Steve Litchfield grabs a sizeable batch of Nokia 9500 cases and puts them to the test. See which one might suit YOUR Communicator by reading the review roundup here.
Runaway winner in big 9500 case roundup
slitchfield wrote:Steve Litchfield grabs a sizeable batch of Nokia 9500 cases and puts them to the test. See which one might suit YOUR Communicator by reading the review roundup here.
Just unpacked my Covertec Nokia 9500 case that I purchased following the review. Good news first. It is well presented fits fine and looks good. Bad news follow... Communicator latch does not close easily any more. When it does, it only takes a knock to open it. However, this would not be a problem if the case would close properly. The two magnets seem to me to be simply too weak. The one does close it but the case will open with any slight shake (along with the latch) while the other does not work at all (I am left wondering if they have the magnet polarity wrong). Maybe I should put a good old velcro myself...
Will check the case better and come back with more....
Gregory.
gmantzar wrote:Communicator latch does not close easily any more. When it does, it only takes a knock to open it. However, this would not be a problem if the case would close properly. The two magnets seem to me to be simply too weak. The one does close it but the case will open with any slight shake (along with the latch) while the other does not work at all (I am left wondering if they have the magnet polarity wrong).
Gregory.
Hmm.... the latch on my 9500 still closes OK. Maybe yours was weak before? And the magnets keep the case closed fairly well here. Sorry, usual YMMV!
Steve
OK. A few days of use have provided a much better impression of the case. Somehow, after a few hours of use, the magnets seem to work better. Well, to me this is a small mystery but I assume it is a matter of the case getting back its supposed shape after life in the box.
Regarding the remaining issues:
a) More regarding the plastic sheet on the keyboard...
-The latch does close but certainly not as well (strong) as before (pre-case). This is however NOT a problem, especially as the magnets seem to now keep the whole unit in place.
-Typing as easily as before was my main concern but it seems to work fine. The small cut for the round (direction/cursor) key is also a nice touch. Only comment is that if you work with light in the wrong angle, the reflections on the sheet can stop you from being able to "read" the keyboard. This however, IS being fussy.
b) The back side:
-Typing on a hard surface is indeed an issue but if the belt clip is not attached this could potentially be easily solved. As I am using my case without it, I believe taking the case to my local repair shop to attach four small sized leather patches / legs could solve the problem. One could also do this by sticking a velcro sticker on each corner. Beware though of warranty issues if you decide to go ahead!
(maybe covertec should consider this for their next design)
-Still on the same side and regarding the camera opening.
This is extremelly large so as to include the NOKIA sign on the back of the phone. Not big enough however to include the camera, if the phone has slightly slipped of its proper place. For some reason they cut the case on the camera side so that is JUST fits. As a result, a few of my pictures had a slight dark spot until I spotted the problem. Well, this is not a "blocking" issue, but more of an annoyance, especially when you consider the size of the opening.
Well, talking of "cut just to fit" lets go back to the front of the case and the...
c) Telephone keyboard.
Here the case falls victim of its own design and quality. The leather reaches all the way to the very edge of the phone keys. This, combined with its thickness (keeping the plastic away from the keys on the edges) makes it that much more harder to press the side keys . Well, again, this is not really an important problem but I do find it annoying, especially during the first few days of use. After a few days, I decided that I do not care if the plastic sheet gets sligthly abused and things are much better now.
Beyond those issues, from what I have seen one should either go for a very basic -carry the phone- case or for something like this. Covertec has indeed done a good job. The case does look excellent and well made and if you ignore those issues it does work fine.
To sum up, if I was to buy a case now, I would indeed have bought the same. Still, I do plan to take it to the local shop to put a leather patch for stable typing on a hard surface and to cut the camera opening that much wider. Regarding the magnets, I will for the moment refraing from putting velcro. That is because I have long given up jogging with my phone hanging of my belt. If you plan to do so however, you may want to consider it!
Gregory.