Back-covers of Mobiles: best and worst for wear ‘n’ tear…

What with the advent of the supposed new iPhone, with its supposed rubber case, I thought it might be interesting to consider a selection of back cases (or mouldings) of various devices – with a view to ID-ing the best and worst in terms of medium-term wear. So readers, here are my best(s) and worst(s)

BEST: contender: BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold – the faux-leather effect back case actually betrays what is a very nice idea for masking the effects of scratches etc

BEST: contender: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95-8GB – a thin covering of rubber-like material meant that the back-case didn’t easily scratch

WORST: contender: Nokia 8800 Scirocco – the removable back case of various Sciroccos that I saw in use scratched just by putting them in and out of the ‘protective leather sheath case’ that came with the device – to be accurate, the paint job on the devices wore away very easily…. why why why?

WORST: contender: iPhone 3G – a very shiny case, that is contoured so that only the middle will sit on a flat surface, means many shallow scratches occur quickly. The bezel on my device also scratched very easily

Conclusion: is it too much to expect your device to remain reasonably scratch-free if you don’t have it in a special case? Well maybe, depends on how whether any engineering thought has gone in to the case design, as regards its wear – certainly it seems to vary between devices.

What do you think readers? Do you try and keep your devices nice? Do you use a special case for your device? Has your device scratched easily? Let us know!