Best phone grips for students 2023
Get a better grip on your phone with these awesome accessories.
School is a dangerous environment for most tools and tech, but none more so than phones. Phones are essential items always in arm's reach, but often bumped, dropped, or banged in the hustle and bustle of changing classrooms or running to meet up with friends at lunch.
The best phone grips for students are a lifesaver for slippery fingers and we've rounded them up for your perusal. Considering how affordable most of these are, they're well worth the investment.
So many phone grips, so little time
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Staff Pick
Swappable PopSockets support wireless charging when you twist off the PopTop, while still allowing you a better grip, a larger range of motion, and a flash of style for your phone. These also come in a bevy of pop-culture character designs, like The Child from The Mandalorian. We've tried and tested multiple PopSockets PopGrips and they are the best phone grips money can buy.
Stylish slide grip
Speck's phone grip is the size of a credit card, comes in dozens upon dozens of styles, and is easy to keep a precise grip in our experience. Best of all, since the grip is wide and flat, your phone won't wobble around your desk the way it might with other phone grips.
Upgraded in every way
Like the original Spigen Style Ring, the Spigen Style Ring 360 is easy to apply, comes in great colors, and works as a kickstand in vertical or landscape mode (an improvement over the last Style Ring). This phone grip also lets your phone sit flat on the desk, and is compatible with magnetic phone mounts.
Strap it on
Ghostek makes some great phone cases, but did you know it dabbles in phone straps and grips as well? Let me introduce the clever Ghostek Loop, a handy little accessory that has an interchangeable phone strap and a tiny little kickstand that pops out. Thanks to the strap, the Ghostek Loop is compatible with wireless charging as well.
Wallet and grip in one
Not all students need a full wallet, especially when they can just stick their student ID and lunch money in this handy grip-wallet combo from Sinjimoru. The Sinji Pouch Band's elastic wears out over time, but should last the school year, so long as you don't yo-yo it.
Wings that can kick(stand)
A slap bracelet and a phone grip made a baby, and it's wonderfully clickable. The Scooch Wingback has the most durable kickstand around, according to our experience with the grip. Unfortunately, this blend of phone grips and stands is not compatible with Qi charging, but it lasts a long time, and is easy to deploy with one hand.
Clickety kickstand
This banded grip will click in or out of the bracket at the top to swap it between a grip, a kickstand, or keep it flat when the phone is in your pocket. CLCKR's Universal Stand and Phone Grip is available in a wide variety of textures and finishes, and it's a very stable vertical kickstand.
Good for you and the flowers
CASETiFY focuses on protecting the environment big time, making us appreciate the brand's 2-in-1 Grip Stand all the more. It may be pricey, bit this grip doubles as a kickstand in a pinch. As we've tested many CASETiFY accessories for ourselves, we can vouch for the durability and high quality of the CASETiFY 2-in-1 Grip Stand.
Biodegradable and fashion conscious
Pela has mastered the art of creating understated phone accessories that are compostable. This collapsible phone grip is green in more than one sense of the word, as it comes in that color too. Choose from eight beautiful shades to go with your style.
Versatile grip
The SUPCASE Air Vent Phone Ring Holder innovates ring holders as you know them. Not only can you slide your fingers into this grip to hold on to your phone, but it also has a slot to latch onto an AC vent. With 360-degree rotation and kickstand functionality, it's the perfect car phone holder/grip for your child.
Made in America
The elastic LoveHandle PRO phone grip is the successor to one of the most recognizable phone grips made in America. It consists of an elastic strap incorporated into a plastic mechanism that swings outwards, doubling as a kickstand. The LoveHandle PRO comes in a bevy of patterns and colors with matching plastic bits to boot.
Multifunctional wallet grip
Like the wallet/grip combo, but still want a built-in kickstand? This model from Sinjimoru is slightly thicker than the other Sinji Pouch Band due to the leather flap attached to the elastic that can be folded to use as a kickstand. There's also an extra flap to help keep cards in the wallet section, and the Sinji Pouch B-Grip comes in plenty of colorways.
Why the best phone grip for students is a PopSocket
PopSockets come in swappable varieties that allow you to swap between styles to match your kid's wardrobe (and are removable for wireless charging). The reasons not to use one are becoming few and far between. PopSockets are affordable, recognizable, and with the Pop Culture collection updated (Hello Baby Yoda!) to swappable PopTops, they're cool, too.
PopSockets are also as much a toy and stress relief accessory as they are a tool. I often pop one of my spares up and down when I get bored during staff meetings. I'm sure there are some easily distracted kids (like me) out there who could use a fidget toy to help them avoid drifting into a daydream during a lecture.
Kickstands are cool, but you know what's really cool? Vertical kickstands.
While the best phone grips for students to use with their Android phones provide a secure hold of the device, there's more to a phone grip than in-hand use. Most non-fabric phone grips double as landscape kickstands, like PopSockets and Spigen's new Style Ring 360.
However, the number of phone grips that allow you to set your phone upright next to your computer, so you can scroll through Twitter or reference notes while rushing through some last-minute homework, is quite limited.
Among the select group that can do both, the three I recommend the most are the Scooch Wingback, the Spigen Style Ring 360, and the CLCKR. The Scooch's springy mechanism is the most resilient among phone grips, outside of the classic PopSocket accordion. If you want something less bouncy, the CLCKR is a bit less of a balancing act.
None of these three support wireless charging — two have metal components, and the CLCKR is too thick for it — but I'm more than happy to plug in at night if it means I can use my phone as a note-stand during my work. If you value your wireless charging capability, the Ghostek Loop is a good alternative. It has a phone strap dangling from and it and a teeny tiny little kickstand that flips open when you need it.
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Ara Wagoner was a staff writer at Android Central. She themes phones and pokes YouTube Music with a stick. When she's not writing about cases, Chromebooks, or customization, she's wandering around Walt Disney World. If you see her without headphones, RUN. You can follow her on Twitter at @arawagco.
- Namerah Saud FatmiEditor — Accessories, speakers, and tablets