The only time I ever see caseless phones is in the movies. Everyone I know protects their phone like it costs $1k to replace it. So I’m curious, is my circle unusual or the norm?
I would likely go case-less if it wasn’t for my dry hands, and the occasional need to have my phone sit on my leg (while I am driving) so I can go hands-free with it.
My problem is that any phone without a case (and about 99.999% of cases out there) has the phone being as slippery as an enraged hagfish. It literally leaps out of my hands with most operations, which is why I need a case – to grip it effectively.
And now with my iPhone 15 pro max, I have been in a desperate search for any case which is sticky enough. As in: with the phone in the case, place it face-up on your open palm without gripping it and tilt your palm 30-45°. If it slides off, the case is too slippery. I’ve had sticky cases before, but it seems that everyone suddenly stopped making them some time after the iPhone X.
I refuse to use a case on principle. The idea that you need a case to protect a phone from everyday use is so ass-backwards it hurts my brain. (and was not always the situation!)
It would be so much more space, weight, and cost efficient to simply engineer in the durability provided by a case through the use of proper materials and construction. But apparently marketing thinks nobody would buy a phone that looks and feels out of the box the way a phone with a case feels. So we end up with these thin, elegant, glass and polished aluminum devices… that most of the population has to immediately hide inside a bulky plastic/rubber case to have a chance of surviving 6 months.
Imagine if a carmaker sold a premium vehicle with a polished metal and glass exterior that you had to protect under a vinyl wrap to keep it from rusting and chipping under normal use… they’d be a laughing stock!
Imagine if a carmaker sold a premium vehicle with a polished metal and glass exterior that you had to protect under a vinyl wrap to keep it from rusting and chipping under normal use… they’d be a laughing stock!
tesla cybertruck wanders into chat, spots comment, slinks quietly back out with a red face
A phone doesn’t break under normal use. It breaks under rough use. If you treat a car rough it will get dents and scratches and rust etc.
even better yet, make that durable phone shell user-replacable! you can even have those shells in different styles and colours so users can accessorize their devices any way they like! this would also give birth to a thriving industry of aftermarket shells for your phones, where small makers can even 3D-print their own shells for sale.
I am thinking of the nothing CMF phone 2 rn
In my experience iPhones (12 and 14 specifically, are the ones I have had) are plenty durable that you can use them without a case.
I do and only have some slight scratches in the screen. Nothing noticeable during normal usage.
Wait doesn’t the cyber truck had an issue where it was possible for it to rust? Not to mention the unreasonably large glass windshield that would be expensive to replace?
My phone is cheap and old as hell. I absolutely do not care of I drop it and it stops working. Actually it already did that, but unfortunately the disassembly and repair only took about an hour so it’s gonna remain usable for a while. It is also a tank. Cannot fathom people who take care of their phones. It’s so much easier to just not give a fuck.
Redmi 9T.
Made the mistake of buying an iPhone 15, it’s so thin and boxy that it’s uncomfortable to hold without a case and the stupid camera array sticks out so much it does not lie flat on a surface when put down, even with a case
I used to use a case and protective screen, but never broke a phone from dropping or anything. So one day I just got tired of my phone feeling all huge and janky and stripped it down. Never went back.
I tried to use my phone without a cover, but it’s so thin that I don’t like the feeling. So I went back to my cover only for the added thickness.
Yes. No case. Why would I? I specifically got the phone because it’s quite small, and feels nice in the hand. A case would ruin that.
I also have not dropped any of my phones once in the past ~10 years.
I also have not dropped any of my phones once in the past ~10 years.
I am in fear and awe. I put in incredible mental and physical effort not to drop my devices yet have managed to drop and break about half of them (while they were in cases, too).
On the upside it forced me to learn basic electronics repair lol
I use a case and I have (very rarely) dropped my phones, but I’ve never broken one (or even significantly damaged one) by doing so. I suspect that might be because the lip of most cases protects the screen from direct impact with flat surfaces. Or maybe I’ve just been lucky.
And I do agree with you that a case bulks up the phone a bit and you lose that satisfying thinness. However, to me, there’s a positive trade-off: if you get the right case (like a silicone one), you can significantly increase the tackiness of its surfaces, giving you a much better grip on it. This, to me, is the chief benefit of having a case—not to protect it should you drop it, but to make it so you’re much less likely to drop it in the first place.
