Protective Case Suggestions and Ideas

[glumreaper 144]

14 minutes ago, Craig said:

I've never dropped my phone while holding it.  But I can remember dropping smartphone twice.  Once, I'd put it in my shirt pocket and then leaned over for some reason and it slipped out.  The other time I was wearing loose fitting gym shorts and it slipped out of my pocket while sitting and crashed to concrete ground.    So, there are cases where a sleeve would have some use.   Of course I've learned from those mistakes and will not put pro1 in shirt pocket or gym shorts pocket ever, with or without any kind of case or sleeve.

Fair enough... I've never broken a phone through dropping, just scuffs/dents. It's often my kids trying to grab it from my hands that causes it! 😂

Oh, or the one before last Sony phone I had that was really smooth and hard to grip firmly!

Edited November 14, 2019 by glumreaper

[EskeRahn 5,471]

27 minutes ago, Craig said:

I've never dropped my phone while holding it.  But I can remember dropping smartphone twice.  Once, I'd put it in my shirt pocket and then leaned over for some reason and it slipped out.  The other time I was wearing loose fitting gym shorts and it slipped out of my pocket while sitting and crashed to concrete ground.    So, there are cases where a sleeve would have some use.   Of course I've learned from those mistakes and will not put pro1 in shirt pocket or gym shorts pocket ever, with or without any kind of case or sleeve.

And you should make sure to never have the sleeve with the opening upwards in your pocket, or you will be left with a sleeve in the pocket, and the phone on the ground, as the friction between the pocket and the sleeve is likely to be bigger than between the sleeve and the phone.... Unless it is so tight that it is hard to get out of the sleeve - and that would be a daily nuisance...

In my experience most drops is in/out of pocket OR when a kid or dog 'bumps' into you while using the device.  A jumping playful dog that wants to get your attention can cause havoc....

[EskeRahn 5,471]

15 minutes ago, glumreaper said:

Oh, or the one before last Sony phone I had that was really smooth and hard to grip firmly!

I remember the Iphone 6-, it was close to impossible to hold without a case of better material, it was slippery as a piece of soap.

When I got it and showed it to some friend, I always made sure they sat in a sofa, and they all (but one) dropped it while playing around with it the first time!! And we had a good laugh afterwards when I told that it was exactly why I was so keen on them sitting in the sofa when I showed it to them, as I did the same thing when I got it. *LOL*

[david 929]

4 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

When I got it and showed it to some friend, I always made sure they sat in a sofa

A new technique to get the ladies on the couch!  😄

(Or to get the men on the couch, for you ladies out there!)

Edited November 14, 2019 by david

[EskeRahn 5,471]

8 minutes ago, david said:

(Or to get the men on the couch, for you ladies out there!)

...And you have likely already upset someone in a LGBTIQ+ segment trying to be political correct... 😜

[elvissteinjr 359]

21 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

And you should make sure to never have the sleeve with the opening upwards in your pocket

And if you have a sleeve with a super loose fit, you'll end up with the phone in the pocket and the sleeve in your hand instead. Guess that option doesn't break the phone though.
The sleeves I've had for my phones in the past and right now either had a super tight fit (with pull-out feature) or a locking mechanism preventing the phone from falling out. I hope the pre-order sleeve at least has either.
But even if not, my current sleeve was meant to hold the Moto Z with keyboard mod attached, so it'd fit as well.

[Noob 158]

4 hours ago, Waxberry said:

[Behind the scene story]

1. The case enlarges the gap of the two parts. We worked hard on engineering of the product to minimise the gap in the middle and we achieved some great result. However with a case holding on the back and have certain bits goes to the middle, if it's firmly installed, it will increase the middle part and "separate" the two parts more. If we reduce the middle  bits, it became loose and could not strongly hold the phone

The middle gap of my Droid 4 proved a problem for me last week; a bank card in my pocket got wedged in between the keyboard and the screen and sliced through the flex cable, killing the display.   So yes, a small middle gap is a great thing (also I won't be putting loose bank cards in the same pocket ever again).

[Raksura 270]

4 minutes ago, Noob said:

The middle gap of my Droid 4 proved a problem for me last week; a bank card in my pocket got wedged in between the keyboard and the screen and sliced through the flex cable, killing the display.

A very similar thing killed my Sony Xperia mini pro. It was with an ID card though. I really thought it was an incredibly improbable occurrence.  Is this a frequent issue with that kind of phone?

Edited November 14, 2019 by Raksura

[david 929]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

...And you have likely already upset someone in a LGBTIQ+ segment trying to be political correct... 😜

Okay...a new technique to get *someone* on the couch!  That should cover it! 😄

[Tim6263 134]

17 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

A jumping playful dog that wants to get your attention can cause havoc....

That would be me too.... 🤣

[Siani_8 105]

15 hours ago, david said:

Okay...a new technique to get *someone* on the couch!  That should cover it! 😄

As a self identifying *Something*, I take offense to this.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

57 minutes ago, Siani_8 said:

As a self identifying *Something*, I take offense to this.

...and what about e.g. animals? There are no end to this off topic spin off.... 🥴

[EskeRahn 5,471]

4 hours ago, Tim6263 said:

That would be me too.... 🤣

You jumping, or having a large dog? 🤣

**OBS** Moved reactions into off topic thread here:

 

[Waxberry 638]

22 hours ago, schwix_ said:

Hello,

i was silently reading up now.

Right now I am using the BlackBerry PRIV with the official hard case which I am very satisfied with. It contains of two parts and slides open with the device. It might be more tricky since the f(x) pro 1 slides open in an angle but maybe the BlackBerry design could be an inspiration. 

