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It's not about preserving it in mint condition, it's about preserving it in usable condition. I can't speak for others but my case has saved my phone from a sm
by Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
It's not about preserving it in mint condition, it's about preserving it in usable condition.
I can't speak for others but my case has saved my phone from a smashed screen on several occasions.
EDIT: Should possibly also add that I have small children (1 and 3 - that's their ages rather than their names) who use it and I'm damned if I'm giving it to them without a case on...
- 16s 14y agoYour comment about your children's names reminded me of something I heard Bill Cosby say once. When he was a kid, he and his brother thought their names were "Dammit" and "Hellfire" until they were twelve years old. "Dammit, get in here! Hellfire, get out of that tree."
- pdx 14y agoI have children 1 and 3 who use my Android, and sometimes drop it. No problems. Just in case, however, I do send them out of the kitchen when they're holding it, since it's our only non-carpeted area.
- dabent 14y agoI don't have small children, but I also apparently don't have any motor skills. I spent the money on an OtterBox for my phone and it's saved me from a cracked screen at least a half dozen times and from minor damage much more often than that. The down side is that my phone looks twice as large, but it's well worth it.
- archangel_one 14y agoDepends where you set the bar for usable. I'm continually surprised at how many people I see using iphones with smashed screens on trains or the Tube.
- therobotking 14y agoI think the the bar for usability is significantly affected by the money they may have to pay to have the phone replaced if their contract expired, they bought it upfront, etc. I know if I had a £500 device that had a broken screen I would keep using it at least until I could afford to get the screen replaced.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y agoSame here though personally I set the bar somewhat higher than that.
- jmspring 14y agoLikewise. Mine has taken more than a few spills and the case has saved it. I may just be a klutz.
- mojowo11 14y agoSerious question: given that you purchased a case and then dropped the phone in the case, how can you possible claim to know whether the case saved it? All you know is that you dropped your phone with a case on and it didn't break. I see this correlation = causation logic all the time about phone cases, and I find it quite bizarre. I've had an iPhone for 3 years now (3GS, then 4S). I've never used a case (or screen protector). I've dropped my phone before with no case and it survived. I've dropped it on pavement a couple times. I even lost it in the snow at a ski slope last winter. Someone found it and returned it. Works fine. I don't doubt that cases reinforce phones, but I do think that people regard them as much more necessary than they actually are. Sure, if you have a kid in the house who loves to play with your phone, you should probably get a case. But as long you're careful with your phone for the most part (i.e. you're not consistently dropping it on pavement or something, you don't carry it in the same pocket as your keys, etc.), you probably don't need a case or screen protector. The phones aren't THAT fragile.
- UntitledNo4 14y agoI agree and can give the opposite example. I have a Sony Ericsson X10 since it was released (2 years ago? Longer?), never had a case, and have dropped it several times. You will find the marks from those falls only if you will look really hard.
- unreal37 14y agoSo you're asking for proof that a device that is made of solid glass and metal is more fragile when dropped than the same device surrounded by rubber, plastic, leather or another soft material? I know it won't protect the device in every situation, but the $10 case protects the device in some situations (maybe only 10% or 20% of drops), so it has a very high ROI. I once dropped my unprotected iPad from a height of about 2 feet, it landed on the granite floor on a corner edge, and the screen shattered. I had to buy a new iPad basically as Apple doesn't fix them. It now has a $20 case, and I would be willing to bet the value of the iPad that if I dropped it from the same height and it hit the same corner, the device would not have any significant damage although the case might.
- smspence 14y ago"1 and 3 - that's their ages rather than their names" Maybe it's still too early in the morning for me, but I laughed at that way harder than I should have. Haha, thanks for that.
- jnelso99 14y agoIf it were their names, imagine the fun in explaining what happened to 2.
- randomdata 14y agoHow do you know that the case saved the day? I once had my case-less iPad fall from a ledge five feet above the surface it eventually landed on and it survived with nary a scratch. They seem fairly rugged on their own.
