photo of an ancient iPhone 6s+ mounted in a ring light

I tend to be fairly thrifty with my phone purchases. I bought the iPhone 6s+ pictured above, used, seven years ago, and it’s still in use. It isn’t my daily driver, but was for a fair number of years. It still has good battery life. The previous owner had put a screen protector on it, which has cracked, but the phone is otherwise in good shape. I use it primarily for teleconferencing, particularly when people want me to install software from companies I distrust deeply <cough>Zoom</cough> in order to participate in their conference.

It got me to thinking about phones and phone cases. When I bought my first smartphone (a brand-new iPhone 3G) it seemed as though it was insanely valuable. It was expensive and I wasn’t rich. I had to stand in (a short) line to get it. And it seemed magical to have so much power in my pocket.

At the same time, it was clearly a tool, not a status symbol or collectors’ item. I wanted to protect it, sure, but I had also just paid top-dollar for a piece of technology notable for its industrial design. To hide that design in a clunky case seemed just wrong.

So for seventeen years, now, I’ve been dragging expensive phones around the world, to beaches and mountaintops and on bicycle rides and airports and on construction sites and in tunnels and basements and carnival rides and basketball games. I’ve never had a “protection plan.” I’ve never broken a screen or required a repair. I’ve had a couple of batteries die, but not many. I’ve used both iPhones and Android-based phones. And I’ve never once said “gee, I wish I’d had that in a case.”

I was a beta tester for Google’s Project Fi, which required that I switch to a Nexus 6 phone. I eventually switched back to an iPhone. Then, as Apple became increasingly enshittified, I switched to a Pixel 6 running GrapheneOS in order to distance myself from the iOS/Android duopoly and regain some security and privacy that were increasingly difficult to attain with the mainstream OS’s.

My Pixel 6 is now almost three years old. I recently switched cellular carriers (Google Fi has zero coverage where I live now, in spite of T-Mobile’s lying coverage maps) and was offered a stellar deal on a Pixel 9, so I thought it made sense to update.

photo of a box for the Google Pixel 9

It will get a GrapheneOS upgrade as soon as it’s out of the box.

But it won’t get a case.

—2p

PS. My column on the pavilion deck has got some updates with pictures, if you’re curious.

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