As I write this, it’s 10:30 in the morning and my fingers already hurt. My left pinky is particularly unhappy with me for a new case that lacksMagSafe supportor a built-in grip, which led to me falling back on my old pinky-propping habit of resting my pinky under the bottom of myGalaxy S23most of the day yesterday instead of using one of my many stick-on phone grips.
While this may not seem like a harmful activity, holding phones like that for almost a decade — combined with years and years of overusing my left pinky for copy/paste and using the shift, control, or alt keys — has turned into aRepetitive Strain/Stress Injury.Remember Blackberry Thumb? Controller Claw Grip? Cell Phone Elbow? These are all RSIs caused by the overuse or misuse of our devices.
Have you ever experienced numbness in the muscles around your thumb or the back of your hand? Tingling in your wrist? These are symptoms of the RSI colloquially called Cell Phone Elbow, and I fight mine with my trusty PopSockets Collection, Clckrs, and a variety of kickstands. These help lessen and redistribute the weight and also aid my range of motion to avoid thumb overextension injuries trying to reach that top right corner menu button.
If you just thought, “That girl just uses her phone too damn much,” I’d ask you how many times you use your phone. How often do you stand in line — or sit on the toilet — and while away time with yourfavorite Android phone? How often are you whipping out your closest camera to catch your kid doing something adorable before they inevitably dart off and leave just a blurred photo behind? Or maybe you’re just checking notifications?
The national average is 144-275,varying by study. But the number of times we simply touch or pick up our phones is exponentially higher. That’s a lot of gripping a glass, metal, and plastic rectangle, and while cases are designed with grip in mind, that grip focus is mostly on how well you may hang onto it, not how ergonomic and comfortable it is in the hand.
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Without a grip, that forces us to either balance our phone on four fingers and overextend our thumb or claw our hand around the back and use a second hand to tap the screen with any precision. Even worse, if the phone lacks a kickstand to prop it up, chances are you’ll hunch over it while looking at it on your desk or dinner table. A good phone grip solves both these problems by re-adjusting where that weight rests in your hand and keeping your phone slim and easy to slide in and out of your pocket.
The first and most popular phone grip is, of course, the PopSockets PopGrip. Its plastic accordion doesn’t wear out the way the bearings or hinges of metal right grips do, and there’s a metric crapton of designs to choose from. From basic plastic to metallic spinners, from faux gemstones to glittery snow globes, from smooth enamel to bizarre 3D PopOuts, there truly is a PopGrip out there for everyone. They are also downright addictive to collect after swapping to the swappable style a couple of years ago.
I’m a pretty ardent PopGrip user these days for a trio of reasons: consistency, compatibility, and distraction. While ring grips and even other plastic grips like Speck’s GrabTab do a more-than-adequate job — for the most part — their longevity and performance can seem wildly inconsistent, even among the same exact model. Larger grips from brands like LoveHandle and Clckr also work quite well, but they’re too big for some phones and end up too thick to work with wireless charging. PopSockets also make MagSafe bases these days to swap to chargers and other units as desired, which is making my miss myMagSafe Galaxy S23 caseslike crazy.
Lastly, the bumping up and down of the plastic accordion — while in a meeting or even just waiting for your order to get called — makes the PopGrip a wonderful little stress toy. De-stress during conference calls, fiddle at your favorite take-out place at dinner rush, or experiment to see if you’re able to get it to hold a position between two PopGrip levels. I use this to distract the tactile part of my mind during meetings so that I’m not tempted to try and get lost in a different task.
Of course, PopSockets aren’t the end-all-be-all of the phone grip world. Clckr is almost a better stand thanks to its sturdy vertical/horizontal kickstand which can convert to when it’s not stowed flat or being used as a hand loop grip. Propping up my phones with this kickstand also keeps me from hunching over my phone while I’m checking it at my desk or coffee table, a terminally bad habit for far, far too many smartphone users, my own family included.
Many cases come with built-in kickstands like Supcase’s UP Pro series, and these cases can indeed be used as phone grips just as they are — though I’ll confess, built-in kickstands seldom (if ever) feel half as comfortable as a dedicated phone grip. While PopSockets can be used as a landscape kickstand (depending on the size/weight of the device in question), the vertical kickstand on the Clckr is more than twice as functional and three times more comfortable. Like PopSockets, Clckr also makes MagSafe versions, which negates the inability to use wireless chargers that the adhesive-backed ones do.
Both of these grips have saved my hands from hours upon hours of agony, and if yours are already miserable from years of typing, handiwork, or just too many hours with controllers, do yourself a favor. Grab a phone grip and give it a try. A penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or in this case, a $10 phone grip is a far, far better value than hundreds of dollars spent on orthopedists, rheumatologists, and pain management.
PopSockets PopGrip
The classic adhesive-backed PopGrip is universally compatible and available in an ungodly array of designs. It’s hard to pick just one pattern, but that’s okay. Since PopSockets these days are all swappable, you can buy a couple in whichever styles you fancy. Enamel models like Fly Me To The Moon are heavier but feel more luxurious in hand while clear and translucent models allow you to still show off your phone’s color or your case’s design.
PopSockets: Phone Grip for MagSafe
PopSockets' MagSafe grip is one of the best phone grips, period, and if you can get a case with MagSafe, I highly recommend grabbing one for your phone if you can swing it. Pulling the phone base off and then slapping on a MagSafe charger at night — or swapping to a proper stand during work — can only be described as divine.
Clckr Phone Holder & Grip for MagSafe
With strong magnets, eye-catching colors and designs, and the best phone grip kickstand you’re able to find today, the Clckr for MagSafe allows you to overcome the adhesive’s model Achilles Heel and give you the best of all worlds. The strap clicks into place when not in use, and then you can click it to the other side to convert it to a durable vertical kickstand. It can stake getting used to, but It’s got a bit more functionality over more style-focused PopSockets.
