Kind of a long-shot maybe, but was wondering whether anyone here has had both an older Otterbox Commuter case as well as a newer Otterbox Commuter case. My wife has the Commuter with her iPhone Xs. It's a great case, and the plastic that makes up the case has a nice soft feel to it. I like it, so I decided to buy the Commuter for my iPhone 12, but this case has a totally different feel to it. Did Otterbox change the hardness of the plastic for these things between generations? It's not at all what I was expecting. Feels a lot more like their Defender case, minus the screen protection.
Being a pack rat, I still have my Commuter cases for both the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 7 Plus. I also have a Commuter case on my new 12 Pro.
Since the Commuter is a two-piece case, I assume you're talking about the soft inner slipcover. Comparing my three cases, the inner slipcover does seem less soft on the 12 version. I don't think I would have noticed, though, if you hadn't brought it up.
Since, I'm a "dropper," the most important thing to me is that, when I do drop my phone in the Otterbox Commuter case, nothing bad happens. (Occasionally, I've seen a small scuff mark on the case. To date, I've only dropped the 12 Pro onto a soft rug, so no marks on the case so far!)
I see on the new case they've finally dropped the cutout for the Apple logo. I'm glad - it always seemed to leave a ring on the back of the phone over time.
I had the Defender case On my iPhone 4. I never really liked the built-in screen protector, which is why I switched to the Commuter for my 5. Apparently Otterbox got the message - they've dropped built-in screen protection on the Defender.