The only real bad thing we can say about Samsung’s devices, besides Touchwiz, is the build quality. They kind of feel cheap and are made of plastic unfortunately. Now you’d think with all the money that Samsung has made in the past year or two, that they would switch to some other kind of material to make the Galaxy S4, like polycarbonate. At this point all the rumors are pointing to it remaining plastic. But in an Interview with CNET on Tuesday, Samsung’s Moie Business executive Vice President YH Lee stated that the company decided to stick with their plastic build because it was a very durable material and it’s also much easier to manufacture on a large scale.
Lee stated: “Since we are shipping really large units, we always have to think how efficiently we can manage the manufacturability and also durability”. Lee also acknowledged that there is a market for high-quality plastics, however, the company has tried to make a balance between firmer build quality and easy manufacturability. Which can be a bit of a daunting task.
“I think the next product has a nice balance between this,” she said. “We listen to the market and try to accommodate.”
So there you go. It’s basically confirmed that the Galaxy S4 will be made of plastic just like the Galaxy S3. For some that’ll be a deal breaker, but it’s something Samsung knows will sell well. Just like having physical buttons on their devices will also sell well. Although many of us would love to see those go away as well. I know I’m not the only one that loves HTC’s build quality, and wish other manufacturers would build their devices like that. But unfortunately for HTC, they have Sense (or some would call it nonsense) on their devices which keeps many people from purchasing their flagships like the HTC One. Another factor was carrier availability as well.
How many of you are going to buy the Galaxy S4 whether its plastic or not? Let us know in the comments below.