The 7 Best iPhone 16 Cases
Basic case
The Apple Silicone Case is a grippy case with complete coverage and a microfiber interior. The case fully covers the Camera Control button while still letting you press and swipe as usual. Unfortunately, it’s a magnet for dust and lint and costs nearly double the price of our top pick.
The Beats Case is a glossy, hard plastic case with a microfiber lining. It has button protection, including full coverage of the Camera Control button. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide the best grip, and the bottom portion leaves the speaker and USB-C port completely exposed.
The ESR Soft Case with Stand is a silicone-based case that doesn’t provide much of a grip but has ample coverage and a solid kickstand built into the camera bump.
Spigen’s Thin Fit case is made primarily of hard plastic, with a TPU border to provide some flexibility for installation and removal. It offers MagSafe support and a cutout for the Camera Control button. It’s a nice case, but our picks provided better overall coverage for drops.
Spigen’s Liquid Air is an extremely basic TPU case with easy access to the Camera Control button. It lacks MagSafe support or any distinguishing features to make it worth your money.
Zagg’s Manhattan Snap, London Snap, and Milan Snap are fine cases with sufficient coverage, MagSafe support, and a cutout for the Camera Control button, but they didn’t stand out against our pick.
Leather case
Moft’s Snap Case Movas is a vegan leather option with a microfiber interior and an option for lanyard support. Its metal buttons are solid, and it handles scratches better than most leather cases. However, the leather doesn’t feel as nice as that on the Mujjo case, and the cutout for the Camera Control access is unnecessarily large, exposing around the button to possible scuffs and damage.
Otterbox’s Symmetry Series comes in a leather-like option that the company says is made from cactus. While it won’t wear like leather over time, it does handle scratches better than all of the leather cases we’ve tested. The case has a microfiber lining, MagSafe support, and metal camera bump and button covers. But we dismissed it because it has a massive cutout for the Camera Control button that exposes the side rails around it to potential damage from drops.
The Torro Slimline Bumper Case is made entirely of top-grain leather, but it still allows for a comfortable grip. The aluminum buttons feel nice and clicky, too. The inside of the case also has a microfiber lining. But it’s not as protective as other cases we’ve tested. It’s not drop-rated either. While there’s a camera bumper on the back, the front lip isn’t very high. It protected our screen from scratches, but the sides of the display slightly cracked after accidentally dropping it on the concrete. It is, however, one of the few leather cases for the iPhone 16e that have a MagSafe ring built-in. So, we highly recommend pairing it with a screen protector.
Wallet case
Apple’s FineWoven MagSafe wallet has a strong magnet and can comfortably fit two cards at once. Like last year’s iPhone cases, they are made of suede-like microtwill materials that scratch easily and can look worn.
The Moft Snap Phone Stand & Wallet is made from beautiful vegan leather and has an attractive $30 price tag. The magnetic stand worked well, but the wallet holds only two cards comfortably.
The Mujjo Leather Magnetic Wallet is a MagSafe accessory that can be used on your iPhone or separately. It can comfortably fit up to three cards with openings on the bottom and the rear for easy access to add and remove cards. It also has silicone stripes on the rear intended for slip resistance but they didn’t work. The wallet would constantly detach from the iPhone when adding or removing cards.
Mujjo’s Full Leather Wallet Case is made entirely of leather. It also has an aluminum camera bump and clicky aluminum buttons, with a cutout for the Camera Control button. The card pocket can fit two cards, but adding a third makes it difficult to add and remove them. We have concerns that the wallet portion will wear out over time due to being leather. Also, it’s only available for the 16 Pro models.
The Smartish Wallet Slayer Vol. 2 is a slimmer version of the Vol. 1 wallet case with ample coverage and protection and a cutout for the Camera Control button. But I found it difficult to add and remove cards from its wallet sleeve when using more than one card.
More-protective case
Casetify’s Bounce Case has thicker borders, an integrated camera lens covering, a hardshell backplate, thick bumpers for corner drop protection, and the option to customize it. But it’s expensive, and our protective case picks cost less than half its price.
Mujjo’s durable Shield Case resembles a thicker version of Nomad’s Modern Leather Case, with a plastic body and rear leather panel.
The Otterbox Commuter and Defender Pro XT provide a considerable amount of protection—but also a substantial amount of bulk. The Commuter uses a combination of a TPU case and a hard plastic shell, and the Defender Pro XT has a glossy rear back. Both cases have a large Camera Control cutout that exposes too much around the button for potential damage.
The Rokform Rugged Case might offer the most protection on a case we’ve tested. The case is made of carbon fiber-textured plastic and grippy TPU, which adds noticeable bulk and weight to your iPhone. It has a strong MagSafe magnet and offers access to the Camera Control button, however, it costs twice as much as our pick.
Speck’s Presidio2 Grip with MagSafe does a good job of protecting against drops with ridges along the rear and sides for a better grip, and a well-placed cutout for the Camera Control button. But it’s hard to justify paying the full retail price of this case when you can pay less than half that for similar protection from Smartish’s Gripzilla.
