexible plastic. Materials like polycarbonate have added benefits, and not only are they light and strong but they are also easy to mould and curve. This makes it an ideal choice for manufacturers as they continue to look for ways to make their handsets more flexible.

It will take some time before mobile makers really start bending the rules when it comes to smartphone technology and the materials they use, but for now, networks such as Vodafone and Orange have a variety of aluminum and plastic devices to choose from.

Stefanie Keeling

About the Author:

This guest post was written by Stefanie Keeling of Phones 4u – home of the best mobile phone deals and #projectupgrade.