https://www.techradar.com/news/best-iphone-7-plus-cases

The iPhone 7 Plus is expensive. Sure, it's no longer as pricey as the iPhone X or iPhone 8, which are some of the most expensive phones in the world that doesn’t come encrusted with diamonds, or inlaid with real gold. But nevertheless, if you scratch this palm-filling wonder a week after buying it, you won’t be happy.

There’s no way around it: you need a case, especially if you want to keep using this phone long after iOS 12 debuts.