The Best iPhone 17 Cases to Protect That Ultrawide Camera Bump

Two years ago, Apple made the commendable decision to get rid of leather cases; as great as leather is as a material, it’s still wrapping your phone in the processed skin of an animal. But its replacement, FineWoven, proved to be a dud, with materials that aged poorly for a lot of people. The company says that this new case uses multiple colored yarns to give the phone a “dimensional texture with a rich depth of color." On the outside, you’ll find textured TPU for enhancing your grip, and the case features anodized aluminum buttons.

Being an Apple first-party product, TechWoven cases are guaranteed to fit your phone and their magnets should be perfectly aligned with the MagSafe magnet inside the phone itself. They also have a new feature: dual connection points for attaching the phone to one of Apple’s (and, surely, many upcoming third-party) cross-body straps.

These cases come in five color options, including blue, green, and a brown Sienna color that looks an awful lot like leather. They’re boring colors, if you ask me, but if you like the idea of the new Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro’s camera bar popping through the large window at the top of the case, it could be fun. TechWoven cases are available now, just for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, and a bit pricey at $59 – but that’s hardly an unusual price point these days.

2. Apple iPhone 17 Silicone Case

Best iPhone 17 Case

If there’s one constant for every new iPhone, it’s the Apple first-party silicone case. It always fits well, always feels nice (at first), and it usually comes in a couple of nice colors. This year’s crop is a little muted on that last front, for now, but it does come with at least one new trick: it has connection points for the new Apple Crossbody Strap.

Other than that, Apple hasn’t made any new claims about these cases. Its silicone cases tend to be nice until they’re not – anyone who has owned one knows the scourge of trying to slip them in and out of tight jeans pockets; they can be frustratingly sticky. Over time, grime tends to build up on their exterior, rubbery surface that’s hard to clean off.

But if you like a silicone case, they’re among the best you can get. These cases come in at $49 and Apple is shipping them out before the phones go up for sale, with the earliest shipments delivering by September 11th for me. That way, you can sit and look at your phone case while you wait several more days for your new iPhone 17 to come in the mail. Yay!

3. Apple iPhone Air Bumper

Best iPhone Air Case

Boy oh boy, I’m unreasonably excited that Apple has brought back the bumper case. Remember those things? The company released its first bumper way back in the halcyon days of the iPhone 4. Although back then, it wasn’t about protection: it was because the iPhone 4 would drop phone calls if you held it just so. In this case, its raison d’etre is probably to let you protect the phone while simultaneously admiring its thinness. Which, fair; 5.6mm is wildly thin, beating out Samsung’s similarly waif-y 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge.

Apple’s new bumper case comes in four colors: Sky Blue, Tan, Light Gray, and Black, and, I’m sorry to say, it’s not free like the iPhone 4’s bumper was. It’ll set you back $39. But it’s also likely to hug the phone better than any third-party bumpers that may come along, making it potentially worth the cost. And what’s $39 when you’re already plunking down a thousand clams for the phone itself?

4. Bullstrap Minimalist Case

Best Leather iPhone 17 Case

Folks have had to turn to other companies for leather cases ever since Apple ditched the material in favor of the disastrous FineWoven case. There are a few companies that fill the gap, and one of the best ones has been Bullstrap. The company’s leather forms a nice patina and doesn’t crack easily, it has a microfiber lining, it has always fit my phones snugly, and has always held up superbly to drops, in my experience.

I’m a big fan of cases with a cutout at the bottom – so many of the gestures in iOS happen at the bottom of the display, and although they work just fine with a bumper that goes all the way around the screen, I find I like not having to run my thumb over the case’s edge to use them. Still, that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Bullstrap also makes cases without the cutout.

One drawback, for some, may be that Bullstrap’s cases use a cutout for the Camera Control button on these new phones, rather than adding a fancy conductive button for its touch-sensitive features. Also, the company’s cases aren’t as thin as Apple’s leather cases used to be. And, well, they’re expensive, at $99 – decent leather ain’t cheap, I guess. Bullstrap’s Minimalist Case will be available on September 25th for all three iPhones 17, and October 15th for the iPhone Air.

5. Dbrand Ghost Case

Best iPhone 17 Clear Case

Back in 2023, Dbrand released the Ghost Case, a clear phone case it said would never yellow, no matter what. That claim seems to have held up (although the cases did experience some other issues at first.). It works because the phone uses a polycarbonate (read: plastic) material for the back of the case and flexible, opaque TPU – clear and vulnerable-to-yellowing TPU is usually the material of choice for these cases – for the bumper to keep the case from being overly rigid.

This case works with MagSafe, and should fit your phone pretty well. Sure, you won’t get the cool graphics that come with the company’s Grip Case, but if you’re picking up that bright new orange iPhone 17 Pro, you may just want to be able to see and enjoy it.

