So, the leather veneer has finally shrunk enough there’s no longer any leather left!
I’m joking but the leather cases were getting worse in quality each generation. I like the patina they give and the feel in your hand, but the last few years they kinda flaked off around the edges and mild scratches could cut through to the silicon layer underneath.
They didn’t feel as premium as they used to. I’m curious what else is in store, I don’t love the stickiness of the silicon casses or the look and feel of the plastic ones.
They always had that issue for me even years ago
Going from XS to 12 the case quality really felt different to me
No need to wrap your super hi tec communication device in a dead animal anyway.
Much better to graft it into the side of a live animal. Harder to lose your phone if it’s stapled to a pig.
As a vegan this is the best non-vegan take I’ve ever seen, thanks. I’ll have to find a pig to staple my phone to.
Hopefully I can find a USB C compatible pig for the next iphone
Huh. Weird. I prefer leather cases despite the higher upfront cost, simply because they generally last the life of the phone for me. Not to mention, the wear patina tends to be way nicer than plastic or silicone, which ends up looking gross and cancerous comparatively quickly.
Last leather case I bought from Apple looked awful after 8 months of light use. I wouldn’t buy another
Same. Apple’s leather cases have never aged well for me. They start to tear and fray, and never get that “distinguished leather” look that leather products usually get with time. If you want a leather case for your phone, there are plenty of third parties and indie creators that make great alternatives that actually do age well.
The first generation of Apple leather cases were great. They definitely aged beautifully. But the latest versions were not good.
In my experience it took about 1.5y for saddle brown leather cases to deteriorate badly (used one with iPhone 7 and XS). They are very bad with moisture and start to flake if you get them wet.
The quality has definitely gotten worse with every iPhone generation. I had an official leather case on my 12 and the layer of leather began peeling off of the plastic within a few months.
Nowadays I just use a rubber spigen case and I’m very happy with it.
I had a Nomad case for a Pixel 2 ages ago that held up fantastically the entire time I had it. I held on to that phone and the case for like 3 years at least. If you get their Horween leather ones, they’ll hold up no problem - it’s quite high quality material and wears beautifully.
It’s pandering to vegans by substituting fake leather.
There will still be plenty of nice 3rd party leather cases.
I’m pretty sure Nomad is still one of the go-to minimalist leather case makers, so I’ll probably snag one of those
I like Lonli but there are lots of options.
But my patina
Had a blue leather case for my iPhone 12 and it deteriorated really quickly. At the current quality, I think it’s probably for the best that they discontinue the line…
The reason I bought it was a friend of mine who had a really nice one for the X. Not sure if they cut back on quality or if the square corners aged more poorly. But after a few months, the 12’s case looked much worse than it had any right to at MSRP.
Rocking a Peak Design case right now, by the way. Absolutely loving the quality, and the fabric gives off a premium feel as well.
The older ones were much better and the quality you mentioned isn’t acceptable (especially for the prices they charge for them).
Has nothing to do with the square corners. They started making leather cases with the 5s, and they were fantastic.
I had the black leather one and the quality and fitment of the case was horrible, ended up switching to a Nomad case which did last a lot longer.
I’ll be upgrading to a 14 PM but this time around avoiding the Apple cases.
Eh. Theirs kind of sucked anyways.
Absolutely love the photo used in the article, credited to Dieter Bohn. My girlfriend still makes fun of me for watching this video 5 years ago.
I have the leather case on my iPhone 12 mini. It took forever to start showing any signs of wear. However, it’s been almost 3 years now and has a nice patina starting to form, but looks absolutely nothing like what that guy artificially made, lol. It’s mainly the edges and corners that have darkened to almost black, and the entire front edge did the same.
I’m not sure what the article is getting at about the leather cases being bad for the environment. Isn’t leather a waste product from the meat industry. If it isn’t used it becomes trash. And I would think a natural material like leather would be better than a plastic or silicon case (the typical alternative).
I think the argument is more that we shouldn’t be using any animal products to reduce the impacts of farming animals.
I think it’s a weak argument, but vegan materials are a lot better than they used to be.
That was kind of my point of mentioning leather is a byproduct. From what I understand we’re not raising cattle for the leather. If beef production goes down, leather prices will go up as it becomes less available. But it seems like if an animal is going to be getting killed, we can at least try and respect it enough to use as much of it as we can, like the Native Americans.
What are those vegan materials made out of? Are we talking some kind of canvas case, or some petroleum based material pretending to be leather?
Mushrooms are a big one, and they might have a promising path forward eventually.
They’re just not there. Leather is extremely versatile and excellent at a bunch of different applications depending how you choose to split it and tan it (in addition to being fucking beautiful if handled correctly at the start and over time).
“Better than they used to be” is kind of meaningless when they’re still not anywhere close to competitive with trash ass bonded leather.
I owned a vegan leather jacket many years ago and it literally disintegrated, it just turned into flakes and a thin layer of some fabric underneath.
I’ve heard cactus leather is quite good and seen it used by a few brands. Behind that, I don’t know much about this.
I have no issue with trying to find new ways to make similar products. It’s definitely interesting in terms of material science and processes. But the options aren’t particularly close to anything anyone would actually choose side by side without any of the discussion of ethics. Which, if that’s something you care about, whatever. I don’t, and won’t. That’s what a cow is.
But if you have issue with it for whatever reason, there are plenty of perfectly fine and perfectly functional natural options for most things that don’t try to pretend to be leather. There are a variety of woven fabrics that work just fine. I’d be willing to bet that you could make some kind of waxed canvas case that’s a hell of a lot more durable than the crappy leather Apple uses for a decent bit less money.
This is like when my in laws invited everyone over for burgers but didn’t tell people they were vegan burgers. They served Portobello mushroom patties and a bunch of stuff mixed in and it was quite good, but people were expecting burgers and the whole thing went over horribly.
So this happened at a family gathering in real life?
That’s amazing.
Another episode had Chris try and serve Portabella mushrooms as a burger or steak.
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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Apple leather cases just haven’t been the same since the 12 lineup, and if they weren’t gonna improve on the quality, they might as well quit.
I just bought one off an Etsy seller instead. Great quality and very happy with it.
I will be sad if I can’t get one for my pro :( it’s my favorite case I’ve tried so many others but I always come back to the apple leather since the iPhone 6
Who reportedly cares tbh
