Nomad Sport Case features: Comes in four colors | 8 feet of drop protection | MagSafe passthrough 

Nomad Goods is an Apple accessory maker with a long history of making high-quality products that look like they could have been designed at Apple. And the company has a strong commitment to sustainability and to environmentally-friendly practices like reducing packaging and using recycled materials.

The Nomad Sport Case is overall the best case I’ve seen for this year’s phones. It’s extremely light, has a smooth and glossy back, highly grippy sides, metal buttons, MagSafe passthrough, and a very elegant design. I especially love a couple of the small design touches — the slightly indented valleys running down the sides that make it even more grippable and the textured lines on the power button. The case is also made to withstand up to an 8-foot drop.

All of the Nomad Sport Cases are two-colored, with black TPU material around the sides and camera bump and a glossy backplate in four different colors. The one I tested had a white backplate that jives with many Apple product designs such as AirPods cases and the MagSafe charging puck. The blue looks appealing, too, and the Sport Case also comes in black and coastal rock (a light pale green). The smoothness of the glossy back also makes this case very easy to slide into a pocket or a bag. Lastly, I love how light these cases are. Combined with the noticeably lighter iPhone 15 Pro Max, it feels refreshingly light to hold — especially compared to lasy year’s heavy iPhone 14 Pro Max in one of Apple’s leather cases.

At $50, the Nomad Sport Case has an Apple-like price tag. The one drawback to this case is that it is currently only available for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models. Also, the plastic in these is not much more sustainable than leather.

Peak Design Everyday Case features: Comes in five colors | SlimLink magnetic locking technology 

Peak Design is another company that makes excellent products with potential design inspiration from Apple in terms of clean lines and attention to detail. The Peak Design Everyday Case isn’t just a case, but it has a small square on the back called SlimLink that includes magnetic locking technology. This gives the case access to a whole ecosystem of mounts and accessories, including tripods, car mounts, bike mounts, wall mounts, desk stands, and mobile wallets (including one with a kickstand). 

Even with the small square on the back, the Peak Design Everyday Case still supports MagSafe passthrough. Like Nomad’s cases, this case has TPU soft plastic around the edges and the camera bump. But on the backplate, the Peak Design Everyday Case has a nylon canvas fabric that is made from 100 percent recyclable materials. That means this case is possibly more sustainable than Apple’s FineWoven, which is made from 68 percent post-consumer recycled materials.

I haven’t tested the new iPhone 15 version of the Peak Design Everyday Case, but my ZDNET colleague Matt Miller has and he said this is “the case I buy first with every supported Apple, Google, or Samsung phone. I like them for the case themselves, but also for the car mount, bike mount, wallet/kickstand, and tripod accessories that they work with. Their new color options make the case itself a more attractive option too. I’ve had one for a couple of years and it looks just about like the day I bought it.”

The Peak Design Everyday Case costs $50 and comes in five colors: charcoal (gray), midnight (dark blue), sun (yellow), redwood (maroon), and sage (green). Matt has convinced me to want to try one of these cases. I’d like to eventually try the tripod mount as well — especially with the new camera system in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Torras Ostand MagSafe Case features: Comes in six colors | Military-grade protection | Magnetic metal ring kickstand or grip

Another case I really liked — and the most versatile and innovative of the bunch — was the Torras Ostand R MagSafe Case with 360° Rotated Stand. This is an extra tough case that is rated to military grade standards (MIL-STD-810H). But it doesn’t feel bulky and awkward. The extra protection means that it has a 1.35mm lip around the screen and a 1mm lip around the cameras. The case feels very solid and ready to withstand a drop, but without the massive marshmallow look and feel of most rugged cases.

The main part of the Torras case is made of various plastics, with opaque colors around the edges and a frosted transparent color on the back. The darker sides are “laser-finished” to provide additional texture and grippiness. They aren’t as grippy as the Nomad cases, but are close. The one I tested was black, and it also comes in clear, dark blue, light blue, green, and gray. It also comes with a set of orange and green metal buttons to replace the default black metal buttons, if you prefer. I opted for the orange buttons to give it an Apple Watch Ultra-like feel. 

The real magic of this case comes on the back. There’s a magnetic metal ring around the area where the MagSafe charger sits. It works for MagSafe passthrough but it also has magnets of its own so this case can stick to a fridge, a metal pole, a magnetic white board, or any magnetic surface. The metal ring itself also folds out to work as a kickstand or a grip (like a PopSocket). Torras offers several versions of this but I especially like the one where the metal ring rotates 360 degrees to give you extra flexibility in using it as a stand — which can come in very handy for taking photos or watching videos. 

This case retails for $47, but goes for as low as $37. My main complaint about this case is that I didn’t like the feel of the power button. I also worry how well the metal ring will hold up over time. But you get a lot of protection, bonus features, and innovation for the price with this case.

Nomad Modern Leather Case features: Comes in three colors | 8 feet of drop protection | MagSafe passthrough 

If you’ve been a fan of the Apple leather cases for the iPhone — and I’ll admit that I’ve been using the leather cases every year since Apple first launched them with the iPhone 5S in 2013 — and you’d still like to stick with a leather case despite Apple’s move away from leather, then there’s the Nomad Modern Leather Case. 

Make no mistake, leather is not great for the planet. But Nomad does use a little bit less leather than Apple’s cases did because it only uses leather on the backplate while using a soft black polymer on the sides. Nomad also claims to use “sustainably sourced leather” — but doesn’t specify what that means. I’m assuming it means Nomad sources leather that doesn’t use as many of the harsh and toxic chemicals that can often be used in creating leather products.

As for the case itself, Nomad’s Modern Leather Case is very similar to the Nomad Sport Case. It has the same black TPU material around the sides and camera bump, the same indented valleys down the sides to make it easier to hold, the same great metal buttons, and the same MagSafe passthrough. As for the leather itself, I find it even nicer than the leather Apple used. With Apple’s leather cases, it would take weeks or months to absorb hand oils and become softer and easier to grip. I would typically speed the process along by putting several rounds of leather softener on it as soon as I got a new case. With Nomad’s leather, you don’t have to do that. It’s soft and feels great in your hands as soon as you take it out of the box. If leather is still your thing, it’s a better leather case than the ones Apple used to sell.

The Nomad Modern Leather Case retails for $50 and comes in black, tan, or brown. That’s $10 less than Apple’s FineWoven cases and is likely to wear much better and last longer. It’s also $10 less than what Apple used to sell its leather cases. And the Nomad cases do occasionally go on sale for less on Amazon.