I use a case and usually a screen protector. They get broken pretty frequently anyway.
I haven’t ever broken a phone when I’ve dropped it, so no case or cover. It goes in my pocket with keys sometimes but has no notable scratches after 2 years
Yep, I hate cases. Naked phone all the way 🤘
The only reason I started using cases is because they made the latest Pixels so low friction that they refuse to stay put on most surfaces.
Pixels can move?
With the help of gravity!
Most people I see in public don’t have a case on their phone. But I also see a lot of people with fucked up phones and cracked screens, so maybe they should.
A lot of people also don’t spent that much on their phone, or have an easy, cheaper way to replace it through their carrier. Mine for example, I can usually find a current flagship device for no money down and pay it off $20-30 extra on my bill if I was to get a new device for any reason, or use the protection warranty and only spend $100 for a replacement on my current device if I lose it or break it.
They could also be work devices, owned by the company they work for and simply DGAF.
I swear, most fucked up screens I see are actually temperate glass screen protectors. The cracked protector is proof to them the protector works. I take it as proof a thin piece of glass barely adhered to a flexible chassis is way more prone to failure than the actual screen. I had film protectors until I my pixel 3a. Surprise, screen glass is hard as… Glass.
(edit: see comment below saying it’s a wear item. Unedited comment still here:) I cannot fathom why my coworker continually replaces the soft protector on his Samsung flip due to failure at the hinge. . The folding phone. The one that only ever goes in his phone folded.
Surprise, screen glass is hard as… Glass.
In some cases, even harder! Gorilla Glass has a variety of material strengths over glass in hardness, but at the cost of being (slightly) less scratch resistant.
Interesting. I did get some very mild scratches from keys on my pixel 7 early on. I didn’t think harder glass would come with less scratch resistance. Sure you don’t mean greater tensile strength?
Maybe? They’re less prone to shattering.
The flip and the fold come with a screen protector from the factory. It’s integral to the phone as the screen is flexible and soft, without it the screen would get opaque and dull. People forget that the point of cases and screen protectors is to be like rubber tires. They’re there to take weather (not damage) instead of the phone, and to be easily replaced on the regular. Samsung offers a replacement service for the flip that changes protectors regularly with the phone protection program.
You know… I didn’t think about that because I don’t own it and haven’t touched it. Consider the topic fathomed. Seems like some people do just fine without the protector, but I was blinded with our hard glass designs. Thank you
Yeah, like, there’s even a little leaflet that is the first thing you see when you open the box that just says “Don’t remove the screen protector. If it gets damaged, don’t replace it yourself, send it in for a free replacement.” Or some wording of that kind.
Yes. Never had one, never needed one, never cracked my screen.
Just makes the phone unnecessarily bigger and uncomfortable to put in your pocket.
It makes it uncomfortable to hold.
A good case makes phones much more comfortable to hold. Modern phones seem to be aiming for maximum slipperiness and sharp corners because it looks “premium”
The phones don’t seem slippery to me. They feel more real without a case.
Not using one with my fairphone, it’s bulky enough already, the entire back is replaceable for cheap and the frame looks solid. I dropped it quite a lot, including on some hard surfaces, and it’s only made a few superficial marks, like it scraped the frame’s shiny coating in that spot, but that’s about it.
I do use screen protectors though. They’re cheap and are not as intrusive as cases. Just changed it after years of service actually, the thing was all fucked up with scratches and missing glass everywhere, and the actual screen under was absolutely spotless.
I wish there were aftermarket components available for that thing.
Exactly the same, just that I don’t use a screen protector either.
This thing has been dropped so much that I think it’s just undestroyable, the new Nokia 3310
Same, I’ve yeeted mine across the road and it’s still fine.
I don’t use a phone case. I already think phones are too big. Adding a case makes the phone even bigger and even bulkier. I’m usually pretty good at not dropping my phone.
Yes, usually, because I actually did drop it recently. 😅 Although, the screen is fine. It just has a little love tap on the corner. It’s got character now. It’s got the “worn” look.
