That's essentially how I feel when I see the "Our thinnest iPhone ever" slide knowing that 95% of iPhone owners put it in a bulky case. That said, that's not unique to Apple and the phone is at least usable without a case.
I’m hoping I can get at least another year out of this thing. Battery is excellent. iOS doesn’t seem slow at all.
The problem is Apple builds the phone in a fragile manner, prone to breaking and scratching. It's true of other phones too.
They don't design the phone to be used without a case. People use cases because of that, not because of the price tag.
I’m pretty careful with my phone too, has its own pocket doesn’t mix with anything. I’m actually quite displeased; especially as scratch resistance was a touted feature.
EDIT: never mind. It was drop resistance. Not scratch resistance.
Yes, they do. Look up Paint Protection Film. Ceramic coating is also very commonly used to protect the car's paint, plastics, and glass.
Doesn't matter though. It's not in phone manufacturers' best interests to make durable phones. They need to make trendy phones, as that's what the majority have voted for (with their wallets). And Apple users have it the worst, as the lock-in leaves them with no alternative phone manufacturers).
Even with protective cases many flagship phones won't be very useable after 2 years anyway, as the battery life decreases, the OS and apps do more and more things, and flash storage starts to fail/slow.
My iPhone disagrees with this. I've used it pretty heavily for over two years now and it's still going strong. I see no reason why I can't get at least 3 out of it. I figure I make it to fall of 2022 and it'll be nearly 4 years old before I replace it.
A year should be no problem. I just replaced my iPhone 6s and Apple Watch 0 in February. If I hadn’t decided I wanted the NFC functionality I would have simply replaced the battery.
I don’t bother with a case because it’s often simply my pocket, which is a case I guess.
Damn, I feel silly, I have bought 9 phones over the past 3 years and still haven't spent that kind of money...
(Yes, it’s still possible to drop my phone face down on a rock or something, but most of the times I’ve broken a phone screen, it’s been a crack in the glass emanating from a corner. Which makes sense, given the physics of the things.)
My old phones with cheap poly-carbonate backs(cracks easily) and thin GG3(cracks,scratches are apparent) were fragile in comparison. The material science has improved with modern phones, but manufacturers choose to make fragile phones.
You don't need thick overmoulding and port covers to make a phome durable without a case. The materials are strong enough on the high end phones. The problem is that when you make the glass thinner and exposed at the corners, it will crack with much less impact. The overall thinness means less flexural rigidity (rigidity is proportional to thickness cubed), you can snap a modern phone with your hands. Cheap new phones get it even worse. They use flimsier materials to cram a better SoC in, and still are rarely waterproof.
The whole Nextel and Nokia and Blackberry era, not a one. They looked a bit worn from a few years each in my pocket with my keys, but they all worked fine, and they'd all survive a drop to the floor.
Today the only phone I'd trust to survive a naked drop would be a Unihertz Titan, but until there's an AOSP ROM for it, I'm not trusting it with my data. So, cases on everything.
I'd probably buy my first ever iPhone if Apple came out with a ruggedized version of the current iPhone SE.
I wish Android would decouple the device drivers from the kernel space kinda like a desktop OS so your manufacturer could just supply their drivers and you could upgrade the OS at will... a man can dream.
Microsoft has dedicated many developer years to supporting said API, and all the kernel panics caused by said drivers.
https://electronics.sony.com/mobile/smartphone/professional-...
You mean: Back when phones had screens made of plastic instead of glass. And yes, sure, that does make them more likely to survive a drop, but also means the screen becomes a scratch magnet. That of course is the right compromise when the screen is tiny and the pixels are enormous, but not so much when it’s the other way around.
My lumia 800 went through hell (including being dropped from a third floor balcony onto asphalt) but still looked good.
You never lived in that time where people had their Nokia phones in those leather zip cases which completely covered the device clipped to their waist? Or the fact that many Nokia phones had removable front and back cases that you could replace yourself?
I definitely remember my screen being scratched.
People started using cases for most part after the iPhone came out. Older phones were almost never used with a case, except perhaps for use case requiring a ruggedized enclosure.
Personally, I only bought one AirTag (along with an Apple leather keychain, for my keys). I don't generally lose items large enough to have some kind of pocket/holder for an AirTag (e.g. I don't ever lose my backpack which has a zippered compartment to hold random junk).
I was in the same boat until and I dropped my phone and break the back, which is ridiculously expensive to fix.
I use a case now, which only takes 10 bucks to replace if broken. It’s not as pretty as a naked phone, but it’s practical.
Mine is not in a case and regularly has scary-looking falls, but there's almost no-scratch. Only on the edges of the aluminum body you can see the paint scratched off in some places.
I've found that the added bulk of a case makes me drop my phone much more frequently.
It's kind of ridiculous to build that baked in expectation for more accessory buying directly into your device, but I guess that's modern design principles. Extract more dollar, and leave you with the equivalent of a wobbly table if you don't buy in.
It pivots at most 1-2mm laterally to the left when i'm tapping hard on the left side of the screen which is barely noticeable. When I tap normally (a bit softer) or swipe it doesn't even move.
I'm no fanboy but i'm amazed that out of all the things you could critique about Apple it would be this one.
I'm guessing you could get a third party screen repair for less than $230.
I've replaced two iphones in the past month, didn't pay a deductible for either.
If you break your phone more than twice a year, a regular phone case probably isn't going to cut it.
>I'm guessing you could get a third party screen repair for less than $230.
Yes, but not 4 third party screen repairs and definitely not even one replacement phone. I've had two total losses in my 2 year applecare period, once the phone was damaged on both sides by a police baton and once by a falling dumbbell. A normal phone case wouldn't have been enough in either of these situations.
Personally, I just won't go there. If it's too expensive not to put a case on, it's too expensive for me to own.
I wonder if it’s paranoia or actual clumsiness or maybe just salespeople that get people to buy cases. I’ve owned an iPhone since the 3G and have dropped my naked phone exactly once, my 6 Plus, which was still usable for years after that.
I use Android and once a phone is nearing the 3/4 mark of it's useful life, I pull the cases off because at that point the smaller/sleeker form factor helps offset the annoying performance degradation. With my Nexus 5, which had a grippy back, the screen is still intact to this day. My Nexus 6p, which has a metallic back, slipped out of my hand the very first day I took the case off and the screen shattered.
My new strategy is to just buy a mid-low range android at the end of the sales cycle for a steep discount. I got last years Moto G Power model for about 40 bucks. Once I get about half way through it's useful life (~2 years), I am going to take the case off and I am going to scuff it up with sand paper and then spray on some truck liner or other grippy surfacing agent.