Samsung sure has a way it likes building phones, and despite how much we sometimes wish that it would mix things up a little, it looks like the company has no intention of straying from its course. As we wonder more and more about how the Galaxy S IV will appear, Samsung Executive VP Y.H. Lee spoke to CNET about why the company chooses to work with the materials it does, and why that means a lot of plastic.
Even though aesthetics absolutely matter to Samsung, manufacturing concerns play a large role in the company’s decisions over materials, and it needs to consider the impact that any change would have over the speed and efficiency at which it can produce hardware. That seems to put any CNCed metal phones out of the running, as the trade-offs needed would be hard for Samsung to justify.
Still, there’s a lot you can do with plastics, and Samsung makes some good points about the sort of durability they offer users, even if they seem a little less refined compared to any metal-adorned competition.
As for the Galaxy S IV, Lee says that it strikes “a nice balance” between being easy to manufacture and appearing to be a premium product, adding, “we listen to the market and try to accommodate.”
