Morning dear reader,
I come to you this morning with a question, Do you use a case or do you keep your phone naked?
It is a tricky one and one I myself deliberate about regularly. With the manufacturers spending millions (in some case’s) on design, pattern’s and colour swatches and touchy feelly rooms etc I dont really want to cover this up with some guady case that I have bought from a market stand on the local High St. On the other hand though as mobiles become thinner and lighter with bigger screens I dont really want to use my phone naked either.
As some of you who visit the site on a regular basis know I am lucky enough to own Xperia Z and I have tried a few different cases for the phone but I have done so hesitantly as I love the way the phone feels and looks with out a case. My phone is probably one of the most damage resistant phones available on the market today being that it is water resistant also dust resistant, however I still worry about the glass getting scratched and making it look well shabby. So this means that I have to put this gloroius design and marvel into a case hiding all of the design elements that I love . The same is true of the iPhone (all varients) and the Nexus 4.
However there is one manufacturer that is striving to makes this issue disappear. You know them well from having a hand at everything from sponsering the Chelsea football team to making washing machines which are good enough for Polar bears to use.
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Yes it is indeed Samsung. Over the past few years Samsung has been taking a good hard look at the accessories market and instead of relying on case makers to make cases, they decided “What the heck why dont we do it ourselves”. This has resulted in some fantastic designs for cases over the years culminating in the current generation for the recently launched Galaxy S4. Now I previously used a Galaxy Note and this is were I believe the first of this generation of cases came from. I am of course talking about the brilliant Flip case. Not only does this case protect the front of your phone from the inevitable scratches but it also replaces your back cover with a slightly thicker one allowing for your case to seemlessly meld into the actual design language of the product. The only other company to do this to date have been Apple and only on their iPads.
These cases have had an update to coincide with the Launch of the S4 and all of these new designs can be found over at MobileFun who have a ridiculous amount of cases including the veritable daddy of cases and the pinnicle of case design the S View cover. Not only will this do the aforementioned protecting of the phone but it lets you see your vital stats (no singering in the back) and even allows you to see who is calling with the case closed… Genius!
All of these case no matter how groundbreaking or how expensive or cheap they are also serve another dual purpose which is one we dont think of instantly. They will maybe save you money in the long run. How I hear you ask? Some of you maybe aware that recently O2 launched a new tariff called O2 refresh. Well this new tariff that allows you upgrade your phone early by paying off you phone rental and not the full contract can be used in conjunction with the O2 Recycle offer that they also have in place. Now this is where having a case comes in, if you have kept your phone in pristine condition and were to then recycle it to update your phone to a new one in say 12 months time then you may potentially have up to £250* sitting in your protective case. If however you have not had a case on it then that value can be reduced dramatically in this example by half.
So I drag you kicking and screaming back to my original question. Case’s To be naked or not to be? Well based upon the evidence and the steps that manufacturers are beginning to take I for one will be keeping my phone securely cosed up in a case from now on. Now where did I put that sexy little black number…..
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*The figures used are based on the recycle value from here
The first thing I do when i get a new phone is to buy a case and a screen protector. For me it is a sizeable investment, £35+ per month over the course of 2 years and to not protect it is just sheer madness in my eyes. I have dropped my current phone numerous times, my case has protected it every time and screen is mint due to the screen protector. Sure it doesn’t look as gorgeous with the case on, a small price to pay in my eyes.
Yup I’m with you. I’ve tried to get by with just a screen protector, but in the end I always revert to a case of some sort. If nothing else, it tends to keep your phone in pristine 100% salable condition, which is important with some of the pricier devices I feel. I know a few who don’t bother, but their phones certainly show signs of age after the 2 year contract period.
Plus the fact that they do get dropped and there’s nothing worse than keeping a phone immaculate for 2 years only to have a big scuff/crack on it.