My iPhone is Naked, as God and Steve Jobs Intended.
I just want you to be happy...and naked. - Anonymous
Photo by Howard Bouchevereau on Unsplash
My iPhone is naked. It’s nude, uncovered, nekkid, au natural, wearing its birthday suit, in the buff, Adam and Eve before the fall. There is no cover, no screen protector, no bulky Otterbox, no slim leather case, no minimal corner bumpers, and no screen protector beyond the oil from my fingerprints. It is naked, as God and Steve Jobs intended. I took the case and screen protector off of my iPhone 11 several years ago and never looked back. My current iPhone 13 (in “starlight”, what normal people call “white”) has never had a case. I never worry about MagSafe charging working or have difficulty plugging in aftermarket cables with fat profiles.
A surprising number of people freak out when I pull out my naked iPhone. They recoil in horror. They ask if my case broke. They ask if I drop it a lot. They ask if I’m some kind of crazy person (no, no, and undiagnosed). I’m amused by the questions. The biggest question is “Why?”. Is this some kind of minimalist BS? Not necessarily. It’s a combination of things.
First, I pay for perpetual Apple Care. My phone is naked but insured. If I break it, I pay my deductible and get a new phone. Second, iPhones have gotten tougher. I see a lot less people walking around with cracked screens. Dropping my phone on tile is less scary than it used to be. I’ve got a scuffed corner from dropping it on concrete, but asphalt is the real killer. The hard, sharp pointy bits in asphalt are iPhone glass killers. Still, current iPhones aren’t the fragile eggs of past generations. Water is no longer an issue either. Drop it in the toilet, take in the shower, swim in the pool, no problem. I’m not a fan of salt water in my phone, so I don’t swim in the ocean with it, but iPhones are pretty tough now. Finally, why buy a phone in a color just to cover it up? The front of iPhones are all the same. A nearly bezel-less black slab until turned on. The differentiation is in the back, so why buy a green, blue, or white (ahem “starlight”) version just to cover it up? I get that covers have become a form of self-expression and that may be the minimalist part of my rationale. My self-expression is reflected in how I set up my phone, not what I cover it in.
There is also a bit of “I’ve never done that before” here. Originally iPhones were expensive and fragile. Plus AppleCare had limitations. So we tried to protect our iPhones. They are still expensive, but much less fragile. AppleCare is better than it was and alternative plans, like options from Asurion, are improved as well. There are also less expensive third-party options to fix a broken phone. In short, iPhones are still expensive, but tough enough to last longer. They are getting closer to being true assets, like a car. Cars are also expensive and fragile, but we don’t cover them in a giant case.* It’s true we don’t drop our cars, but people don’t accidentally hit our iPhones with another iPhone as we walk down the street. As a society, we tend to protect expensive things with insurance and that’s where I’ve landed with my iPhone.
I’m perfectly fine with a naked iPhone and I’m fine with people who want to keep theirs covered up. I don’t actually care what you do with your Android phone. Still, I think more people should try naked iPhones. Everyone knows that front pocket bulge is a bulky case, so set the iPhone free.
*Full disclosure, I have an F150 with a bed liner and tonneau cover, which is like covering part of your car in a big plastic case with a screen protector. No analogy is perfect.