My Poetic Atmosphere came today. I really like it. It seems like a great compromise between the protective bulk of the STM Harbour and the minimal form factor of the Photive Natural Slim.
The TPU bumpers around the edge (which are soft and shouldn't chip the finish, btw) do make the phone a little wider and taller than with the Natural Slim, by maybe a mm or two either way. In that way, it's similar to the Harbour. However, it's not nearly as thick as the Harbour, and is damned close to the same thinness as the Natural Slim.
The bezel is taller, at maybe a mm vs. a small fraction of a mm for the Natural Slim, but that gives much more of an obvious lay on table design. Being continuous around the edge also means that if it's laying partially off a table, it's not resting on the screen. The Natural Slim's standoffs are only at the corners, and has that risk.
I like the top and bottom coverage a lot, especially coming from the Natural Slim which, similar to the Ringke, has pretty much none except at the corners. The bumper is soft enough that covering the power button isn't an issue (unlike the Splash Medley, which was a nightmare). The bottom has coverage sculpted to the ports and speakers. However, be aware that really thick headphone plugs may have issues there--the clearance isn't huge. My Klipsch S5is and Shure 530s were fine. I'd expect my full-size V6s to require a little stretching there. YMMV.
The texture is a mixed bag for me. I like how it looks a lot, with the "clear" looking very nicely frosted over my slate iPhone. However, it's more slippery than either the Harbour or the Natural Slim in my hand. It's not bad on fabric (i.e. balanced on my knee) but I think sweat affects it more than the rubberized surfaces on the others. The bumper around the sides is gripper, so it's stable in hand because of that.
Re: getting it in and out,
I put the case on and pulled it off a few times, both to get the phone and case inside completely clean, and to see how the process went. It was definitely not the easiest case I've used, but I'm not worried for the phone.
Someone touched on this above, but here's what worked for me.
Directions are as if you're looking at the face of the phone.
On:
Put the left side of the phone into the case, guiding the cutout over the switch and the buttons into the bumper. You may have to do a corner at a time, but I had good luck just sort of stretching the bumper over the whole left side.
Make sure you push the phone all the way to the left so the buttons and switch go where they're supposed to, and so the bumper's tight.
Push the top right corner in, making sure the bumper goes over the power button.
Push the bottom right corner in.
Off:
Pull at the bumper at the bottom right corner. Be firm, and you can get it over the edge of the phone relatively easily.
Now, use the bottom cutout to reach under the phone and push the bottom right corner all the way out.
Use the exposed edge to pull the top right corner out.
Now you can pretty much just pull the phone to the right and it'll pop out. Do it over your couch or a bed; I dropped mine once doing this (luckily, onto a soft mattress!)
So yeah, bit of a pain. But it is very secure when on. I wouldn't worry about a drop popping it off, and with the soft bumpers I think it may actually have decent drop protection at the sides and corners.
Overall, really good case. I think the better drop protection while still being extremely slim puts this a step above the Photive Natural for me. I'm going to keep the Atmosphere on at least until the Caze Zero arrives (last one I'm trying out!).
