Take your iPhone out of the case you bought for it and examine it. Look at how beautiful it is. Enjoy the build quality, brushing over the display without hitting case edges or, worse yet, some stuck on screen protector. Feel the noticeably lighter weight!
You chose an iPhone color when you bought it. Why did you bother if you’re going to cover it with a case?
Ever since I experienced the anguish of back-to-back iPhone screen-shattering accidents, I’ve been firmly pro-case… But all it took was a single, seemingly mundane moment to alter my perspective: when I slipped off the case to extract the SIM card from my iPhone 12 Pro Max after months of leaving it swaddled in rubber.
I was instantly reminded of why these phones are premium: The flat display looked all the more stunning without the case protruding from the sides. The phone felt lighter and more comfortable in my hands and the soothing Pacific blue shone through, unadulterated. It was as if the very integrity of the iPhone’s hardware had been revealed. The newly unveiled iPhone 13 lineup is just as aesthetically pleasing…
After a quick Google I discovered droves of caseless iPhone crusaders: Fans claiming that using a naked iPhone is the only way to experience the best-known consumer tech product on the planet…
Former CNET contributor Chris Matyszczyk put it this way: “You don’t buy a BMW and cover it in black rubber, do you? … You don’t buy a Prada purse and then wrap it in pink cling film just to make sure none of the corners get scratched.”
MacDailyNews Take: The $20-$40 you gained by minimizing scratches for trade-in or resale wasn’t worth denying yourself the use of an iPhone as it was designed to be used for an entire year or longer.
Yes, we know Apple sells cases. They’re not stupid. They will definitely sell you stuff if you think you want/need it, regardless of whether or not you do (see the Apple Polishing Cloth and iPod socks).
Apple’s meticulously-designed iPhones aren’t meant to be hidden; naked iPhones only for us. — MacDailyNews, July 10, 2017
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
It’s so sleek it’s like holding a greased pig sometimes. I know those who have experienced dropping it from being so sleek & slippery. And the screen protector saves an expensive replacement and 45 minute trip to the Apple Store. Can get a clear case if seeing it is important.
Yes too slipery without case. Besides the canera bump makes this phone ugly. So no caseless for me.
I used the iPhone 3gs (for a long time and a long time ago) without a case. It’s curved plastic back was easy and pleasant to hold. My next one was iPhone 5s and then SE. They look great, and it was a shame to make them thicker/heavier, but they needed a case. Hard to hold. Fortunately, the same cases fit both models. That SE (2016) is still my current iPhone, running largest iOS.
I have children.
One of them uses my phone to video chat with Grandma on days off school so Daddy can work.
I. Am. Using. A. Case.
This sounds like a variation of the ASMR fetish, people need God in their lives, not new materialistic sensations. In any case, purses don’t shatter when dropped and BMWs are a bit sturdier than a few mm of glass and aluminum.
Haha, ASMR – when that fad started, I started listening to it, and it was just girls whispering on YouTube. And I was like, “Um, why is this supposed to be so great?”
“God in their lives”? This is not a good argument for removing a phone protector.
Let me simplify it for you: Instead of worshiping slabs of glass and circuits, go to church.
Personally, I don’t worship either one. That’s just me, though.
Thanks, I’ll simplify it back: Religion has no place in discussions here. Thx.
Can we keep religion, and politics, out of the discussions here?
Apple’s fault for designing it with a camera bulge that doesn’t lie flat on the surface.
I know I know, they’re clever for selling us covers, but the better design wouldn’t need a damn cover.
Sorry Sereena from CNET (Wow they’re still around) but you’re wrong.
Correct. The only thing uglier than the hideous “notch” is the hideous camera bumps. Not found on Android phones, they figured it out and Apple cannot?…
Exactly. They don’t lay flat, therefore, a case is normal and expected.
One trip to the ground and iPhone is festooned with scratches.
Also, sir, I’d like one Apple Car WITH bumpers. And maybe even some rust coating upstate NY winters with road salt. Maybe I’ll use a wax on my car too.
But hopefully I’ll have an Apple Chamois.
