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It's time to put 'real' leather cases out to pasture
Meaningless terminology and cut corners are all reasons to go synthetic
When the product upgrades from this week's Galaxy Unpacked are as small and iterative as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Watch 6, it's easy to overlook their accessories, too. The S Pen case for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 took the lion's share of the case attention during this launch, but it was the case next door that caught my eye.
I’ve never been a “smartphone skin” person — they just aren’t my style. Why would I want to cover my super-premium, beautifully engineered aluminum and glass objet d'art with a cheap sheet of vinyl, like grandma does for her aging sofa set? Honestly, I even found the idea a little gross. But as someone who loves premium materials, dbrand’s new leather skins have made me a convert. They are really, really nice.
dbrand's leather skins are now on sale and shipping in December
It sounds like they're made out of the good stuff, too
Back in August, dbrand announced it would release its popular smartphone and gadgets skins in a new line made of actual skin — cow skin, to be precise. At the time, all we knew was that they were coming soon, and they'd only be available for a limited time. But it sounds like it was worth the wait. dbrand's snazzy new leather skins are now up for purchase to ship in December, and it sounds like they're made out of some pretty good stuff.
dbrand's going to dress your gadgets up in honest-to-god leather, coming this fall
Leather is skin but they're leather skins so they're also skin skins and that's weird to think about
Skins are a fun way to customize your phone, but if you're a materials snob like me, vinyl just doesn't cut it. If you like the concept but you've got an appreciation for natural materials, you'll want to zip over to dbrand's site today and register for the company's upcoming leather skins — as in, actual it-used-to-moo-and-eat-grass cow leather. Both stock and details are limited, and you can't buy one just yet, but dbrand was willing to tell us a little bit about the upcoming skins.
One day bootleg pants are all the rage, the next it's considered a faux-pas to wear one and everyone moves to skinny leg pants. A couple of years later, bootleg pants are back in style and you feel like you understand nothing about nothing because you just threw yours in the trash. Just like clothing fashion, smartphone design goes through cycles. A few years ago, the Note 3 started the trend of using faux-leather with stitching on the back and so followed the Note 3 Neo, Note 4, and Note Edge. Not to be outdone by it, LG carried on the torch with the LG G4 and its middle stripe stitch, but the style pretty much died with it. Once others were doing it, it wasn't cool anymore. Or was it?
Huawei's P20 is known for being available in some refreshingly funky color schemes. It launched in a few different colors, including the eye-catching Twilight variant, which has a color-changing finish that shifts from blue to purple to green depending on the lighting. Now, the P20 is getting four new non-traditional finishes: two more iridescent models, and two sporting leather.
I've been here at Android Police for over a year, now, fighting my way up the ranks and RSS feeds. So far I've succeeded, and having the opportunity to spend my days writing about technology has been incredible. As a result of that, I've accrued a ton of hardware and software, much of which has become an integral part of my workflow and life.So here's a peek at all the stuff, personal and professional, that lets me do me.As a disclaimer for the organization of this subject, I'm not the sort of guy to keep my work life separate from my personal life. I'm of the opinion that, ideally, you should seek to do work that you enjoy enough to make it personal. Thankfully, the last year here at AP has very much worked with that view in mind. But, I do still keep my personal expenses separate from my business ones, so I thought that a Work/Play dichotomy might be an interesting way to sort the stuff I dig.But, first I need to get one important thing out of the way, as it's both work and play.
Google's Pixelbook might not be for everyone. It does need somewhat unique tastes—and a very flexible workflow—to truly appreciate it. But if you did plonk down the $999+ required to snag one, now you can get an appropriately ostentatious clip for the accompanying Pixelbook Pen.
Like it or not, it's clear that Motorola's often-leaked upcoming batch of phones will be very different from the relatively straightforward designs in its current lineup. Previous leaks indicated that at least some of the models in the refreshed Moto X (or possibly Moto Z) and DROID series will have add-on modules called "MotoMod" that snap onto the back of the phone via a proprietary interface. It's a lot like the direction that LG is taking with its modular G5.
[Deal Alert] eBay Has A New Unlocked LG G4 (Black Leather, 32GB) For Just $275 With Free US Shipping
The brand-spankin'-new LG G5 is certainly interesting, but its modular accessory system hasn't won everyone over, including David Ruddock in his full review. If you still want a new phone but would prefer to return to a simpler time when a leather back plate was the gimmick of the year, one eBay vendor is selling last year's model at a significant discount. The G4, with 32GB of storage and an upgraded (and somewhat divisive) black leather back, is just 4.99.
The Moto X series has been known for being a good deal when compared to other flagship phones. If you're OK with buying last year's model (which is still more than serviceable, and is scheduled to get a Marshmallow update at some point), Amazon is selling it for just 9.99 today. This is the American GSM version, so it should work on AT&T, T-Mobile, and similar MVNOs. It's a new phone featuring the stock 16GB of storage. The price is only valid for the next 16 hours (ending at 5 AM Eastern US time), so get an order in quickly if you want one.
Thanks to the fanatical culture that's grown up around mobile technology, we haven't been truly surprised by a new device in years. Even LG knows this: the company has been slowly revealing its upcoming G4 flagship, piece by pedantic piece, in the weeks leading up to the April 28th launch event. Last night an LG "micro site" was briefly published and removed, and it leaves very little of the G4 to the imagination. Google+ user Pedro Peguero Jr. grabbed some screenshots of the site.
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We more or less knew that LG's April 28th event was going to be for the G4, but now the Korean OEM has come out and said it. The G4 will be revealed in just a few short weeks, but that's almost all we know.
Samsung and HTC have already presented their flagships for 2015, and it will soon be LG's turn. The South Korean company just sent out "save the date" emails announcing an event on April 28th. Notice anything interesting? Yep, that looks like leather.
Motorola has really been pumping up the customization option for the newer model of the Moto X, and the exotic wood and leather backs are probably the most interesting part. Today the Moto Maker website in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Mexico has added an option for red Horween leather on the back panel, just in case you want to match up with the soles of your designer shoes.
A couple months back Motorola announced that Moto 360 straps made in partnership with DODOcase, the makers of some rather impressive premium cases, were on the way. Now they're here. The accessory is available for purchase over at Motorola.com.
Motorola took the premium materials one step further this year with the option to buy a Moto X clad in premium Horween leather, then someone at Verizon thought it would be cool to slap some football leather on it. The result, as you can see below is kind of ugly. Maybe it looks nicer in real life?
The black leather Moto 360 is currently up on the U.S. Play Store, though it probably won't last long. After going out of stock pretty much immediately at launch several days ago, it is already listed as shipping September 22nd, a full two weeks from now. The gray leather variant remains out of stock.
Samsung has become that one friend you've got who suddenly decides he wears a fedora. No matter how many times you tell him that he looks less like a debonair time traveler than a guy who raided his grandfather's closet, he just won't take it off. Russian blog Hi-Tech Mail spotted the new Galaxy S4 'Black Edition' on Samsung's Russian page this morning, and a similar variant of the S4 Mini was later found. Both of them use the faux leather back from the Galaxy Note 3 and later Samsung designs.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Poetic Slimline Portfolio case for the Nexus 7, after buying it for my personal use and finding it to be a good choice with a great value proposition. After seeing the review, the folks at Poetic decided to send us some more, in the hopes that I'd give some of their other options for the Nexus 7 a good rundown. The whopping four cases they sent me are all based on the same design (a pouch and cover combo, with magnetic closures and wake/sleep functions), each with slight variations.