That phrase doesn't mean what you think it means.

Drinking glasses. Not planned obsolescence but a way to remove klutzes like me from the pool.

Not really. Unless you think dishes are planned obsolescence.

Bro just dropped his brand new Galaxy Fold/Flip/pixel from way too high and found out they need a case.

Humans will break anything and everything that we use regardless of size shape or function just depends on how fast. Long as every piece is replaceable and repairable then it doesn't matter if it breaks

There's always a trade off when it comes to any device.

Fast or slow, lots of features or basic, cheap or expensive, thin/stylish or ruggedized, water or other ingress resistant standards. All of these have to be weighted against each other.

Also what constitutes a drop? 4 feet, 40 feet, 400? (sorry if I turned on anyone with a foot fetish)

It is absolutely possible to create a mobile phone with most features people want that survives multiple 4 foot high drops, but it will be encased in a few cm of rubber, the touch screen will be under a noticeable screen protector, and reception might suffer a bit, and it won't have wireless charging unless you're ok if that stops working after a unlucky drop. It will also probably be expensive, even more so if you then want to use more premium materials in order to try and slim it down some.

Uh, not really what planned obsolescence is.

Though I do wonder how much more durable they would be if corning made it 1 mm instead of 0.4 mm thick.

Manufacturers can also improve durability by recessing the screen slightly into a plastic frame, that way when the phone drops on its corner or side on a hard object, it will reduce the likelihood of it cracking.

If the parts that break are either unavailable or incredibly difficult to replace then I agree. (Held in by glue I'm looking at you ya bastard)

But just because it breaks doesn't mean it's planned obsolescence.

Where I work in the freight industry we have little handhelds we're supposed to use that get dropped all the time. Occasionally the screens break or the cameras break. Both of them are held in by screws and are swappable in that event.

Fairphone is a device I'd love to get as they are very easily fixable but they still break when dropped. The parts are readily available for purchase as well. It's just not easy if you're outside of the EU.

I agree that there should be phones that prioritize sturdiness for clumsy people, but I see things like sturdiness and waterproof capabilities used as an excuse to get rid of useful features, and I don't like it. I've had cell phones for over 2 decades, and I've never dropped one; having an SD card slot and headphone jack is much more important to me than durability, since I rarely hold it over water, and always make sure to keep a solid grip regardless of the circumstances.

Human beings: planned obsolescence.

Yeah, no. The forces of suddenly being stopped even after a few feet can be extremely difficult to mitigate. Most electronics can survive being dropped once, but few are able tp be dropped multiple times, and 'withstand being dropped' sounds like it would cover multiple drops.

The surface matters too. Most electronics are fine dropped on carpet, but fail on concrete because the surfaces are different.

With phones, like with other things, a bit of protective covering goes a long way.

very meme, much funny

I dropped my handset a bunch of times - came out second in a fight once and wrecked some nerves in my hand - but it survived every time.

It's when we were abroad and trying to rent those funny little scooters that I dropped it on cobblestones and it was insta-dead. And me having already done arrive-can with my info stored on my phone that's now unusable. Wheeee.

I don't think even an otterbox would have saved it, though. The universe has a sense of humour and it's a very dark one.

Sometimes it is unplanned obsolescence. I mean most TVs will not survive being dropped from the table…