I don't know anyone who rocks a naked phone anymore except people like my brother, who only does it because he likes to boldly claim how rarely he drops his phone. Which is funny because he has cracked way more screens/glass backs than I have with my thin minimal cases.

How many people have an iPhone Air?

That’s exactly why I added “or any other premium.” Why buy a sleek phone made of premium materials just to bury it in the cheapest, ugliest, chunkiest plastic case you can find?

I don't think the super cheap and chunky phone cases are analogous to a wrap here.

I know more than a few people with very expensive phones covered in thin carbon fiber style cases which are there purely to protect the glass and metal from egregious scratches, though.

Plenty of people buy expensive phones for the specs and features, yet either have no interest in jewelry or see it as a negative status symbol.

And by plenty you mean minority.

Obviously, but the question I was responding to was, "Why buy a sleek phone made of premium materials just to bury it in the cheapest, ugliest, chunkiest plastic case you can find?"

Its not adamantium, its still just plastics, glass, metals, and electronics.

I would never sit hours somewhere waiting to get my phone fixed, I value my time.

Because the hardware and os updates matter more than how it looks and you only get the good stuff in a fragile "glass sandwich". So if you want it to survive a fall, you spend $25 and leave it in a case until it's cooked 3 years later but still the original screen and hasn't needed anything fixed.

I have shorts that I love. They've been repaired many times by my partner. Its pockets developed a hole in a way that sometimes my phone just goes straight to the ground and my rawdog iPhone has a cracked screen and back as a result. Terrible way to save.

> what’s the point of having an iPhone Air or any other premium built phone at all?

The ecosystem?

Its a phone, not a tank.

People not using cases on their phone are insane to me. I can't even sit these spaceships down on a non-flat surface without them sliding off. They're the thickness of playing cards.

Similar to: "I bought my phone for identity, for style, for a feeling if being on the technology edge."

Yeah, I bought a phone with a web browser in an ecosystem I like.