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Do you use a case on your iPhone?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1,152 66.2%
  • Yes, but will be removing it

    Votes: 70 4.0%
  • No

    Votes: 379 21.8%
  • No, but will be getting one

    Votes: 13 0.7%
  • Sometimes

    Votes: 126 7.2%

  • Total voters
    1,739
I used to have my iPod Touches encased in the silicone sleeves. They worked OK but the ones I used left chemical? stains on the metal back plates on them. That indicates a silicone with a acid base. If you get silicone in a tube smell it first before you use it. If it smells vinegary that is a corrosive version. It is OK to use but not on anything remotely electronic.
 
I have a friend who is an engineer for GE. He works on the control systems for gas turbines used in power plants and petroleum pumping stations. In some areas he can only carry in a iPhone or his iPad if it is in a ATEX Zone 1 case. Laptops are completely banned from these areas, no cell phones. GE supplies his iPhones and iPads the Case on his iPhone cost almost $4000 dollars. To keep its certification you have to send it in periodically to get is refurbished to maintain the certification. Otherwise you can experience massive ka-booms in some of the places he works. The point is here the cases we are talking about are nothing compared with what is available if you have the bucks.

There is a case used by the US Army to put the iPads used by Helicopter pilots I have been trying to find for years. I personally looked at one an Army aviator had that survived the crash of his Apache Helicopter in Afghanistan. The Apache was destroyed it put him in the hospital but his iPad survived with zero damage.

 
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There is this, You are carrying the best part of $2000 bucks worth of smartphone butt naked in a dangerous world of hard surfaces. I have covers for my test instruments, Pelican cases for my ham radios. bugout bags for antennas. and I am going to leave my iPhone "naked to the world" (Eric Burdon, and War 1970) nope! 😁
I've had a smartphone since 2009 (HTC Touch Pro being the first, then the first iPhone in 2012). In the last 14 years I have dropped a phone sufficiently to require repair/replacement a grand total of…two times.

Both were replaced, but the first was because Apple couldn't get iOS 9 installed. So rather than replace the screen (which I cracked), they replaced the phone for the cost of the screen repair ($150). The second time, I had AC+.

My current phone (iPhone 11 Pro Max) and my last two (Pixel 3a XL and iPhone 6s+) are all in great condition and have never seen cases.

I would just add that my job involves computers and my lifestyle is not very active, so cases have never been a concern of mine. If both of those things were different, I might at least have a case during those times. However, part of the reason I keep my old phones is to use at least one as a secondary phone. In this case, that's my 6s+. Better to break my 6s+ on my morning walk than my 11 Pro Max.
 
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The big reason why I started putting my iPhones in mondo heavy duty cases was back in the days of wired earphones. I always was having its cable catch on something. It usually ripped the earpieces out but every once and awhile they would jerk out the iPhone and send it flying. The thing that forever bonded me to the OtterBox Defender case was I was climbing out of the truck. I had taken the iPhone out and placed it on the seat and laid the wired earphones next to it. Well when I walked away from the truck the cable hooked on something on my pants and the attached iPhone came flying out of the door and landed 6 feet away from the truck face down on a cement sidewalk. I was sure it was destroyed. I picked it up and it was completely undamaged. The only casualty was the earphone cable was destroyed. I have running really cheap earphones at the time and it was no loss. The OtterBox Defender worked as advertised. Now when I get a new iPhone I already have an OtterBox case on hand to put it in. I unbox the iPhone and minutes later it is safely resting in its OtterBox case, glass screen cover, and glass cover for the camera lenses.

I am going to get a new iPad later this year and for it I am going to do it differently. Now that I have a Mac Studio I have now experienced the integration between iOS devices and the Mac. I never updated my present iPad Air (1st model) because it was too big to carry around was not wifi. and after I started getting iPhones is just wasn't used. Now I am going to get a new one but it is going to stay at my radio desk working with the Mac Studio. I will be on a stand doing what iPadOS does best. It will not need a OtterBox Defender case. I will put a glass screen protector on it for the face down dumps on the desktop it might have. I work on old radios so there can be hard stuff for it to faceplant on.
 
The big reason why I started putting my iPhones in mondo heavy duty cases was back in the days of wired earphones. I always was having its cable catch on something. It usually ripped the earpieces out but every once and awhile they would jerk out the iPhone and send it flying. The thing that forever bonded me to the OtterBox Defender case was I was climbing out of the truck. I had taken the iPhone out and placed it on the seat and laid the wired earphones next to it. Well when I walked away from the truck the cable hooked on something on my pants and the attached iPhone came flying out of the door and landed 6 feet away from the truck face down on a cement sidewalk. I was sure it was destroyed. I picked it up and it was completely undamaged. The only casualty was the earphone cable was destroyed. I have running really cheap earphones at the time and it was no loss. The OtterBox Defender worked as advertised. Now when I get a new iPhone I already have an OtterBox case on hand to put it in. I unbox the iPhone and minutes later it is safely resting in its OtterBox case, glass screen cover, and glass cover for the camera lenses.

