Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What good is a droolworthy design if you gotta slap a case on it.
- Thread starter Timzer
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm no fan of the iPhone 4 with respect to hardware. I find it impossible to handle without a case because the glass is incredibly slippery. It's also very awkward to hold in my hand during calls, etc. The glass of the front and back is very easy to shatter.
I use a very minimal case to improve the gripping experience. I try my best not to drop my phone because a face-first fall could potentially be disaster. I did not use a case with my 3G iPhone because the curved hard plastic backing was much easier and enjoyable to hold in my hand.
More than half the iPhone's I see out in the public are being used with a case. Case makers are making a killing from the iPhone 4/4S.
My hope is that the next iPhone has a stronger backing so I can use it sans case.
I use a very minimal case to improve the gripping experience. I try my best not to drop my phone because a face-first fall could potentially be disaster. I did not use a case with my 3G iPhone because the curved hard plastic backing was much easier and enjoyable to hold in my hand.
More than half the iPhone's I see out in the public are being used with a case. Case makers are making a killing from the iPhone 4/4S.
My hope is that the next iPhone has a stronger backing so I can use it sans case.
I use a case - a Mophie Juice Pack Air - for my 4S. I used the same on my 3GS, which is now my kid's phone. You can imagine the beating a teenager gives to the exterior of a mobile phone, but the 3GS is fine inside. Again, for me this is about not having to worry about the battery (ever), protecting a phone I cannot afford to replace, and maintaining resale value.
Besides, if the iPhone were truly a premium design rather than a consumer one, it would have a titanium frame and a diamond-based cover....
Besides, if the iPhone were truly a premium design rather than a consumer one, it would have a titanium frame and a diamond-based cover....
You make a good point. I hope the next iPhone is more resistant to shattering than the iPhone 4 and 4S.
I stopped with cases as I was never happy with the weight added on. Even those feather cases truly changed how the iPhone felt in my hands. I bought myself a Tuch iPhone sleeve wallet and love it. Ditched my real wallet and got a functional and useful sleeve. Phone is naked otherwise (screen protector only).
Last year on black Friday I got out of the car and went to put my phone in my pocket, it slipped, fell about three feet and completely shattered the screen. This happened with the big ass mophie juice pack plus on it. The top of the case cracked on top of that. So there went a couple hundred dollars in just a few seconds.
I took it to a guy and got the screen replaced for $80. I think shattering the screen was the best thing to happen for me phone wise because now I know how cheap it is to replace it. I stopped using big cases after that and tried to go caseless. I simply do not like the feel of the phone caseless though. It feels a little too thin and slippery.
Now I use a bumper and I buy the colored back plates off of amazon and use those as well. A few weeks ago my phone took a 7 foot drop at a concert when it was sitting on the banister and too much bass kicked in. Not one damn scratch, dent, scuff, nothing. Just goes to show the bigger cases aren't always better. I am much happier with the bumper on than the mophie, otter box, candyshell. I don't feel like I have a brick in my pocket anymore lol
I took it to a guy and got the screen replaced for $80. I think shattering the screen was the best thing to happen for me phone wise because now I know how cheap it is to replace it. I stopped using big cases after that and tried to go caseless. I simply do not like the feel of the phone caseless though. It feels a little too thin and slippery.
Now I use a bumper and I buy the colored back plates off of amazon and use those as well. A few weeks ago my phone took a 7 foot drop at a concert when it was sitting on the banister and too much bass kicked in. Not one damn scratch, dent, scuff, nothing. Just goes to show the bigger cases aren't always better. I am much happier with the bumper on than the mophie, otter box, candyshell. I don't feel like I have a brick in my pocket anymore lol
I've learned my lesson with the iPhone 4. If you want to protect it from scratches cases are a no go. Get something more along the lines of a Zagg full body shield. See through so the design is fully visible, but protected by a layer of membrane.
Matter of opinion. That is why I said it's detrimental "to me"- I personally find most cases to be uncomfortable and increase the thickness by an unreasonable amount.
I was merely explaining my rationale for going without a case despite the risk
This isnt a scientific reply but benchmarks are one thing and real world performance is something else.
I'm at Uni and I have a SGS2 and two other guys have 4s's. It isn't even up for dispute, the SGS2 is a quicker device, and a fair bit older.
I've used the SGS2 multiple times and have never seen it not lag in normal usage, or play the type of games I've seen on the iPhone. We went to a news site and tried to play a video, it played immediately on the iPhone (html5) while the flash capabilities on the SGS2 took over a minute to load up the video, which then played at 1 frame per second.
That test should have performed equally on both devices, as they both have the ability to play html5 video, but for whatever reason the flash version popped up instead.
Now if I walked away from that thinking "SGS2 can't play videos at more than 1fps" I would have been incorrect.
What test did you perform with your two friends? Were the iPhones jailbroken with multiple background customizations running? If you loaded a web page while in a strong 4G area, while the iPhones were on 3G, then yes it should have loaded faster. But once the page loaded, how smooth was the scrolling and zooming? If scrolling was smooth on the SGS2, was it a page full of text, or something with a lot of graphics and elements to move around?
