Apple’s aesthetics and brilliant engineering design is immediately negated when the iPhone 5 is placed in an appropriate protective case. Techie work environments are always “show and tell” spaces for geeks to parade their freshly acquired toys, like the latest and greatest smartphones and tablets.

Everyone’s in it

Since the introduction of the two latest smartphone heavyweights — the iPhone 5 last month and the Samsung Galaxy S3 earlier this summer, it seems like the “Hey! Look what I got” syndrome has swung into overdrive. We all have seen people doing the Show and Tell thing for about two or three months now. Not a day goes by when a co-worker walks over to your desk to show what he or her has bought.

Two Things to Worry

Well, basically, on any of these new expensive smartphones, you got two areas you need to be worried about. The first and foremost is the screen itself. Now, smartphone vendors along with companies like Corning have improved the tensile strength of the glass since the last generation, but if it lands face down and hits any kind of protrusion, you’ve got a really good chance of cracking the screen.

The actual casing on the iPhone 5 is made out of anodized aluminum, so while it will do better with scratches and will not crack like the previous model which was a glass sandwich, you can still dent it and possibly chip a piece off and damage the electronics, and the forces of the impact will probably shatter the screen too.

In Case of breakdown, Insurance Can’t Help

The carrier insurance only comes in handy for an actual device malfunction. If you bring that iPhone into your carrier the phone is essentially shot and the repair fee might be outrageous and the damage coverage is totally at their discretion depending on what they define as ‘accidental’. Except that you purchase Applecare+ during time of purchase, which is another $99, and will cover two incidents on your iPhone over a period of two years, each incurring a service fee at an Apple retail store of $49.

It leaves you with a disturbing dilemma; either you get a protective case that takes the hugely impressionable design and throws it out of the window or you leave the $800 piece as it as but risk damages.