Any time I want to talk myself into buying a new iPhone, I simply remove the case. Within a week or two I need to buy a replacement.
Why doesn’t Apple sell bumpers like the ones they designed for the iPhone 4? The front and back don’t need protection, but the edges need a bumper.
I didn’t buy an art object. I bought a phone for functionally. I use a case. Take it off and my iPhone X still looks brand new.
Sorry. It’s too slippery without a case.
I use a case because without one it’s too easy to crack the front or the back of the phone plus I really like having a kickstand on my phone so I can stand it up.
I always get a case with a kickstand like this one.
https://amzn.to/3GKDt2S
I use a case because without one it’s too easy to crack the front or the back of the phone plus I really like having a kickstand on my phone so I can stand it up.
I always get a case with a kickstand like this one.
https://amzn.to/3GKDt2S
Enjoy breaking it into a million pieces and then replacing it out of warranty without a protective case. Whatever. Pay for your phone twice to ‘enjoy the beauty’. Pfft. Wish I lived in an ivory tower where my phone was only ever on a pedestal with my lustful eyes gazing longingly in its direction. Whatever. The rest of us work for a living, and whatever phone we have, our phone goes with us.
Yes, my iPhone has a case.
But when iPhone and I get home, I like to encourage it to slip it out of its case, to be comfortable in its own. Together we cast our cares, exposing ourselves, feeling vulnerable. We care not about notches or bumps. There we descend to the floor, living purely in the moment.
Keep it in the bedroom, guy! 😀
I haven’t used a case since the 4S. I agree with everything in this article. I guess I’m not clumsy and know how to take care of things maybe.
I’m guessing you have a desk job and not a plumber then. My husband’s iPhone and iPad are indispensable in his job and both are in very durable cases.
Over the past decade, we’ve had just two casualties … both were iPads which were knocked off of a countertop; both resulted in cracked screens.
For iPhones, I didn’t originally use a case, but have added them over the years.
My original motivation was simply to protect my personal iPhone from being scratched up by the protruding camera lens of a second iPhone …#2 is from my employer; the two are carried in the same pocket together ever since they upgraded the work phone from Blackberries.
This doesn’t say that I’ve not been clumsy at times … I probably drop an iPhone 1-2 times per year and so far its been a combination of luck & adequate protection from the case.
The author at CNET can convince me to drop a case … when these devices can pass a “full up” unpackaged drop test. Specifically, the one from MIL-STD-810G that we use at work: its an 8ft drop onto steel back by concrete…
…FYI, fun MILSPEC trivia: the steel is present merely to protect the concrete from being damaged too bad from the items being dropped.
If my phone isn’t in my hand, it’s in my right front pocket. I have a thin silicone case that really doesn’t add much thickness at all, but it does provide a great grippy surface.
I work in a warehouse with nothing but concrete floors and steel shelving. No way on earth I carry it around unprotected.
I will use a case as long as they continue to slip out of my hand.
Sorry CNET, its not about trivial scratches.
Its about drops which can & do cause catastrophic damage/loss.
Now I’d have no qualms in going bare if an iPhone could pass a full-up MIL-STD-810G drop test … namely, an unpackaged 8ft drop onto steel backed by concrete; multiple orientations.
But we’ll all be waiting years for that.
In the meantime, since even the mundane “3ft drop onto hard floor” invokes a non-trivial loss risk, to reduce that risk with a $20 case/bumper can save $1000 & is a wise trade-off.
BTW, the “but you chose a color” bit is also quite silly, since it can’t not be some color. If one is choosing for non-aesthetic reasons, the number of choices needed is (more or less) mostly linked to how many iPhones one is going to be using at the same time, or within a family. But more to the point, if device differentiation is needed … or if one is choosing for aesthetic reasons … covers offer more choices.
To use an automotive analogy, its easier+faster+cheaper to change what color your car exterior is with a wrap than it is to have your car repainted.
Let me put it this way: if you want to use your phone without a case because you agree with this article, knock yourself out; your phone, your money, your choice. As for me and my phone, we will use a case.