I am going to get a new iPad later this year and for it I am going to do it differently. Now that I have a Mac Studio I have now experienced the integration between iOS devices and the Mac. I never updated my present iPad Air (1st model) because it was too big to carry around was not wifi. and after I started getting iPhones is just wasn't used. Now I am going to get a new one but it is going to stay at my radio desk working with the Mac Studio. I will be on a stand doing what iPadOS does best. It will not need a OtterBox Defender case. I will put a glass screen protector on it for the face down dumps on the desktop it might have. I work on old radios so there can be hard stuff for it to faceplant on.
My daughter has an Otterbox Defender Pro on her phone. Considering how she managed to trash a very good condition iPhone 6s, I mandated this when I got her an SE2. I'm going to protect my investment from her lack of attention/concern about her stuff.

My son used to use cases when he was younger but abandoned them at some point. He's got a flawless SE and SE2 now. My wife on the other hand also uses cases. She simply just does not pay attention. That's her choice though, I've never mandated it.

My wife and I gave up earbuds about two years ago. We switched to bone-conduction headsets and we won't go back.
 
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My daughter has an Otterbox Defender Pro on her phone. Considering how she managed to trash a very good condition iPhone 6s, I mandated this when I got her an SE2. I'm going to protect my investment from her lack of attention/concern about her stuff.

My son used to use cases when he was younger but abandoned them at some point. He's got a flawless SE and SE2 now. My wife on the other hand also uses cases. She simply just does not pay attention. That's her choice though, I've never mandated it.

My wife and I gave up earbuds about two years ago. We switched to bone-conduction headsets and we won't go back.
What I do is I have a FiiO BTR5, and a BTR7 bluetooth DAC/Amps. These are stand alone devices each have an 8 to 10 hour battery. The BTR7 can been magnetically charged. You can use any earphone the BTR5 has a 2.5mm balanced, and 3.5mm unbalance outputs. the BTR7 has 3.5mm unbalanced, and 4.4mm balanced. These DAC/Amps and small sound fantastic. They can maintain contact with your smartphone at least 30 feet away. My iPhones stay safely tucked away in a pocket or man purse. They have very good phone call functionality. Note they do ACC.

 
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What I do is I have a FiiO BTR5, and a BTR7 bluetooth DAC/Amps. These are stand alone devices each have an 8 to 10 hour battery. The BTR7 can been magnetically charged. You can use any earphone the BTR5 has a 2.5mm balanced, and 3.5mm unbalance outputs. the BTR7 has 3.5mm unbalanced, and 4.4mm balanced. These DAC/Amps and small sound fantastic. They can maintain contact with your smartphone at least 30 feet away. My iPhones stay safely tucked away in a pocket or man purse. They have very good phone call functionality. Note they do ACC.

This is probably way overkill for my wife and I right now. We aren't audiophiles and our current Shokz Aeropex (called Openrun now) do just fine for us. I like the fact that I can be listening to music and still hear (because these don't cover or go in your ear).

But I'm glad you gave links, because I know at some point I'll want something better.
 
Here is a dead handy app to have. It works the mic's on Bluetooth earphones.

 
I have never used one before. Been using SE OG till the end and the next phone I got was the iPhone 13 mini. First iPhone with a camera bump I ever had. It looks ugly like a wart so I had no choice but to get a case. At least it looks normal now.
 
For those that don’t use a case, do you have any concern with placing the bare phone on a table or other hard surfaces? Does it cause any scratches or other “wear and tear”?
I have a few nice pieces of furniture that have glass tops. I don't put the phone on them because I worry more about the phone starting to vibrate and the camera lenses/module scratching the table glass. As much as it would be a pita to have to go to the Genius Bar with AC+ for an iPhone mishap, I think it would be more of a pain to have to find a glass shop to have a piece of glass replaced for a table my father refinished and had glass perfectly cut. Thus, my iPhone doesn't have a screen protector, but in a manner of speaking my tables do.😅

By the way, using caseless my previous iPhones (6, 7, 8 plus, XS and 12 mini) I had got problems only because they felt off my pockets especially getting into my car, never holding it in hand.
Well, that's because a Ferrari just sits so low!😄

I get that. That's what I'm like with my car. It's impossible to keep it mint as a daily driver, and it annoyed me, so I've given up.
I have a contact who has an Aventador (among other nice albeit less expensive cars), and he doesn't seem to worry about it all. He does things that many people with significantly less expensive but still very nice cars don't do like drives it in the rain, parks it in industrial settings where paint chips land on it, etc. So, you're in good company!😂
 
I have a few nice pieces of furniture that have glass tops. I don't put the phone on them because I worry more about the phone starting to vibrate and the camera lenses/module scratching the table glass. As much as it would be a pita to have to go to the Genius Bar with AC+ for an iPhone mishap, I think it would be more of a pain to have to find a glass shop to have a piece of glass replaced for a table my father refinished and had glass perfectly cut. Thus, my iPhone doesn't have a screen protector, but in a manner of speaking my tables do.
So what is the advantage of not having a case or screen protector on your phone if simple things like placing it down require an additional thought process every time?
 
