Get Your Phone (or Tablet) a Case!

Techcitement recommends that you get a case for your new devices.

It’s good advice!

When I first got a tablet, I would carry it with me while walking to lunch. I slipped on a wet driveway, reached out to catch myself, and landed on the tablet with my hand. Amazingly, there was no damage, in part because my arm absorbed some of the impact, in part because I landed flat on it and not on a corner, and in part because I had a case on it, which prevented any scratching.

My phone has been saved a few times by having the hard plastic case pop off (or in one instance, break), though there is a nice crack in one corner of the screen. I figure it’s an identifying mark. 🙂

Update 2023: These days I use a rubberized case on my phone, back only (with a lip that wraps around the edges on the front), no screen protector. No scratches on the screen as far as I can tell after ~2.5 years. I make a point to never put it in the same pocket as my keys. I’ve dropped it a few times, but the case has absorbed enough of the impact that it hasn’t been damaged.

I even dropped one phone in the parking lot that landed on a corner, bounced, and tumbled under another car to rest face-down. The case did its job, the phone kept working, and the screen wasn’t even cracked!

Depending on where you carry your phone, or whether you use a case with a cover, a screen protector could be worth it too.

Over a decade and a half, the three of us have dropped phones and tablets a lot. But only two had major damage, and both were out of their cases at the time. (A tablet screen can shatter spectacularly when it lands face down on the concrete with nothing to break its fall!)

The only time a fall has caused significant damage to a device in its case: A phone dropped maybe two feet onto steps (concrete again), landing on its corner. It looked fine when my wife picked it up. And then a single single crack slowly crept across the glass while she watched, right across the middle of the screen. She still gets mad thinking about that one!