If you define "quicker" by, "The web page loaded up 5 seconds faster because I'm on 4G, but once loaded I spent the next 5 minutes reading the page with choppy scrolling and low frame rate videos." - that wouldn't be a better experience for me.
That's the power of benchmarks, it takes away the inconsistency of anecdotal evidence and puts both devices on a level playing field. And when it comes to benchmarks, no other phone beats the iPhone 4S.
I know I'm going to be hated for saying this but I'm with the OP here. The iPhone is made out as a great piece of design but by producing the bumpers and packaging them with cleaning cloths Apple is really admitting that the design is flawed. I personally think that both iphone and ipad could be improved (as much as I love them) as they always look smeary with fingerprints and I know more people who have dropped and smashed an iphone than all other phones put together. As a display piece they are beautiful but in practical use they need some work.
Honestly, I don't want an argument, but websites over our (very good) university wifi are quicker on the SGS2 and I reckon about 80% of the same applications on both phones loaded up quicker on the SGS2.
The flash thing is nonsense by the way because the SGS2 makes a mockery of the whole "flash crashes and is a massive CPU hog" argument. In my experience, the phones still runs buttery smooth when palying flash videos and at a very consistent, quick frame rate. I really haven't ever seen what you've just reported for a second. oh, and you could have turned flash off if you didn't want it
Sorry but your logic along with the OP's is flawed as I see most people with a case on their phone despite manufacturer. So by your logic all phones designs are flawed because they have cases that can be put on them... and ALL phone producers believe their design is flawed. See what I'm getting at there? Simply because people decide to put a case on their phone does not mean the manufacturer believes their design is flawed OR that it is flawed.
See, that's where personal experience has little value. I see NO one with cases other than iPhone, and I'd guess that the percentage of cased iPhones far out weights the others, put together.
Yeah it may protect the camera a bit better but it absolutely destroys the cosmetics of the stainless steel band.
Why do people worry so much about what others do with their stuff? Honestly.
It's called subjective preference. Look around and you'll see it in action in all aspects of life. Do what works for you and stop worrying about others.
You don't see the irony of your own statement? Plenty of people with devices other than iPhones use cases. As you stated, personal experience has little value. More accurate would be "What any one person has experienced has no statistical significance". Don't assume that you can extrapolate trends based solely on your own experience. If you'd care to offer citations (based on statistically significant samples) that back up your assertions, on the other hand...
Then don't get an Otterbox lol.
It's nuts to not have some sort of case on it. I have an Incipio case that provides pretty solid protection without being bulky at all, and contributes to the "blacked out" look.
I never said anything about the otterbox. I've tried several cases, including the incipio case; I just don't like how they make the phone feel. I've yet to shatter my iPhone 4 or 4S, so I'm not terribly worried. The only reason I would've considered a case in the past would've been to mitigate the antennagate issue... but since the 4S doesn't have that problem, I see no reason to go with a case.
Care to show me your scientific study with factual results linking the two or did you just take this out of your behind?
I wear seatbelts and am careful with everything, but putting a case on a phone, meh. I have dropped mine twice in two years, got a couple scratches. Big fracking deal. Since when does that make me a rebel? A phone and a car are two entirely different things. Do people die when i don't put a case on my phone?
Stupid.
I have a netbook that opens Firefox quicker than my new quad-core desktop with 8GB of RAM, but I wouldn't say the "real world performance" on the netbook is better.
During my tests, the SGS2 failed to load the video on the first try, and took over a minute of loading on the second attempt before playing back at 1 frame per second. The iPhone played the video almost immediately (html5 vs flash here, not the phone's fault, but this is what users experience).
During my tests, the SGS2 was very choppy when scrolling around in the browser after the page loaded. The iPhone was smooth.
Now this very same test may have gone very differently in your eyes. Maybe you would have looked at the initial opening of the browser, thought it opened 0.1 seconds faster, then stopped and said "SGS2 wins!".
Maybe your apps were already open in the cache and theirs weren't. Maybe those sites were already in your cache, and not in theirs. Maybe someone else's definition of "real world performance" includes not seeing any lag while browsing web pages, not seeing any lag while navigating the OS, and playing their favorite 3D games that stutter beyond belief and frequently crash on the SGS2 (I can name quite a few such games if you'd like).
You can argue your own personal definitions, you can even argue personal experience (if you don't use the functionalities that benefit from extra CPU/GPU speed), but you cannot argue the numbers. This is the benefit of benchmarks.
Someone might make the argument that my netbook is faster than my new quad-core desktop, not understanding that since the netbook has a solid state drive, it's expected that a simple program like Firefox open quickly on both machines. Luckily, running a quick benchmark (or installing a 3D game on both machines), will quickly show the true story. And sure enough...the netbook can't play flash videos smoothly
If you want the phone with the best performance on the market, that is the iPhone 4S, and no personal anecdotes can deny that fact.
To keep with the original topic, I don't typically use a case on my iPhone 4S. I have the morphie juice pack air, but keep it in my jacket pocket all day in case I need a charge.
I'm not sure what the infatuation is lately with cases, I'm even seeing Android users with drop resistant phones with cases, not worth it for me, but I see why some people use them.
I'm not sure what the infatuation is lately with cases, I'm even seeing Android users with drop resistant phones with cases, not worth it for me, but I see why some people use them.