- Splines 14y agoMore than once my rubber case has stopped my phone from slipping off a table. I won't get into the details, but the toilet incident of 2011 was a close call and the case prevented certain disaster.
- ricardobeat 14y agoMine fell from a table about 80cm high, screen flat down on a hard floor. Got just a ding on the corner (and a heart attack). I've dropped an iPhone 4 probably a dozen times too, it's an year old, caseless and healthy (though you can see some light scratches if you look close enough).
- noahc 14y agoI remember when I first got smartphones around 2006 or 2007, I was breaking mine every 6 months or so. I currently have the original galaxy from samsung, and it is still going strong over 2 years later. I think the cases were really important, but once the HTC Hero and that generation came out, then magically my phone lasted years!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- tlrobinson 14y agoI've dropped my phone numerous times with only minor dings resulting. The pot of boiling water, on the other hand... (I was using the phone as a kitchen timer)
- sillysaurus 14y agoMy wife's phone fell off a countertop, resulting in a completely smashed screen. (Basically a dense spiderweb of cracks covering the entire screen.) She wasn't using a case at the time, otherwise there's a good chance that wouldn't have happened. However, it was fairly cheap to replace the screen (~$50) so maybe there's still no point in getting a case.
- jarek 14y agoAnother alternative is buying robust phones! My Nexus One has met the pavement with some assistance from gravity and my clumsy hands a couple of times and the casing has a couple of scratches to show for it. Screen as new. Then there was the Blackberry Pearl I threw down a couple of times as a demonstration...
- nicholassmith 14y agoThe phone that got a rep for screens cracking? In personal experience the iPhone is robust and hardy, having met hundreds of drops fine.
- eridius 14y agoYou're comparing apples and oranges. My iPhone has fallen onto pavement a few times as well with only minor dings. sillysaurus's wife's phone fell off a countertop, which probably indicates it was in a kitchen, which usually has tile floors. Tile floors are far more likely to result in a smashed device than any other type of floor, including concrete, so it's not surprising that there's a difference here.
- jarek 14y ago
- inafield 14y ago0.25 wants to chew on my phone every time it rings if it's within reach.
- rdtsc 14y ago> It's not about preserving it in mint condition, it's about preserving it in usable condition. And for me that means not bothering with an expensive smartphone. I had a phone like that, sat on it and broke its screen. It was hundreds of dollars down the drain. I don't want to have to worry about a stupid phone or not putting it in the right pocket, or it getting wet, I got other things on my mind usually. So I just have a simple flip phone. If a mugger wants to steal it fine, they can have. If sit on it again and break it, "ok", I'll get another one. Maybe everyone is just incredibly rich or like to spend a lot of time worrying about their expensive toy, I am neither.
- barbs 14y agoI had a nokia 3315 for most of last year for similar reasons. Nuff said.
- muyuu 14y agoYou can buy a midrange smartphone for quite cheap. I got an Xperia Arc S last year for 180 pounds on PAYG, no contract. Since I'm going to void the warranty by rooting it and putting a clean ROM in it, I'd rather not have a top-line expensive phone with whatever crap it comes with (basically they all do, except maybe the Nexus flagship phones). I use that and an older Blackberry Curve 3G which is a total workhorse and lasts forever on its battery. Surely the Android, not even being a last gen phone, trounces the Blackberry on every department esp. on the screen department. But it barely makes it to the end of the day without a recharge. I'm not filthy rich but I can manage to sleep at night if something goes wrong and I lose a hundred or two. Never bought more than 1 cheapish phone a year, so it's not going to destroy my finances. Neither of my phones are toys by the way, they allow me to get a lot more done and they also keep me entertained/informed when there's nothing else to do.
- rdtsc 14y ago> they allow me to get a lot more done and they also keep me entertained/informed when there's nothing else to do. That makes sense for you then. I've heard people make snide remarks at me when I am out and need to find the nearest restaurant "why don't you get a smart phone, it would be so much easier". They are basically advocating paying hundreds more for a phone, and then, $40 for a data plan every month, so that 2 or 3 times a year I can find directions when I am lost.