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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

The point in "preserving" your iPhone is so you don't have to purchase another one, at full cost if you accidentally drop it and it breaks. My slim case while more simple than most, has saved my iPhone countless times.

I could care less if my phone gets dinged, or scratched a bit, but complete failure is an expensive fix.

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> at full cost

Apple will actually send you a new/refurbished iPhone 4S for just $199, much much less than the cost of a new unlocked no-contract phone. You just mail in the broken one.

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=Un...

I recently broke my iPad's screen (dropped it, completely smashed) and got a new one for about half the original price.

For most Americans, that is full cost for an iPhone. Even though it's technically the cost with a contract, I'd wager that 98% of all people who purchase iPhones purchase them subsidized by carriers with contracts.

So? What's your point?

The alternative is you buy a Samsung android phone or whatever and break it and end up paying the actual cost, which is normally $499 on the low end to $649 for the latest flagship phones.

A $199 replacement cost for a mistake I made sounds like a heck of a deal.

No, the alternative is you buy a $20 case so your phone doesn't get damaged by a four-foot drop. If you look four posts up, that was the topic of this thread.

Doesn't sound like a very good alternative. You're paying 10% of the cost of the phone to protect it against (some) accidents, but in the process set it back a generation, by making it thicker and heavier. That's pretty costly as far as insurance goes.

Only if you place a high priority on thickness. I personally don't, and am actually fairly annoyed that cell phone makers don't have the option to e.g. double the thickness of their phones in exchange for a 2-3x increase in battery life.

The thickness of a case doesn't bother me. The ridge around the edge of the screen does.

>>Only if you place a high priority on thickness.

Most people do. This is why smartphones have been getting thinner with each iteration.

Of course. My point is only that people don't all have the same priorities. If you strongly value thickness, a case is not a good choice. If you don't care, then a case is a good choice. Making a blanket declaration that a case is "pretty costly as far as insurance goes" regardless of personal preferences is stupid.

They have this, it is called a Mophie Juice Pack[1]. They have two sizes with different battery extensions.

I miss the thinness of my phone without the case but greatly prefer being able to get through a day in the data center or traveling without constantly charging my phone.

1: http://www.mophie.com/mophie-juice-pack-air-iPhone-4-4s-batt...

You can get keychain fob chargers to charge your phone in your pocket when you need it and keep the thinness the rest of the time.

That's annoying blindness.

I'm considering a contract that (for the 4S as the latest) is £900 in total, I'd happily go without a case and be prepared to pay £200 for a break.

For most Americans, that is full cost for an iPhone.

Not really, thats the full price of a phone and a plan, its still a subsidized price, and Apple is still providing a discount by offering replacements for $199.

Try losing a phone while 1 year into a plan and its going to cost you $300-500 to replace it.

Wow, there's actually an upfront cost in the US? I never paid a cent for mine - it was 100% subsidised (and you could have gotten the same plan for the same cost but without the phone, so this really was 100%).

Replacing a smashed screen for $200 seems like kind of a rip-off to me.

I've never used a case on any of my phones. My last iPhone was a 3GS. I smashed the screen once and replaced it myself in about 20 minutes for, I think, $25 (the price of a new digitizer is now under $10 though). The 4 and 4S are more difficult, but it still seems like a lot.

I've had my Nexus S for more than a year and it's in mint condition. I'm sure I've dropped it a few times.

I dunno what your situation is, but even at the best of times, $199 is a lot of money.

Yes it is, but I believe the point of comparison is an off contract iPhone, which is $650 or $700.

You can get the iPhone 4S screen replaced by 3rd parties for $90 just about anywhere. Mine was swapped out in less than 30 minutes after being thrown on a marble floor from a balcony.

Who threw it?!

A two year old, of course.

I'll spare you the details but the only mishap I've had with an iphone ended, rather amusingly, with it swimming in the bottom of a toilet. After fishing it out (yes, it was a clean bowl) I vainly attempted to dry it in the Italian sun outside the villa I was staying in at the time. As you might have guessed the iphone did not make a full recovery, it was bricked. When I got back to London I took it into my local apple store and mentioned that "I was having trouble getting it to charge...". Full credit to the apple guy, without so much as a wry smile he ignored the tide mark that cut across the middle of the screen and said he'd put it through as a battery replacement. £50 later and I was walking out the store with my new phone.

I've heard a few stories (usually on the Macbreak weekly podcast, never from anyone I know) of people going into the Apple store with a broken screen while under warranty having the phone replaced for free. It seems they have some license to do a good dead or two for customers, but there isn't an official policy. I guess with such a high margin product, they can be flexible sometimes.

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