Consider for a moment that you hate how your phone looks. Or consider the very opposite – you love how it looks and you want it to look pristine until all the sands of time have fallen. Or consider you have a coupon. For whatever reason, you have disregarded all the designers and builders at your OEM of choice and you have decided to cover up your new beauty with..something. Well, let’s talk about those somethings.

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The case for the case

Cases are one of the first things people think of when considering how to best protect their investment. Make no mistake; a phone is an investment. It’s not a financial investment that will see a profitable return, but you’re buying a phone experience, which pays out not in money, but in “awesome” and “pretty” in a great experience. There is little in life more frustrating than a nick in the chrome of your favorite smartphone, or a tiny scratch on your screen. It’s natural that you might want to protect it.

Cases are everywhere. They can be everywhere from non-descript, to jazzy. They can be plain or colorful, or anything in between. It’s fun to note that many smartphone leaks – especially iPhone leaks – come from case manufacturers who get phone specifications in advance so their product can be ready by the time the phones come out. So they perform a service as well.

Cases can also be versatile in that they can, depending on their design, protect your phone from everything from submersion to light dings and dents. You know those brick-sized cases you see folks shove their sleek phone into? Those can withstand one helluva beating, which is important if you plan to put your phone through one helluva beating. If you’re the nautical type, there’s a case for you too. There are cases for just about anything you care to put your phone through, and for those things you ~don’t~ plan to put your phone through. But what if you don’t want to wrap your phone in bubble wrap?

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Skin of my teeth

Enter the skin. One of our friends of the site, Dbrand skins makes some of the better skins out there. Like cases, these additions to your phone help protect it and make it pretty, if you so desire. Skins on a phone are generally not as durable, but their primary benefit is they graft to your phone like a second…wait for it…skin. So it’s not just a clever name.

These skins generally attach via adhesive, so there is a small downside in that respect, but most skins are removable, so there won’t be any permanent additions to your pride and joy. Skins can add a lot to your phone without adding a lot of bulk. Personally, some of the cooler ones that I’ve seen add a texture to the phone – my favorite is carbon fiber. These will help protect your phone and make it even more attractive because there are so many options to choose from.

But…a part of me has to ask…what about keeping your phone naked?

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Au naturel

Don’t get me wrong, I respect people wanting to protect their phones, but I have never been one of those people. Recently, I put a case on my OnePlus One, just to see what it was like. I got the cheapest one I could find on Amazon that wasn’t hideous, and I toted it around for a while. I did this because I wanted to know what it was like to have a case on a phone. This is the first case I have ever put on a smartphone. Ironically, not long after, I flew over the handlebars of my bike and killed the phone. So as it turns out, there’s no case safe enough for Adam.

This is good, because a case just wasn’t for me. I didn’t really enjoy the experience. But I’m not going to judge. I’m just going to debate. I have said time and again that phone manufacturers put a lot of time and energy into designing their phones, and I simply do not like covering up all that work with a 10 dollar case from Amazon. It really is as simple as that. All I’m doing is keeping the phone nice for the next owner. If I were on a cycle of buying and reselling phones, this would make sense. But I’m not, so it’s naked for me all the way.

What about you? There are good reasons for any of these options – case, skin, or naked. Which do you prefer? Do you want maximum protection, minimal less obtrusive protection, or just come what may? Sound off below, and let’s see if we can figure this out.