Hey, all. I just got one of the Decoded back covers off their Black Friday promo. Figured I’d post a pic here.
Impressions are it fits well, and button action is fine. Volume buttons feel completely natural, side button is slightly stiff (which I find a plus actually). The cutaway for the mute slider is about as small as I think would be ok—but it’s ok. Huge hands may disagree.
I don’t find the copper(ish) accent obnoxious but your mileage may vary. The lettering in it isn’t ostentatious, and the overall look is modern masculine IMO, including the “est. 2009” engrave—for once the branding works for me.
The bottom is the old Apple style with the broad cutout, but I prefer that for a few different reasons.
The leather does show scratches as slightly off color marks and came with a couple stock from dust in the packaging that got caught on the surface. They rub in ok but not gone as completely as on Apple’s smoother leather.
The horizontalish center mark in the photo is from my stroking the back of my fingernail very lightly so it’s clear that the surface will mark up with any real use. I’m fine with this, that’s what becomes patina, but may have preferred to do all my own rather than having a bit out of the box.
The pebbling is possibly stamped in, given the corners have none and there are no scars, but the leather feels good and smells fine. I think they claim it’s ECCO which is good stuff but don’t hold me to that. Overall I’m happy with the material and choice of piece.
The biggest plus or minus, depending, is that the back does not have a raised lip around the camera—the copper accent there is flush. It’s also *almost* flush with the 12PM camera but not quite, and there’s a tiny bit of wobble with the phone in that doesn’t occur with the phone out. It’s much smaller than in other cases, such as the Ringke Fusion, but since it’s only when the phone is in that tells me the cameras are touching when I lay it down.
That said, you have to work it to scratch sapphire lens covers. But it’s somewhat worse than when naked, believe it or not. When the phone is bare the cameras sit on one rim of one lens and the lenses otherwise don’t touch. In this case the stance is much flatter and lenses can make more contact with debris on the table. Also, if you drop this it’ll want to land flat on the camera—sapphire doesn’t scratch easily but it breaks just fine.
So if you wanted a flush back case this is as close as I’ve seen that isn’t a tank. But it’s not quite flush back. I’m going to use it because I’m not worried about my pocket scratching a sapphire lens but I do wish they’d added that last mm of depth.
Impressions are it fits well, and button action is fine. Volume buttons feel completely natural, side button is slightly stiff (which I find a plus actually). The cutaway for the mute slider is about as small as I think would be ok—but it’s ok. Huge hands may disagree.
I don’t find the copper(ish) accent obnoxious but your mileage may vary. The lettering in it isn’t ostentatious, and the overall look is modern masculine IMO, including the “est. 2009” engrave—for once the branding works for me.
The bottom is the old Apple style with the broad cutout, but I prefer that for a few different reasons.
The leather does show scratches as slightly off color marks and came with a couple stock from dust in the packaging that got caught on the surface. They rub in ok but not gone as completely as on Apple’s smoother leather.
The horizontalish center mark in the photo is from my stroking the back of my fingernail very lightly so it’s clear that the surface will mark up with any real use. I’m fine with this, that’s what becomes patina, but may have preferred to do all my own rather than having a bit out of the box.
The pebbling is possibly stamped in, given the corners have none and there are no scars, but the leather feels good and smells fine. I think they claim it’s ECCO which is good stuff but don’t hold me to that. Overall I’m happy with the material and choice of piece.
The biggest plus or minus, depending, is that the back does not have a raised lip around the camera—the copper accent there is flush. It’s also *almost* flush with the 12PM camera but not quite, and there’s a tiny bit of wobble with the phone in that doesn’t occur with the phone out. It’s much smaller than in other cases, such as the Ringke Fusion, but since it’s only when the phone is in that tells me the cameras are touching when I lay it down.
That said, you have to work it to scratch sapphire lens covers. But it’s somewhat worse than when naked, believe it or not. When the phone is bare the cameras sit on one rim of one lens and the lenses otherwise don’t touch. In this case the stance is much flatter and lenses can make more contact with debris on the table. Also, if you drop this it’ll want to land flat on the camera—sapphire doesn’t scratch easily but it breaks just fine.
So if you wanted a flush back case this is as close as I’ve seen that isn’t a tank. But it’s not quite flush back. I’m going to use it because I’m not worried about my pocket scratching a sapphire lens but I do wish they’d added that last mm of depth.
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