Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, Welcome to 'Lachlan Likes a Thing', a show where I take a thing and see whether
or not I like it.
Now, the thing we're looking at in this video is the Official Apple iPhone 5S Leather Case.
Now, in case you missed it, along with the recent introduction of the iPhone 5S and the
5C, Apple announced it's own line of leather cases for the iPhones 5S, and on a recent
trip to the Apple store to check out the 5S, I picked up one of these, because I'm a big
fan of lightweight, kind of form-fitting cases, and I wanted to see how this compared.
So, in the review, we're going to have a look at the look and feel of the phone, we're going
to talk a little about durability, and stain resistance, and we're going to have a look
at compatibility with different headphones, and some iPod docks.
First things first though, if you're in an Apple store right now and all you want to
know from this video is will this case fit on an Apple iPhone 5, I can confirm yes it
does. I've been using it on my iPhone 5, it fits just fine so if that's all you wanted
to know, just click the 'Like' button and go ahead and buy one.
Now first of all this case retails for 39 dollars in the US, or 48 dollars in Australia,
and that's quite a high price to pay for an iPhone case. Now I think it's a reasonable
price if the fit and finish of the case is really good, and the materials used are really
high quality leather.
Now, I can't actually confirm if the leather in this case is from an animal or it's a protein
leather, like made from eggshells, but it does say on the back that it's made from natural
aniline leather, and what natural aniline leather is, is it's some kind of animal leather
or protein leather that's been dyed in a synthetic soluble dye.
So you can see here the dye they used is the red dye, I got the red edition because I think
it looks really striking and it looks really cool with a black iPhone case, and also it's
the Product Red edition of this product, so part of your 48 dollars goes towards supporting
the fight against ***/AIDS in Africa. So, I think that's pretty cool.
Now, as you can see the case is quite minimalist in design. On the back we just have a very
subtle, slightly recessed Apple logo, and on the front we have this microfibre insert
which feels really cool.
Now, the material itself, the leather itself has a kind of grip and texture to it, and
if you can see in the video there's a bit of a porous surface to it. Now, that's quite
good, it feels really nice in the hand. One thing is it's actually not as grippy as I
thought it would be, and that's because I think there's actually been a coating that's
been applied to this leather, which I'll get into in a second, but let's just show you
how you pop the phone it.
Now, as I said, this case fits my iPhone 5, so to put the phone into the case, all we
need to do is pop it in, and it's quite easy to put on and as you can see, once it's on
it fits really snugly, quite tightly, the fit and finish is really nice.
In terms of bulk it actually doesn't add a great deal of bulk to the phone, you can see
that it only adds a few millimeters to the edges.
Let's have a look at each side of the case. Now on the top of the case, we have the power
button, and it's been slightly raised.
Now, I actually found out that with this case it actually removes a bit of the tactile feedback
you get from this button, you you don't get as quite as nice a button feel, though it's
relatively easy to press the button.
On this side we have the volume control, so raised buttons again. Now these buttons are
actually quite nice to press, you still get quite a lot of tactile feedback. You can see
here that the vibrate and silent switch has been recessed slightly into this case, so
you've got to dig your fingernail a little bit more in to activate that switch, which
may or may not be a good thing for you.
On this side of course we have nothing, on the bottom of the case we have perforations
for the speakers, and also the hole for the headphone jack and the hole for the Lightning
connector.
Now, you can actually see that these holes are quite deep, and we'll get into what that
means for different types of headphones and iPod docks in a second.
Now, on the front side of the case, we can see that there's actually a bit of a lip on
this leather case, which means that if you put it flat on the surface, the glass won't
touch the surface, and that's really nice, because you kind of rarely see lightweight
cases with a lip on the front, so I really like that feature about this case.
Now, I can't tell you anything about the long-term durability of this case - I mean it looks
well-made, but I've only had it for a few days - but I can tell you that on the back
of the box it does say that the appearance of the leather on this case will change over
time. So that's one thing to note.
In terms of protection for the phone itself, you'll note that the phone is protected on
every angle,basically, so it is quite protective of your phone even though it doesn't add a
great deal of bulk, so that's really cool.
