So I received my Kavaj Dallas today, and I thought that I'd give you a little rundown of what I think about it.
First of all, I used the SGP Neo Hybrid bumper in "Reventon Yellow" since day one, and it's actually really nice.
It's a two-piece design, nevertheless the build quality is solid, it looks nice, and it has a feel which is somewhat reminiscent of the genuine Apple bumper on the iPhone 4. As far as I am concerned, it's not too thick nor too high, offering a great experience in combination with great protection. The cutout for the Lightning port is wide enough for the connector to fit properly.
Or in other words: If you need a bumper, you won't go wrong with the Neo Hybrid.
Now back to the Kavaj Dallas. The first impression it gave was that of a cheap Chinese product (although it isn't), which is always a bad thing - especially if you consider that somebody may just have unboxed an Apple product a couple of minutes ago.
If you remove the plastic wrap, the case itself is wrapped in a sheet of paper, which by itself might be dubbed "environment conscious", and as such, wouldn't be that much of a bad experience. They should just keep the plastic.
On the case itself, it has a quite nice look and feel to it - well, it's genuine leather after all. It has a microfiber lining on the parts that come into contact with the front, back and sides of the device, so it won't scratch neither of those.
Other than the cheapo plastic wrap, there are however some areas where the case doesn't really pleases: The magnets on the flap are too weak for some people, but this is due to to the fact that the leather is quite stiff. There's a seperator on the front, if you bend it there, it holds quite well. If you really want to smoothen the leather, you could always rub in some Lexol Leather Conditioner, like you'd do with i.e. baseball mitts.
Also, I'm not so convinced about the cutouts. They're not quite centered, so you have to wear out the Lightning port cutout a bit to make it fit. It does however still make contact and works fine. Also, the corners are cut out and unprotected.
So, the bottom line is this: Yes, it's a nice case. The build itself isn't too bad, the material is really nice, but there are some design issues, although some of which will resolve itself after the leather has been broken in. Considering that there are worse cases out there, made of cheap PU faux-leather, it's a good case.
All things considered, I'll keep using it and look out what happens when the leather ages a bit, because in theory, the Kavaj Dallas is a beautiful case.
Update: After rubbing down the case lightly with Lexol and carrying it around in my pocket for a couple of days, the ports actually aligned properly and the iPhone sat into it's proper position, resolving all drawbacks. The leather just needed to be softened a bit.
First of all, I used the SGP Neo Hybrid bumper in "Reventon Yellow" since day one, and it's actually really nice.
It's a two-piece design, nevertheless the build quality is solid, it looks nice, and it has a feel which is somewhat reminiscent of the genuine Apple bumper on the iPhone 4. As far as I am concerned, it's not too thick nor too high, offering a great experience in combination with great protection. The cutout for the Lightning port is wide enough for the connector to fit properly.
Or in other words: If you need a bumper, you won't go wrong with the Neo Hybrid.
Now back to the Kavaj Dallas. The first impression it gave was that of a cheap Chinese product (although it isn't), which is always a bad thing - especially if you consider that somebody may just have unboxed an Apple product a couple of minutes ago.
If you remove the plastic wrap, the case itself is wrapped in a sheet of paper, which by itself might be dubbed "environment conscious", and as such, wouldn't be that much of a bad experience. They should just keep the plastic.
On the case itself, it has a quite nice look and feel to it - well, it's genuine leather after all. It has a microfiber lining on the parts that come into contact with the front, back and sides of the device, so it won't scratch neither of those.
Other than the cheapo plastic wrap, there are however some areas where the case doesn't really pleases: The magnets on the flap are too weak for some people, but this is due to to the fact that the leather is quite stiff. There's a seperator on the front, if you bend it there, it holds quite well. If you really want to smoothen the leather, you could always rub in some Lexol Leather Conditioner, like you'd do with i.e. baseball mitts.
Also, I'm not so convinced about the cutouts. They're not quite centered, so you have to wear out the Lightning port cutout a bit to make it fit. It does however still make contact and works fine. Also, the corners are cut out and unprotected.
So, the bottom line is this: Yes, it's a nice case. The build itself isn't too bad, the material is really nice, but there are some design issues, although some of which will resolve itself after the leather has been broken in. Considering that there are worse cases out there, made of cheap PU faux-leather, it's a good case.
All things considered, I'll keep using it and look out what happens when the leather ages a bit, because in theory, the Kavaj Dallas is a beautiful case.
Update: After rubbing down the case lightly with Lexol and carrying it around in my pocket for a couple of days, the ports actually aligned properly and the iPhone sat into it's proper position, resolving all drawbacks. The leather just needed to be softened a bit.
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