Back when phones were built to survive the outside world without a case, I never put cases on my phones.
The whole Nextel and Nokia and Blackberry era, not a one. They looked a bit worn from a few years each in my pocket with my keys, but they all worked fine, and they'd all survive a drop to the floor.
Today the only phone I'd trust to survive a naked drop would be a Unihertz Titan, but until there's an AOSP ROM for it, I'm not trusting it with my data. So, cases on everything.
Back when phones were built to survive the outside world without a case
You mean: Back when phones had screens made of plastic instead of glass. And yes, sure, that does make them more likely to survive a drop, but also means the screen becomes a scratch magnet. That of course is the right compromise when the screen is tiny and the pixels are enormous, but not so much when it’s the other way around.
Until about 2013, I didn't use a case on any of my (Android) smart phones, and never broke the glass screen. I know I dropped them several times. The worst that would happen was the battery door would fly off. I started using a case when I got a phone that was thinner, and had a glued-in battery. I think having a removable battery actually makes phones tougher in a sense, because I the case of a drop there's an place for the force of impact to go without causing permanent damage.
There's also a line of phones made by CAT, the construction company, that looks pretty durable. I've been thinking about getting one just to have fun with the thermal camera.
Sonim too. Got to play with one for a client. It wasn’t pretty, I seem to recall it ran a pretty crusty version of Android, but damn was that thing tough. And the speaker! Oh boy... the app I was helping with had to do with personal safety, and if the volume was turned all the way up that thing was LOUD!
I like those phones and never had one (either CAT or third party) fail... the issue is that the processor / RAM setup is always a little on the weak side and OS updates are a problem.
I'd probably buy my first ever iPhone if Apple came out with a ruggedized version of the current iPhone SE.
I'd pay it gladly if I knew I could get OS updates beyond 2 years... my issue with current flagships is unless you go Apple, you'll be buying a new one every few years.
I mean, to be honest, I didn't pay a lot of my original one (non-CAT) but it's on Android 8.0.1 forever... which isn't exactly a bad version.
I wish Android would decouple the device drivers from the kernel space kinda like a desktop OS so your manufacturer could just supply their drivers and you could upgrade the OS at will... a man can dream.
The desktop OSes that use Linux do not have the device drivers decoupled from the kernel. Apple also builds these drivers into Darwin (hence Nvidia GPUs breaking on MacOS), Windows (on x86-64 only) is the only platform that has a semi-stable ABI for device drivers.
Microsoft has dedicated many developer years to supporting said API, and all the kernel panics caused by said drivers.
You never lived in that time where people had their Nokia phones in those leather zip cases which completely covered the device clipped to their waist? Or the fact that many Nokia phones had removable front and back cases that you could replace yourself?
The whole Nextel and Nokia and Blackberry era, not a one. They looked a bit worn from a few years each in my pocket with my keys, but they all worked fine, and they'd all survive a drop to the floor.
Today the only phone I'd trust to survive a naked drop would be a Unihertz Titan, but until there's an AOSP ROM for it, I'm not trusting it with my data. So, cases on everything.