Vote now: Do you use a case on your phone?

Using a case for your phone is probably among the smartest decisions you can make about your gadgets. After all, smartphones are an essential part of daily life, so if something happens to them, it could mean problems. Considering this, wrapping your gorgeous smartphone in a case is the best way to save it from damage.

If we have to be completely honest, though, cases are horrible. As our own Alan Friedman recently discovered, letting your smartphone out of the confines of even the fanciest protection brings a magnificent feeling. These are his words, not mine. I can only enthusiastically agree with him.

Something else Alan learned quickly after taking the case off of his precious iPhone 15 Pro Max was that, somehow, phones always end up falling. In his case, the 15 Pro Max survived a close encounter with a hardwood floor. Quite often, survival is not the outcome of such encounters. If you pay attention to people’s phones on the bus or the train, you can’t miss the sea of shattered glass.

Protection is not a case’s only mission, at least if we pay attention to what brands like Apple and Samsung do with them. They try to position their cases as fashion accessories. Instead of a glass and metal smartphone, you can get a leather case with a more natural color and feeling. Or, you can opt for a bright and joyful silicon case and bring color to your day. Once you get bored or your mood changes, you can easily swap the case to match the change.

Some cases bring utility upgrades. You can pop a case that makes it easy to mount a phone to the dashboard of a car or a bicycle’s frame and use it for navigation. There are cases allowing you to attach external lenses to the phone’s camera, the ones that double as a power bank and even solar panel cases.

Thanks to this diversity, using a case with your smartphone could feel like an improvement. So, we’re asking if you’re using a case with your phone. Is it always on your phone, or do you prefer to put it on only in certain situations, like when going to the beach or the mountains? Are you protective of your new gadgets, but once time passes, you strip your phone to its bare glory?

Vote in our poll and share your specific cases in the comments. We’re really curious to learn how you treat your phones.