Reader Christian sent us a concerned plea for information:
Have you noticed that practically no iPhone case that has been appearing in the last days has a hole in the back to allow the use of the camera. Why is it? Wouldn’t it be easier to take photos without the need of taking out iPhone from its case.
Indeed.
Not to worry: we’ve already received several cases—specifically, models from Speck and DLO designed to be kept on your iPhone 24/7—that have just such a hole for the iPhone’s camera lens. We’ll see how well these cases let you take photos once we’ve actually got an iPhone to test, but until then, rest assured that at least some vendors had their thinking caps on when molding silicone.
One case which is getting a lot of press attention is the
Orbino Strada iPhone Case which very clearly indicates an opening on the back for the camera.
Silicone is great for providing a good grip, but this same tackiness will make it difficult to slide an iPhone into a pocket. I've been very happy with my silicone iPod case, but I'm not sure I'd want it for the iPhone-camera hole or not.
Greg:
We've also received a couple non-silicone iPhone cases, and even more have been announced. As with cases for the iPod, it appears you're going to have a wide variety of choices.
I focused on silicone iPhone cases here because most silicone cases are designed to be left on all the time and are difficult to remove quickly. The non-silicone cases I've seen so far make it easy to remove your iPhone, so the camera-hole issue doesn't affect them as much.