I have never used one before. Been using SE OG till the end and the next phone I got was the iPhone 13 mini. First iPhone with a camera bump I ever had. It looks ugly like a wart so I had no choice but to get a case. At least it looks normal now.
I refer to the camera bump as the fugly camera boil. You probably know what fugly means, but with regard to 'boil', if you've ever had a zit that got to the boil level then you know how big those can get.

As much as I hate the camera bump, I refuse to engage in the 'just put a case on it and it will go away' suggestion. I'm choosing to engage in the other suggestion to make the camera boil disappear 'You aren't looking at the back of your phone all the time, right?'.
 
So what is the advantage of not having a case or screen protector on your phone if simple things like placing it down require an additional thought process every time?
Because that thought process becomes second nature. It's like training yourself to do anything. At some point you just do it (or don't) without thinking.
 
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So what is the advantage of not having a case or screen protector on your phone if simple things like placing it down require an additional thought process every time?
I guess my point was just, jokingly, that I take better care of a couple of surfaces in my home than I do my phone: my table has a glass surface-protector.
 
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Because that thought process becomes second nature. It's like training yourself to do anything. At some point you just do it (or don't) without thinking.

I’ve never been able to train myself not to drop things, I never intend to drop my iPhone but do it about twice a week on average. I still fail to see what advantage you gain from it, but I guess I don’t need to.
 
I’ve never been able to train myself not to drop things, I never intend to drop my iPhone but do it about twice a week on average. I still fail to see what advantage you gain from it, but I guess I don’t need to.
I've never been able to train myself to not drop things either. But training myself to put my uncased phone down in certain spots, to not handle it with just one hand, to put it in my pocket when in crowds, or to hold it a certain way when getting in an out of the car minimizes the chances that I will drop it.

I'm going to give you a different example here…

When my son was about a year old I was changing his diaper on the changing table. He made some weird janky move and for a moment there it looked like he was going to roll off the table and drop 3.5 feet to the floor. This would have been VERY bad. But I caught him in time. From that time forward, every time I changed my son (and later my daughter) I pulled out the travel pad we had and changed him (and her) ON THE FLOOR.

As I explained to my wife, it is extremely difficult to fall off the floor or the ground when you're already on it.

Likewise, if my phone is set down in a protected spot, or put away, then risk is minimized. How can my phone be damaged if it's not in the way, or how can I drop it if I've put it away or I'm not holding it?

One of my protected spots, my desk…three phones sitting in their designated spots (business card holders and a phone holder) without cases.

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They aren't in the way and I long ago trained myself to set them here when I am downstairs. I have other spots when in other places or when out. I will never say I do not drop my phone (I do), I just try to minimize how much time it's in my hand or at risk. That's also one reason my phones are not substitute computers/media devices.
 
Until just a couple months ago, I never used a case in over a decade of owning phones, and I don’t think I even once dropped any of them. Never damaged them anyway. But all my phones up until a couple months ago were small phones with flat edges, designed to be held and used securely in one hand. But you can’t get those anymore, so when I had to replace my phone I had to get a big slippery phone that seems to have been designed for dropping. So I had to get a grippy case for it, and it’s a good thing because I’ve already dropped the new phone multiple times in only a couple months.
I don’t like cases. I don’t believe in over-babying things. I want to use a device as it was designed to be used. But this thing was designed to be dropped so I have no choice.
 
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Until just a couple months ago, I never used a case in over a decade of owning phones, and I don’t think I even once dropped any of them. Never damaged them anyway. But all my phones up until a couple months ago were small phones with flat edges, designed to be held and used securely in one hand. But you can’t get those anymore, so when I had to replace my phone I had to get a big slippery phone that seems to have been designed for dropping. So I had to get a grippy case for it, and it’s a good thing because I’ve already dropped the new phone multiple times in only a couple months.
I don’t like cases. I don’t believe in over-babying things. I want to use a device as it was designed to be used. But this thing was designed to be dropped so I have no choice.
I will just say that my iPhone 6s+, while it has been dropped a few times, has never been damaged. It still looks the same as when I got it - aside from fingerprints on the screen.

With my first two smartphones I did have to establish some rules for myself and one of the hardest things for me to learn was that the screen was going to get smudges. Better that then me dropping the phone because I tried to keep my fingers away from the screen.

I also don't use any device, big or small with just one hand. One-handed use is for me the fastest way for me to drop my phone. I've dropped my phone when using two hands! So, I don't try and be slick with one hand. In the long run it doesn't matter anyway because I've never mastered actually using my phone with one hand. I always end up holding it with my left and touching/swiping with my right.

But, I've already had to explain to my wife before how I dropped my phone with two hands. I will never hear the end of it if I have to explain that I dropped it because I was trying to one-hand it.
 
I use a case so I don't have to overly worry about potential drop damage.
Several times now, $30.00 has saved me many hundreds.
 
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