Did Apple fix the "leather" case?

[canhaz]

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro tomorrow and organizing a case. My iPhone 12 Pro case purchased from the Apple Store looked like a complete mess after a year. Nothing fancy in terms of use, it just chills in my jeans pocket for part of the day and magsafe charger the rest.

Seems they just spray painted on the color. Gotta say though, loving that wholesome patina look. Very rustic and cool. What the actual F, Apple!

Anyone know if this was a once off QC issue or if the new cases are in fact are dyed genuine leather not some sprayed on BS?

 

[cannono]

Doubt it. The description is the same as the previous couple years, and it’s been horrid. No longer patinas, just darkens and wears into black patches.

 

[fwmireault]

Don’t think so either. I just bought a leather case for my 14 PM, but I’m pretty sure it will age as poorly as my iPhone 12 PM leather case. I don’t know if this change in quality is somewhat due to the constraint of having magnets in it, because if I recall, it was from 2020 that their leather cases started to have aging issue

Anyway, still bought one because I prefer this material and it’s way more durable than their silicon cases

 

[madrigal77]

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro tomorrow and organizing a case. My iPhone 12 Pro case purchased from the Apple Store looked like a complete mess after a year. Nothing fancy in terms of use, it just chills in my jeans pocket for part of the day and magsafe charger the rest.

Seems they just spray painted on the color. Gotta say though, loving that wholesome patina look. Very rustic and cool. What the actual F, Apple!

View attachment 2053808

View attachment 2053807
Anyone know if this was a once off QC issue or if the new cases are in fact are dyed genuine leather not some sprayed on BS?

LMAO how?!?! My 12PM case just has a bit of darkening on the edges after 2 years.

 

[igauravarora]

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro tomorrow and organizing a case. My iPhone 12 Pro case purchased from the Apple Store looked like a complete mess after a year. Nothing fancy in terms of use, it just chills in my jeans pocket for part of the day and magsafe charger the rest.

Seems they just spray painted on the color. Gotta say though, loving that wholesome patina look. Very rustic and cool. What the actual F, Apple!

View attachment 2053808

View attachment 2053807
Anyone know if this was a once off QC issue or if the new cases are in fact are dyed genuine leather not some sprayed on BS?

That chipping didn't happen on my 13PM leather case so they did change something last year. In the current series, it's still a bit early to tell. I think it will more likely be the same or better. It certainly feels like a good quality leather in hand.

 

[bc 08]

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro tomorrow and organizing a case. My iPhone 12 Pro case purchased from the Apple Store looked like a complete mess after a year. Nothing fancy in terms of use, it just chills in my jeans pocket for part of the day and magsafe charger the rest.

Seems they just spray painted on the color. Gotta say though, loving that wholesome patina look. Very rustic and cool. What the actual F, Apple!

View attachment 2053808

View attachment 2053807
Anyone know if this was a once off QC issue or if the new cases are in fact are dyed genuine leather not some sprayed on BS?

Nothing has been fixed

 

[theautopilot]

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro tomorrow and organizing a case. My iPhone 12 Pro case purchased from the Apple Store looked like a complete mess after a year. Nothing fancy in terms of use, it just chills in my jeans pocket for part of the day and magsafe charger the rest.

Seems they just spray painted on the color. Gotta say though, loving that wholesome patina look. Very rustic and cool. What the actual F, Apple!

View attachment 2053808

View attachment 2053807
Anyone know if this was a once off QC issue or if the new cases are in fact are dyed genuine leather not some sprayed on BS?

Mine did exactly the same. The one the year before was similar. If you are ok with black or brown, go with Nomad. Incredible quality and after a year it never looked so good.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

The issues you all have w these leather cases is wild lol, and I don't for a second believe that's caused from normal use. Have had the leather case for the 12, 13 and 14 and none have aged like that.

 

[theautopilot]

The issues you all have w these leather cases is wild lol, and I don't for a second believe that's caused from normal use. Have had the leather case for the 12, 13 and 14 and none have aged like that.

