– Hey YouTube, I’m Jerry and I have a case on my iPhone 11 Pro, which I removed the other day
to give it a good cleaning. Every time I remove my phone
from a case, I remember how slim and sleek it is
to hold and play with. Cases give a phone a completely
different personality, and it’s hard to believe that anyone actually likes
the feel of them better. Cases are a big business. In 2018 and 19, there were
about 1.5 billion phones sold in the world. And the protective phone cover market was about $21.4 billion in 2018. Now, if you divide that by an average of around $12 per case that comes to around 1.8 billion cases or more cases than
phones sold in the year. In fact, I find it jarring. Every time I see someone in public without a case, I can’t help but wonder, what would it be like to be so bold? With all this new time at home, I started to ask myself, “Should
I go caseless in 2020?” (upbeat music) So, why do people use cases? I think the biggest reason
is protection from damage.
Our phones today are
more expensive than ever with some approaching $1,500 or more. That is quite an investment. But to me, not surprising for a device that we use far more than
anything else in our daily lives. But when we spent a lot of money on something, we wanna keep it protected from everything we can. Not only our phone’s expensive upfront, but if we do damage a phone, then the cost of repairs
can be equally expensive at hundreds of dollars or
more for a screen repair or device replacement. Listen, I’m not a doomsday
prepper or anything, but there are hard rough
surfaces everywhere. We are mostly stuck at home these days, but just inside your house, you will probably find hard surfaces that will destroy your phone like countertops, tile
floors, stairs, concrete.
It’s no wonder that people
want to slap a $6 piece of rubber on their phone to keep it from an inanimate beating. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I have never had a screen crack or had to replace a phone due to damage. Now, one moment while
I knock on some wood. (loud banging) The other reason that people want a case
is for personalization. If you just search
“insert phone name” case in Google or Amazon,
you will find hundreds of options ranging all over in color design,
material, and personality. If you want a pink sparkle
case, you can find it. Or maybe you want a pink sparkle case that can also be your wallet.
You can find thick cases,
slim cases, clear cases, printed cases, silicone cases, hard cases. You can find cases with dogs. You can find cases with cats. You can find purple panda cases. You can find plush cases, battery cases, and even cases with
kickstands and finger rings. Whatever it is that you want your phone to look like, chances are you can find it. I tend to stick to simpler
designs for my cases. But I can look back to my
first cases bought on Amazon in 2012, starting with the iPhone 5. I have purchased over 40 cases since then, including for iPhones,
Galaxies, Pixels, Motorolas and Nexus, Nexus, Nexuses, Nexuses? I mostly bought them for protection, but some of them were for
bold colors or features.
Now, there are some people out there who can’t stand the
idea of slapping a case on the beautiful, expensive, new toy. So what is the case against cases? I think people just
want to see the design. Tech companies spend hundreds
of millions of dollars on designing a beautiful, thin device. They go over every detail, how they look and how they feel in the hand, and some people just want
to be able to appreciate and experience the phone
as it was meant to be.
I can’t blame them. I have always been envious
of the people willing to go caseless, and I think of the age of modern full screen devices and the prevalence of swiping gestures, there is no better response
between your finger and the screen than when naked. Your phone, that is. So, if you are in the camp of someone who would like to go caseless, but is having trouble
getting around the idea of losing that protection, here
are a couple ways to do it. First, don’t be clumsy. I know. That is better said than done, and accidents are called
accidents for a reason, but hear me out. There are a couple things you could do to reduce the risk of damaging your phone while out in the world, like don’t use it while you are walking. This seems obvious. Just use your phone
when you are stationary, and when you can devote your attention to that expensive marvel of engineering.
You know that there is
nothing more important than checking that
notification or responding to a Twitter troll at that moment, and your phone deserves
your full attention, right? This should include when going up and downstairs, getting out of the car, and waiting in line. But listen, I know we are not animals and none of what I just said is possible, so that brings us to the
second option, insurance. In lieu of a case, you
could pony up monthly for a protection plan from Apple, Samsung, or a wireless carrier and
freeball it all day long.
Sure. It is more expensive than buying a case, but can you really put a price on the enjoyment you get when
whipping out a smooth metal and glass sandwich and swiping
to your heart’s content? Maybe, because if you drop it, you could find yourself forking over 80 or a hundred dollars or more for repairs, and repairs in today’s crisis
could be hard to come by. The third way to go
caseless is to not care. Resign yourself to the fact that you will probably drop your phone at some point when you
are least expecting it, and enjoy the memories
that the marks make. So there it is. Cases offer protection
and personalization, but hide the natural
beauty of the hardware as it was designed.
You can cover your expensive, new toy with plastic, rubber,
glitter, and accessories or you can bare it all and risk everything by letting your phone flap in the wind. Either way, at some point, your phone will unexpectedly leave your hands and hit a surface that was not meant for polished metal and glass. Will you be sighing
relief, cursing the gods, or laughing about it later? For me, I still can’t decide. So, let me know in the comments
what you think I should do.
Should I risk it all for the best of swiping experience
or keep my baby wrapped in silicone and enjoy
perfection only when sitting on the couch. Thanks for watching my new video today. If you like what you saw, please
hit the like button below. If you’re interested in being notified about new videos, you can follow me on Twitter, @JerrySchulze.
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and I’ll see you next time. (upbeat music).
