After about a week of gingerly handling my shiny new, all glass iPhone 4, I decided it was time for some sort of case.  If you know me at all, you’d be in semi-shock.  I hate cases.  I briefly had a silicone case for my trusty iPhone 3G, but it never felt right.. and I quickly went back to using it naked. I considered Apple’s own bumper case – and even went to my local Apple store intending to drop $30 on the little rubber band.  Unfortunately, they were sold out, so I continued on caseless. Hunting on my iPhone during breaks in work led me nowhere.  There aren’t a ton of iPhone 4 compatible cases out yet, and several of them have very real issues with the camera and flash.  What’s the point of a case if it prevents you from using your phone’s features?  No, none of those faulty cases would do. Just when I was about to give up, I followed a random link to a company called SwitchEasy, and their iPhone 4 case, called, oddly enough, NUDE for iPhone 4.  Liking what I saw, I plunked down the $23 and waited.

The SwitchEasy NUDE comes in a little plastic package, touting all it’s features.  Cool stuff like 1MM thin, and Lexan construction.  Like any modern plastic packaging, it was more fun than a barrel full of rabid monkeys to open.

My first thought once I extracted the case was, “Wow, this thing is really thin and light.”  Let’s be crystal clear about this right now – if your’e looking for a case to protect against drops, this is not the case for you. My iPhone 4 snapped easily inside the case.  I would recommend wiping down the side and back with a lint-free cloth first.  You don’t want to trap any dust back there – it could scratch the glass back. Once on, the iPhone feels pretty close to normal.  This case really is small – it doesn’t add much very much bulk.  It took just a few seconds for my hand to get used to the difference.  The texture is smooth, but not particularly slippery.  All the cutouts are high quality – everything lines up properly, and there are no sharp edges.  There appears to be plenty of room around the flash – and the edge is beveled as well to insure no flash issues. There is also no front glass protection.  By that I mean that the side of the case sits flush with the front glass.  If you lay your iPhone front-down on the table, the glass will touch.  For some that’s a big negative; for me that’s a big positive.  I can’t stand having a “lip” on the edge of my phone.

Very thin.

Very light.

Minimal design.

High quality.

Not particularly expensive.

No “lip” to get in your way.

No drop protection.  None.  At all.

No front glass protection.

Slightly harder to access the power, volume, and silence buttons.

If you like your cases slim, you can’t go wrong.  I chose white, though there are a variety of colors.  At $23, I would say this is a Buy unless you’re looking for drop protection.