- Hi, I'm Nick Guy, and these are some of the best cases
for your new iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro.
(upbeat music)
We've been reviewing iPhone cases at Wire Cutter
for a long time, and often the best cases
are the same year after year,
so it's not surprising to see that's the case
with the iPhone 11 as well.
What's new this year in iPhone 11 cases
is of course a bigger camera cutout,
and the buttons on the side are moved a little bit.
So if you're planning on taking your favorite iPhone 10 case
and just cutting a bigger hole to accommodate the camera,
it's not gonna work.
My favorite basic case for the iPhone 11
is the Smartish Kung Fu Grip.
It looks pretty basic, but there's actually
a lot of really clever things going on here.
It's made out of TPU which is a flexible plastic.
The back panel is smooth,
so it slides in and out of your pocket very easily,
but the edges have a pebbly texture
which means you get some grip,
and new for the iPhone 11 this year,
they've added very subtle ridges along the edge,
so you can actually get an even better hold
on your phone and hopefully not drop it.
It comes in some really nice colors like this purple,
a plain black, or as you can, you can also get prints on it.
You could also custom print your own from their website.
The next style of case we looked at is leather cases,
and our favorite leather case
is Apple's Leather Case.
Surprisingly, no one makes anything
that really competes with the Apple Leather Case
that's as thin or as attractive, especially not at price.
So for 50 bucks, you get this thin, beautiful leather case,
and the only real downsides is it doesn't really wear
super well over a year.
We've had a few writers and editors here at Wire Cutter
find that in the space of about a year,
it'll start to tear and get ratty.
Let's go to transparent.
Now my favorite transparent case comes from a company
called Spigen, and it's called the Liquid Crystal.
There's a lot of transparent cases out there right now,
and it make sense because the iPhone 11
comes in some really beautiful colors,
and you want to show those off.
So you can see that it's totally transparent,
looks really great.
The reason I love the Liquid Crystal
compared to other transparent cases
is it's made of TPU plastic,
and that material does not show fingerprints
as readily as say a hard, rigid plastic.
So while every transparent case is going to get fingerprinty
over time, they're a little bit more hidden
on the Liquid Crystal.
All transparent cases are also going to yellow over time,
but we think at about $12,
it's worth it to go with the Liquid Crystal
and replace it if you're unhappy with that yellowing.
I will do wallet next.
All right, so say you'd rather carry all of your cards
with your phone and ditch your wallet.
We recommend the Wallet Slayer, Vol. 1
which is also from Smartish.
It's actually pretty much the same case as the Kung Fu Grip.
The big difference being
it has this wallet pocket on the back.
So you can take a credit card or up to three actually,
slide it right in, and just pop it out
when you need it.
It really is the same case just with the card holder.
Naturally, because it can hold cards in the back,
the Wallet Slayer Vol. 1 is thicker than other iPhone cases,
but the curves actually do a really good job
of fitting into your hand and not feeling so thick.
Which phone is that?
That's, where'd that phone, oh, it's okay.
So one of the downsides of wallet cases
that keep your cards on the back
is they don't necessarily play well
with the wireless charging.
So if you want to carry your cards
but also want to wirelessly charge,
we like folio-style cases
that have room for your cards inside a front cover,
and our favorite is the Speck Presidio Folio.
The Presidio Folio has this cover
with room for up to three cards inside
and this door securely snaps shut,
so they're not gonna fall out.
You can even use it as a viewing stand,
if you're watching a movie.
Just prop it up like that.
More protective and then thin, okay.
While no case is going to guarantee
that if you drop your phone, it's not going to break,
we think Speck's Presidio Pro is worth it
if you want a little bit more protection.
What we really like about the Presidio Pro
is its dual layers, so there's plastic on the outside
and rubber inside, which means it'll do really great
at absorbing shocks if you drop the phone,
and there are air pockets on the inside edges,
which again will help with shock absorption.
Finally, we have one style
that we don't necessarily recommend,
but we know some people are looking for,
and that's the ultra thin case.
So with these cases, you're not really getting
the kind of protection we like from a case.
You're not getting real shock absorption.
You're not getting a protective lip around the screen.
What you are getting is a super, super thin layer,
almost like a plastic skin.
Our favorite right now is Caudabe's Veil.
It is a simple piece of plastic
that is almost imperceptibly thin,
and it has a nice textured finish to it,
but it doesn't really offer any shock absorption,
and there's no lip around the screen
to prevent damage to your phone if you drop it.
If there's a case that you want to see us test,
please leave it in the comments below,
and we'll check it out and let you know what we think.
Absolutely.
While no case is going to guarantee
that you won't break your phone if you drop it,
we think Speck's Presidio,
Speck's Presidio,
Speck's Presidio Fole,
(laughing) Presidio Fold, yeah.