Should You Get A Bumper Or A Case For Your iPhone 5?

If you have / are getting an iPhone 5, then you may be wondering whether it's worth getting a rubber bumper to fit around the outside of the phone, or a case for the phone to fit into.

The two different styles of case can both protect the phone. But which is better and do you really need one?

The iPhone 4 came with a bumper from Apple to make it work properly as the signal on the early phones was rubbish if you were holding the phone and trying to use it as a phone.

The iPhone 5 is not supposed to need a case or bumper, as not only is it supposedly harder to break, but the signal issues that forced the people that bought an early version of the iPhone 4 to use a bumper (I was one of those!) have now been sorted out.

But should you get yourself a bumper on there anyway?

The bumper only fits around the edge of the phone and you snap the phone into it, while you can get cases that cover the whole lot.

If you use a bumper, you won't need to take the phone out of there really, whereas cases can get filled up with dust and grit, or at least they do in my pockets, so you'll have to take it out now and again for a clean.

Something to bear in mind is that the iPhone 5 back is easier to scratch than the previous glass backed version, so if you want to keep it in pristine condition, or as close as possible, then get a full case.

I prefer the bumper. I don't know why, I just tend to find that full cases are a bit chunky and heavy and I've never really liked them. I know that by the time my contract is up I will have battered my phone to some degree, but as long as it doesn't break before then I'll be happy.

The iPhone is now supposed to be much tougher than the old version.

The back of the phone is now metal not glass, so although it is more likely to scratch, it is less likely to break if you drop it.

Although it is tougher, the problem is that it can still break if you drop it face first as this picture here shows.

You have got to be pretty clumsy to break your new iPhone, but it can happen. I'm pretty clumsy and find the thing slip slides around like crazy in my hands. I regularly drop things and a general rule for how my body works is that the more expensive the item, the more likely I am to drop it.

I have dropped my iPhone plenty of times already.

In my eyes a bumper / case is pretty much essential. It allows me to throw my phone around, chuck it on tables etc and regularly drop it, without it breaking.

The bumpers are usually raised slightly proud of the screen, so you can chuck your iPhone face down on a table and it will just land on the rubber. I used a friends iPhone who doesn't use a bumper and when I chucked it on a glass table it made an almighty crash, although didn't break luckily. The look my friend gave me was quite sour though.

If you get a black bumper then you can't really tell it's on the phone either. Well you can, but it doesn't interfere with the thing and it means it is less likely to go flying out of your pockets straight down a drain, or slip out of your pockets while you're sitting in a taxi (one of my favourite ways to lose phones).

They're incredibly cheap, so my advice if you have a shiny new iPhone, get yourself one and try it for a few days. If you are going to get a bumper, make sure you get one with separate buttons.

I tried one of the solid rubber bumpers and it was great, apart from the fact that the volume buttons became unuseable. That hit the bin pretty quick. There are plenty of cheap ones for sale that have proper buttons though so you will have plenty of choice.

As soon as you get used to it then you'll probably find you prefer it with it on and you hopefully won't break your iPhone. Thanks for reading.