Now that Apple's excellent iPhone has been equaled and even surpassed by phones from other manufacturers, Apple fans have been reduced to muttering about subjective assessments like "taste" and "style" to defend the object of their devotion.

Samsung's new phone hadn't even been launched yet, for example, before Apple fans started grumbling about it being made of "cheap plastic crap."

It's certainly true that Samsung makes good use of plastic in many of its phones — a design choice that makes the phones lighter and, likely, more scratch and crack resistant. (I have not dropped iPhones and Galaxies side-by-side to test this — it's just a theory.)

But Apple makes good use of plastic in many of its products, too, so it's not clear why Apple fans condemn others for using this material.