My iPhone 12 blue leather case looked just like the OP’s with completely normal use after a couple of weeks. I guess they had a bad batch or changed the production processes.

 

[cannono]

The issues you all have w these leather cases is wild lol, and I don't for a second believe that's caused from normal use. Have had the leather case for the 12, 13 and 14 and none have aged like that.

I had great experiences with the leather cases from 5S to 11, but had the darkening annd chipping issue for sure on 12 and 13. Not as bad as some examples, but tests online have 100% confirmed they changed the leather process and it reacts poorly compared to older versions. Doesn’t patina in any true sense anymore.

 

[Htsi]

It was European leather before, like on the MagSafe Wallet. With the squared design introduced on the 12 series and change to cheap leather has resulted in crappy wearing & breaking cases. 11Pro leather cases were fab

 

[bc 08]

The old European leathers were traditional aniline dyed leather so you got that nice even, gradually darkening patina with use.

Apple switched to pigmented leather for the 12 — meaning the leather is actually coated with a layer of paint to obtain the final color.
You don’t get patina until you wear through the paint which doesn’t happen evenly.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

The midnight leather case I had last year for my 13 Pro wore evenly with no chipping and actually smells like real leather nowadays. There seems to be at least some good ones in the bunch.

 

[rambo47]

The issues you all have w these leather cases is wild lol, and I don't for a second believe that's caused from normal use. Have had the leather case for the 12, 13 and 14 and none have aged like that.

Same here. I've been using Apple leather cases on my iPhones since the 7 without a single problem. Fit has always been superb, they wear like iron (with normal daily use), and they all look great.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Same here. I've been using Apple leather cases on my iPhones since the 7 without a single problem. Fit has always been superb, they wear like iron (with normal daily use), and they all look great.

Same over here. Seems like the vocal minority really like to run with stuff like this. I’m not discounting those who have experienced it but I don’t think Apple would continue with the same process year after year if they had a reputation for selling overpriced junk.

 

[bc 08]

Apple cases since the 12 have low quality leather finishes that patina unevenly. 🤷‍♂️

Midnight and other very dark colors are the only colors that seem to age reasonably well
with regular use.

Yet another example (of many) just posted over on the Leather Patina thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/leather-cases-patina-proud-photos.2091430/post-31546346

 

[IconIc215]

Apple cases since the 12 have low quality leather finishes that patina unevenly. 🤷‍♂️

Midnight and other very dark colors are the only colors that seem to age reasonably well
with regular use.

Yet another example (of many) just posted over on the Leather Patina thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/leather-cases-patina-proud-photos.2091430/post-31546346

My midnight for my 13PM looked like $&%# when seeing it in natural day light so I couldn’t imagine how bad the lighter shades would be with any extended use. I baby my stuff too, so was turned off after two years in a row with bad quality had to turn elsewhere.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

These cases are just odd. My first Baltic Blue leather case for 12 ProMax was not too bad for a while, after the 3rd month I started noticing black dull spots near the power button and few spots on the back...pretty much exactly where I hold my phone. Also dark, black edges. Chalked it up to my fingers, oil wearing it down. But also explained the blue dye on my fingertips. Whatever, nothing I can do at that point.

Picked up Saddle Brown for 12PM, the case I picked up started turning black after 4 days! I returned it. Started seeing here about "bad batches" on this forum and Reddit. Tried another Saddle Brown a month later and this one was perfectly fine for 3 months, no odd blotching, black edges.

My 13 PM Sequoia and Midnight after 1 year is holding up pretty well...slight SLIGHT darker on Sequoia near volume buttons, but that's it. Midnight, looks perfectly fine, even checked under a work light for odd darkened spots and it appears ok. It's so random with each case...bad batches like I read perhaps and we don't know what we're going to get.

But still...this "leather" material is SO different - and not in a good way - compared to the cases we had on iPhone 11's and older.

 

[whizkid11]

Have you checked out the Andar leather case?