Spigen’s Optik Armor has a shell that’s made from TPU with a hard plastic camera cover and air cushions within its corners. It’s a solid case that offers good protection, a dipped Camera Control cutout, and MagSafe support. But it doesn’t have much of a grip, the camera cover feels wobbly, and I don’t trust it to last long.
The UAG Civilian has a hardshell rear with TPU sides, a slim profile, and a lanyard. It protects all of your iPhone’s buttons and has a cutout for the Camera Control button. But its lanyard points are located on the bottom corners of the case, which can expose them to damage and debris.
The UAG Pathfinder is another protective case with a hardshell exterior, TPU bumpers, tactile buttons, and raised sides along the screen and camera module. It also has support for MagSafe accessories. It’s slim and lightweight, especially for a rugged case. But as with the UAG Civilian case, the lanyard anchors are located on the bottom, which can expose the phone to damage.
Zagg’s Denali Snap has a rubber shell with MagSafe support and a cutout for the Camera Control button. It also includes a built-in metal kickstand, which makes it easy to watch videos hands-free in horizontal and vertical orientation, although a kickstand case may not be ideal for everyone.
ESR’s HaloLock Cyber Tough Case is comprised of two pieces: a TPE soft shell and a plastic scratch-resistant hard shell, the latter of which has a built-in MagSafe ring. It offers plenty of protection to both the display and the back of the phone, and the magnets have a strong hold. While we appreciate that it’s lightweight, the smooth back feels slippery despite the built-in grooves on the sides, so it doesn’t allow for the best grip.
The Otterbox Defender Series (only available for the iPhone 16e) offers tons of protection thanks to the multi-layer setup and has a MagSafe ring built in. There’s a plastic inner shell that covers the front and back of the phone, and a silicone cover that fits over it. The textured back makes it easy to grip, which is an important feature for a case that adds as much bulk as this one does. But since this case is also designed for the iPhone 13, iPhone 14, and iPhone 15 series, the camera cutout is far too big for the single sensor on the back of the iPhone 16e. The action button also has a protective flap over it, which means you have to open it every time you want to access it.
Clear case
Apple’s Clear MagSafe case protects the Camera Control button with a pressure-sensitive, responsive button built into the case that lets you swipe, press, and half-press to control the camera. But it doesn’t offer the best grip and leaves the entire port and speaker section exposed.
The ESR Hybrid Case with Stand has a solid kickstand built into its camera bump with an easy-to-reach cutout for the Camera Control button, but it doesn’t have the best grip.
The Moft Snap Case isn’t as stiff as models for older iPhones, but it offers less coverage than last year’s version. It exposes both side rails of your iPhone to potential damage, and it’s also a fingerprint magnet.
Smartish Gripmunk with MagSafe in the Clearly Clear color option has a raised camera bumper and thick, frosted edges with textured grips around all of the edges—save for the Camera Capture area, which is unfrosted with an accessible, exposed button. However, a previous version of the case turned yellow really fast, so we have similar concerns about this one.
Speck makes several clear cases, including the Presidio Perfect-Clear MagSafe, Presidio Lux, Presidio Lux Glitter, and Presidio Perfect-Clear Grip MagSafe. We’d recommend the Grip versions, because the non-Grip versions can be slippery in hand. The Grip versions, with plastic grips raised along the edges and inverted on the back, offer a different look and feel than any other clear case. We’ve found the non-Grip versions have a smaller cutout for the Camera Control button, which can be difficult to reach for those with larger hands.
Spigen’s Ultra Hybrid T MagFit case is a great clear option with MagSafe support. It offers hard-plastic TPU borders along with a raised camera bumper and corners for additional protection. Spigen covers the new Action and Camera Control buttons, the latter of which is responsive to swipes and half-presses, like Apple’s case is. But it’s only available for the iPhone 16 Pro.
The UAG Plyo is another protective clear option with a thicker profile, corner, and camera protection, and accessible Camera Control cutout. But the larger MagSafe magnet ring design is polarizing.
Superthin case
Caudabe’s Veil is our previous superthin pick. The new version has pebbled dots on the sides for an improved grip, a bump to protect your iPhone’s camera lenses, and cutouts to access your Action and Camera Control buttons easily. However, the case is only available for the Pro models of the iPhone 16.
Pitaka’s Tactile Woven and Ultra-Slim Cases are thin yet solid options with minimal overall protection. Both cases are rear shells that leave the Action, Camera Control buttons, and USB-C port completely exposed. Both have aluminum camera bumps and MagSafe magnets, but there’s not enough coverage to make these cases worth buying.
The Latercase Thin Case is similar to the Pitaka case but is slightly slimmer and doesn’t feel as sturdy. The case completely exposes the phone’s buttons and port and has a skin-like cover over the camera module instead of a bump. We don’t recommend it.
This guide was edited by Signe Brewster and Caitlin McGarry.