The Ghost Case is available to buy now for $59.95 for the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Pro Max, and the iPhone Air, and should ship this month, according to the Dbrand’s website. If you’re looking for a totally clear case instead, you might be best picking up Apple’s first party one.

6. Otterbox Defender Series

Best Rugged iPhone 17 Case

Phones these days are hardier than they used to be, but they’ll still shatter and dent if you drop them enough. And protecting them from that is what Otterbox has always done best. If you know you need a phone case that’s fully life-proof, the Defender Series is well worth a look. This case comes with a hardy, thick outer shell, grippy rubber outer edge, and a dual layer design that keeps your phone snug while absorbing impact. There’s even one for the iPhone Air, if you want to totally wreck that whole “thinnest iPhone ever” thing.

The Defender also does all of that while still maintaining MagSafe compatibility so you can use accessories and magnetic wireless chargers with your phone. And these days, they come in a variety of colors and even patterns that let you pick more than just a boring, utilitarian black – although at the moment, the iPhone 17 lineup isn’t as varied as those for the iPhone 16 series.

Of course, there are caveats. At $79.99, they don’t come cheap, and their protective nature means they feel clunky and huge in-hand, particularly if you’re rolling with an iPhone 17 Pro Max. But if you know you need serious protection, they’re still the go-to.

7. Pitaka iPhone Air Ultra-Slim Case

Best full-coverage iPhone Air cases

The Pitaka Ultra-Slim case for the iPhone Air adds 0.99mm of thickness to the iPhone Air while covering the back and sides of the phone fully. If you’re not into the whole bumper thing, this might be the best option to protect Apple’s thinnest phone ever without adding too much bulk.

That’s not just because of the look; the Pitaka case has some really neat-looking designs. There’s the carbon fiber-looking 600D Black/Grey (Twill) case for those who prefer a dark look, but if you want something more colorful, there’s the Moonrise and Sunset phones, which have a banded gradient look that gives the phones a distinctive southwestern appearance.

These cases also use capacitive covers for the Camera Control button, something not all case makers will do. That means the area around the button isn’t exposed, yet you can still use it to quickly access your camera, and to adjust the camera’s settings, the same way you would if the phone is naked. Like a lot of cases here, they’re not cheap, coming in at $59.99.

8. Spigen Thin Fit MagFit Case

Best Budget iPhone 17 Cases

Spigen makes some of the most reliable cheap cases I’ve ever used, and I don’t expect that will be any different with its iPhone 17 line. Now, this is a $39.99 case if you buy it straight from Spigen, but the company only charges $21.99 for this case on Amazon, no matter which of the new phones you buy.

The Thin Fit MagFit case covers the camera bar for the iPhone 17 Pro, Pro Max, and iPhone Air, and they have integrated magnets for MagSafe. There is a thin layer of TPU over the Camera Control button, too – it’s not exposed like it is on other phone cases. It’s available now, and ships within two days, at least for me, making it one of the faster-arriving phone cases you can order – keep in mind, though, that this means the case was manufactured before the phones were even announced. It could be that a lot of guesswork and trust in rumors was involved in its production.

How to Pick an iPhone 17 Case

Buying a phone case can be tricky, especially if you’re trying to save a buck. Amazon seems to have an endless supply of alphabet soup names you’ve never heard of, and a lot of those won’t fit quite as well as you’d hope (or not at all), because many of them weren’t made with actual measurements from Apple itself, but by making best guesses based on what the rumor mill said. And some of them just never seem to get better.

The best way to go is probably just to buy one of Apple’s first-party cases, which also includes those from Apple-owned Beats. They’re pretty much guaranteed to have a snug fit that won’t lead to accidental damage just because your phone popped out when you dropped it. Otherwise, a trusted name brand like Dbrand, Otterbox, Spigen, or one of the others in this list is a great place to start. (There are many other good case makers out there, too, that I haven’t listed – what do you think I do, write phone case lists all day?)

With the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air in particular, decide what you want out of your case. Is it hardcore protection? A slim feel that doesn’t add a lot of bulk to your phone? And how important is it to you that the Camera Control button be exposed versus sitting underneath a covering that promises to still let you use the buttons touch-and-pressure sensitive features?

And finally, the iPhone Air presents new challenges. iPhones have mostly been the same exact form factor, minus some minor changes, for years. But this is a vastly slimmer phone that doesn’t give cases much to grab onto. Case manufacturers might need to iterate a couple of times before they get it right. Try to find first-hand reviews of cases from sources that you don’t think are just trying to sell you something for affiliate cash. If they have no criticisms about the cases and don’t make a bulletproof argument for why that is, move on until you find someone who does.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.