Now one thing to note is that originally I found the case very hard to remove from the
phone, because the leather was so snug, but after taking it on and off a few times, I
found that the leather actually has loosened up a little, and it's a little bit easer to
take off the phone, it's still not easy, but it is easier. So the leather might loosen
up over time if you keep taking it in and out, so that's one thing to note.
Now, it terms of stain and spill resistance, I can't give you my long-term experiences,
but I can show you what happens when you put a drop of water on this case. So, we just
put some water here, and as you can see immediately the water just beads on the surface of this
case.
Now this could mean one of two things. One is that this case is not actually made of
a porous material, like leather, and I find that unlikely, because it would mean that
Apple was just basically lying about the product, or it could mean that Apple has applied some
sort of coating on the case that prevents the water from immediately absorbing into
the surface of the leather.
Now as you can see here, I've just wiped off that water that was on the case, and you can
see that the water has begun to absorb into the surface of the case itself. So, I guess
you have about 30 seconds to wipe off any spill that gets on this case, before it starts
staining the phone.
So as you can see this is just water, so it will dry away after a period of time, but
if you were to spill any liquid that had colour on it, you can imagine that it might stain
the case itself. The other thing to note is that these kind of coatings like scotchguard
on furniture, they might wear off over time just from touching the phone, so that's one
thing to note, the spill resistance might decrease over time.
Now we move on to compatibility with different headphones and I can tell you unfortunately
this is a bit of a deal-breaker for me. I collect headphones and you can check out some
of my reviews on my channel, what I can tell you is that with this case because of the
smaller hole for the headphone, a lot of headphones are not going to fit into the headphone jack.
For instance this is the Audio Technica M50, which is a relatively popular studio headphone,
and you can see that the jack is just far to large to fit in this hole. Now, basically
any headphone that you own that has a screw-type connector, that's originally used to plug
in or screw into DJ consoles or any kind of mixing console, none of those are going to
fit into this hole, and there's also some other headphones and earphones from different
manufacturers with larger jacks that might not fit into this hole.
So if you have a favorite pair of headphones, what I can really recommend is that bring
that pair to your local Apple store and just try them out in this case. I think a lot of
the Apple employees will actually have this case to demonstrate to you, so you can avoid
the hassle of having to return it.
Now as far as iPod docks go, unfortunately I have to report more bad news. This is my
Phillips iPod dock which I use as a bedside iPod dock to charge my phone, and if you're
a regular subscriber to my channel please let me know in the comments if you want to
see me review this, I think it's quite a neat little machine.
Unfortunately with this case it cannot make a connection with the Lightning connecter
because the case has such a deep recess for the Lightning connector. So, again, if you're
going to get this case be prepared to return it if it doesn't work with the iPod docks
that you have at home.
So as far as thin and lightweight cases with good grip for the iPhone go, what do I think
is a good alternative?
Well, this is a funny story, let me show you: this is the case that I actually got, basically
on the first day that I had my iPhone, and it's by a pretty much no-name company called
Metalslim from China, and I hadn't heard of them, I basically bought this case as a stopgap
solution until I bought a better case, but actually since buying this case, and I've
had my iPhone for about a year, more than a tear now, I actually haven't found a case
that I liked more that this case.
It has a nice kind of texture on it, it's got a opening on the bottom and an opening
on the top so it means that you can access any of the ports and it's work with any iPod
dock, no problems whatsoever. It's still got a lip on the front, so it will protect the
glass, and it's quite a cheap case.
So, you know, I couldn't actually be any happier with this case, and it was a bit of a surprising
find, because I haven't really seen these in any retail stores. But, you know, check
them out online, I think it's a pretty good case.
One drawback of this case is because it doesn't protect the front, bottom, and the front top
of the edge of the phone, I've found that I've gotten some slight scratches on this
bezel, but overall I think it's a pretty convenient case to use
As far as Apple's case goes, while I really love this colour, and I really love the fit
and finish of this case, Unfortunately I'm going to have to take advantage of Apple's
rather generous return policy, and return this back to the Apple store, because you
know, it's not working with some of my accessories.
So that's something to keep in mind when you're looking at this case.
Now, if this review has helped you, deciding whether you want to buy this case or not,
please like this video and subscribe to my channel for more reviews. You can talk to
me on Twitter @lachlikesathing or on Facebook at facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing.
Thanks to everyone who's subscribed to my channel, and who's like my other videos, and
enjoy the rest of your day.