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Yeah, I never understand these caseless discussions. I went caseless once since I didn't realize my case would arrive a week after I bought the phone. The pho
by hombre_fatal 1y ago
Yeah, I never understand these caseless discussions.
I went caseless once since I didn't realize my case would arrive a week after I bought the phone.
The phone was slippery (couldn't temporarily rest it on my knee), and I found myself inspecting the restaurant/bar table any time I put the phone down after that one night I placed it right into a puddle of beer condensation and some mysterious food that got in the mic on the back of the phone and grossed me out.
The phone could be indestructible to drops and it still wouldn't solve those issues.
- giraffe_lady 1y agoI just use one of those pop out nubbin grip things that were popular like ten years ago.
- cosmic_cheese 1y agoI go caseless just because of sheer amount of bulk cases add, even the "thin" ones. It significantly impacts how easy the device is to hold and pocket. The Air I might consider putting a bumper case on since its thinness offsets the bulk increase, but it's specifically made to be resilient to drops so it's a coin toss even with that. I barely drop my phone though, it happens maybe twice a year, usually on carpet. In the last decade my phones might've had a run-in with concrete or pavement 2-3 times, tops.
- selectodude 1y agoMy case is AppleCare+.
- garbagewoman 1y agoThat seems wasteful
- wlesieutre 1y ago$120/year on an iPhone 17, or $140/year on Air, Pro, and Pro Max Even for one year that's more than I'd spend to avoid using a phone case, and if I keep it for five years again that's $700. There are other benefits to AppleCare (a case doesn't cover theft or loss) but I'm not very worried about any of them.
- garbagewoman 1y agoI mean its wasteful in terms of the energy/co2 required to service your phone replacements. Wasting resources unnecessarily.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- sedatk 1y agoAppleCare One is about $240/year and covers three devices. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/07/apple-introduces-applecare-one-streamlining-coverage-into-a-single-plan/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/07/apple-introduces-appl...
- latexr 1y agoAppleCare One has been a string of horror stories. Can’t even properly handle you having one Mac with multiple accounts, and you can’t go back to the plans you previously had if they’re discontinued, leaving you with worse service for more money.
- dcow 1y agoIt pays for itself the minute you have to replace a device. It’s insurance. The entire insurance industry is wasteful, by your argument. And like yeah it is. However most people prefer to amortize financial risk. That peace of mind is valuable.
- selectodude 1y agoI don’t disagree. I’m a nihilist I guess
- buu700 1y agoI go caseless just because of sheer amount of bulk cases add, even the "thin" ones. That's why I use an aramid fiber case from AliExpress. It's paper-thin, but has saved my phone from more drops than can remember. I used to go caseless, but since trying out aramid I don't see any practical benefit to caselessness.
- a2dam 1y agoWhich one do you recommend?
- buu700 1y agoI think you probably can't go too wrong just searching for 600D aramid + the name of your phone and picking one from a seller with good reviews, but the specific one I have is this: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805920169643.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805920169643.html. Before that, I was using this one from Thinborne: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHLF8FD7 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHLF8FD7. For all intents and purposes, they're functionally identical. I slightly preferred the style of the AliExpress one (camera glass cover + no logo), but the main reason I went for AliExpress when I needed a replacement was that it was half the price of the Thinborne. (The AliExpress one has since gone up ~$10, but the Thinborne one doesn't appear to be available at all anymore.)
- a2dam 1y agoThanks!
- al_borland 1y agoInteresting. I tried an ultra-thin case before (though it was plastic). I dropped my phone one time with it and it shattered. The drop was pretty unforgiving. It was from head-height onto a thick marble floor. In 18 years of owning iPhones, this was my only catastrophic drop.
- estimator7292 1y agoThe caseless argument is that a multi-thousand dollar device shouldn't be so fragile that you MUST wrap it in plastic to be in any way functional. A $1k phone SHOULD NOT be a frictionless glass prism. It should not skate away from you ob smooth surfaces. It should not be destroyed by falling 3 inches onto a hard surface. It should have some durability inherent to it. But instead apple spends billions of dollars making phones even more fragile and it's everyone's problem. We now have to spin up factories processing plastic into custom cases, and throw out all the old plastic cases and the older, more functional phones. The argument is that phones could (and should) be inherently more robust and durable all on their own. It should not be a hard requirement for you to go out and buy your own case just for the phone to survive any level of daily use. If they made phones out of plastic instead of glass, this wouldn't be an issue. Plastic backed phones almost always have a texture and when they don't even smooth plastic offers more friction. Plastic phones don't slide away like they're on ice. They don't shatter like my Note 10 did when it slid out of my pocket two inches to the ground. They also don't usually self destruct when you repair them. The caseless argument isn't that cases suck, it's that we MUST use cases because phones intentionally suck. A phone is not a functional object, it's artistic ego masturbation.
- hombre_fatal 1y agoBut didn't I just make a case (heh) that it's not only about drop fragility? It's a cheap sacrificial shell that adds utility. My examples were non-slip and grime from a public table. Maybe add scratches and impact damage in there too because every material is susceptible to that, and avoiding them helps me resell it. There's no way to build that into a phone. I don't want rubber non-slip bumpers on my phone or a built-in clawed up plastic shell when I can have them in a swappable shell.
- raverbashing 1y agoWell, you're not technically wrong. But 99% of people won't like the solution where this has to work out of the box Every moderately "needs impact resistance" in the prosumer/professional sector either comes with a case, or has a "builtin" case, making it thicker/heavier. Just search for 'Cat mobile phones' A grain of sand will scratch most metals and most glass surfaces, even hardened ones. If Apple managed to make this more resistant props to them, but it is not infallible Vandalism resistant electronics are thick and have glass/polycarbonate/acrylic combinations that don't look good for the most part but will take a baseball bat like a champ