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Comment by diffxx | Hacker News Reader

Here's my countervailing advice for keeping your phone safe: don't use a case or any protection at all. This trains you to take care of it.

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This little experiment lasted for about 6 weeks for me before I broke front and back glass and cracked the camera lens in one go on a cement floor. I’ll take the $6 rubber case now and save me some grief.

I think this is akin to the "wearing a seatbelt makes me drive more dangerously" argument. (I also don't use a case, but mainly because I don't like the extra bulk and don't mind dinging my phone up a bit, not because I think I'll take better care of it).

Do you also have a safety spike [1] installed in your car?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Tullock#Tullock's_spike

I use this method and have only broken one phone in ten years because of it...

I don't use this method and have broken zero phones in ten years because of it.

Each phone gets a 9h glass screen protector and thin TPU case, each about $10 on Amazon. I crack the screen protector maybe once every 8 months and there is usually three screen protectors in the pack I bought, so I just replace the cheap screen protector.

When I drop the phone, I try to soften the impact with my shoe.

That doesn’t work for current gen iPhones, whose screens you can scratch seemingly with pocket mint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZzZatxb9KQ

One thing I do appreciate about Apple is their new ceramic shield material on the 6.1-inch screen. It actually does appear to be more scratch-resistant than other smartphones. Working our way up through the Mohs scale of hardness, usually I can feel the level-6 pick grab the glass and start scratching, but with this latest generation of ceramic shield, it still feels pretty smooth—even with that sharp level-6 pick. The marks are still appearing, but they're so faint and subtle that I almost can't say "scratches at a level-6, with deeper grooves at a level-7" anymore. Almost.

You can get more scratch-resistant screen protectors, but as far as the builtin glass I don't think Apple is falling behind anywhere.

I carry a work iPhone 15 Pro and a personal 16 Pro, actually my second, I had a warranty replacement when faceid stopped working. It scratches easily, especially on the edges. The glass is too hard.

The 15 is pristine. And I treat it worse! I typically carry iPhones naked and the only mishap was I dropped two iPhone 6 because that thing was like a stick of butter.

That's a surprising difference in durability between the 15 Pro and your 16 Pros! Interesting about the edges scratching so easily

> The glass is too hard.

Being too hard should make it easier to shatter but harder to scratch, shouldn't it?

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