PSA: Why Buying iPhone XS Cases on Amazon May Be a Gamble

If you’ve bought an iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max recently, your first instinct may be to find a good quality case to protect them.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking on Amazon for iPhone XS cases, you may be taking a risk. It seems that the site is strangely devoid of cases that actually fit Apple’s 2018 5.8-inch handset.

Previously, we covered a slight design change on the iPhone XS that could cause case compatibility problems. While the iPhone XS is a direct successor to last year’s iPhone X, the camera bump is actually slightly larger on the 2018 device.

That can obviously cause problems when attempting to use an iPhone X case on an iPhone XS. But the problem is made worse by the fact that many manufacturers seemingly haven’t updated their iPhone X cases to fit the new iPhone XS rear camera.

For one, you may notice that there just aren’t that many options on Amazon as far as iPhone XS cases from reputable brands — at least, not currently.

But if you do an Amazon search for “iPhone XS cases,” you’ll still find quite a few cases that are ostensibly made for both the iPhone X and iPhone XS. In fact, it looks like the vast majority of 5.8-inch iPhone cases on Amazon claim that they are compatible with both devices.

If you look under the recent reviews for these cases, however, you might find a handful of customers stating that the case did not fit an iPhone XS well.

Therefore, our recommendation is that you avoid buying cases that claim iPhone X and iPhone XS compatibility. Try to look for cases that are strictly made for the 2018 iPhone XS.

On Amazon right now, that may be tough. If you aren’t willing to try out a potentially ill-fitting case, the best alternative may be to simply go to a case manufacturer’s website and buy accessories directly from them. Of course, you aren’t getting two-day free shipping or any Amazon perks if you take this route.

To be clear, some cases may have been updated by the manufacturer for the iPhone XS. This may also be an issue with third-party sellers on Amazon shipping older iPhone X cases to iPhone XS owners.

It’s worth noting that the iPhone XS Max has a different form factor and doesn’t seem to be subject to this problem, if the mostly positive case reviews for that device are any indication.

But there still aren’t many iPhone XS Max options from popular brands like Lifeproof on Amazon as of the writing of this article.

Of course, it’s still relatively early in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max lifecycle. We expect Amazon to become populated with more options as time goes on. But case compatibility is a good thing to keep in mind in the meantime.