Hello

It's different with Pro1 and Priv, although both are slider.

With Priv's flat sliding, you can slide up with the finger pressing on the screen. But with our (stronger) hinge mechanism, to open up user needs to lift up on RHS, or press on the side of LHS, unfortunately with the case covered both sides became more difficult to access.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

1 hour ago, Waxberry said:

Hello

It's different with Pro1 and Priv, although both are slider.

With Priv's flat sliding, you can slide up with the finger pressing on the screen. But with our (stronger) hinge mechanism, to open up user needs to lift up on RHS, or press on the side of LHS, unfortunately with the case covered both sides became more difficult to access.

 

Either method works with marginal difference equally well with and without a modified Note7 case.

Though the push method gives an awesome clack when it opens, lifting the back is a more silent and more discrete method. So I tend to use the lift method

[Krzysieq 55]

Now that the phone started to reach the first pre-order clients, I think it's ok to necro-bump this thread. What are the current case options? Is there any work happening in this area? It would be a crying shame to get this great phone and damage it during the frist week of use because of lack of decent protection options.

Myself, I'm a fan of premium leather flip-cases, but they all have a design flaw. Whenever they try to accomodate space for credit-card sized items, these tend to scratch the screen on prolonged use. Something that would be easily fixed by leaving the surface that touches the screen when case is closed completely plain, made of soft nubuck for instance, while cards would be stashed either on the outside in another layer (which has another benefit in that when You turn the case 360 degrees to touch the phone's back, the cards would be on the inside), or under that protective layer of nubuck that should then open up in the other direction compared to the part with the rubber phone holder.

I feel like a flip case is the only real option to protect the phone and the screen, I don't see how a silicon, plastic or rubber case could do the job..

[_DW_ 628]

48 minutes ago, Krzysieq said:

Now that the phone started to reach the first pre-order clients, I think it's ok to necro-bump this thread. What are the current case options? Is there any work happening in this area? It would be a crying shame to get this great phone and damage it during the frist week of use because of lack of decent protection options.

Myself, I'm a fan of premium leather flip-cases, but they all have a design flaw. Whenever they try to accomodate space for credit-card sized items, these tend to scratch the screen on prolonged use. Something that would be easily fixed by leaving the surface that touches the screen when case is closed completely plain, made of soft nubuck for instance, while cards would be stashed either on the outside in another layer (which has another benefit in that when You turn the case 360 degrees to touch the phone's back, the cards would be on the inside), or under that protective layer of nubuck that should then open up in the other direction compared to the part with the rubber phone holder.

I feel like a flip case is the only real option to protect the phone and the screen, I don't see how a silicon, plastic or rubber case could do the job..

I quite agree I think a leather flip case is the way to go +1. 

(Personally I never put my cards and phone together so not experienced the other issue)

[Parhelion 114]

Fully agree with both of you.

Only thing that occasionally goes into the flipcase is an emergency banknote.

[_DW_ 628]

33 minutes ago, Parhelion said:

Fully agree with both of you.

Only thing that occasionally goes into the flipcase is an emergency banknote.

I do that, but it's behind the phone 😄

[PC_ 61]

2 hours ago, Krzysieq said:

Now that the phone started to reach the first pre-order clients, I think it's ok to necro-bump this thread. What are the current case options? Is there any work happening in this area? It would be a crying shame to get this great phone and damage it during the frist week of use because of lack of decent protection options.

Myself, I'm a fan of premium leather flip-cases, but they all have a design flaw. Whenever they try to accomodate space for credit-card sized items, these tend to scratch the screen on prolonged use. Something that would be easily fixed by leaving the surface that touches the screen when case is closed completely plain, made of soft nubuck for instance, while cards would be stashed either on the outside in another layer (which has another benefit in that when You turn the case 360 degrees to touch the phone's back, the cards would be on the inside), or under that protective layer of nubuck that should then open up in the other direction compared to the part with the rubber phone holder.

I feel like a flip case is the only real option to protect the phone and the screen, I don't see how a silicon, plastic or rubber case could do the job..

After using the leather slip case with my Priv for the last 3 years it does suite my use case and the phone still looks brand new. However I appreciate that this doesn't suit everyone.  I have purchased a flip case for the Galaxy Note 7 which @EskeRahn recommended. I appreciate that this will need to be heavily modified to work with the Pro1 but one of the modifictaions I would make would be to glue some kind of soft felt material on to the side that makes contact with screen.

[glumreaper 144]

This is good news, and I'm glad to hear you're still working on it. 

Personally, I would like a slip case, yes. I've been worried about the case etc, since it will be impossible to source anything specifically for the Pro1 in the short term.

I feel better about it having seen the excellent updates from @EskeRahn and the cases he has tested.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

3 hours ago, PC_ said:

After using the leather slip case with my Priv for the last 3 years it does suite my use case and the phone still looks brand new. However I appreciate that this doesn't suit everyone.  I have purchased a flip case for the Galaxy Note 7 which @EskeRahn recommended. I appreciate that this will need to be heavily modified to work with the Pro1 but one of the modifictaions I would make would be to glue some kind of soft felt material on to the side that makes contact with screen.

Well I would not say that I recommended it, That was the cheap one I tried as a proof of concept... I guess about any shell or case for the Note 7 would do just as fine.

And the modifications needed really are minor not "heavily"
1) Open up near the Fingerprint
2) Extend existing holes for the 3.5,mm and USB plugs
3) Make a cut in the back for the camera/blitz (and secondary microphone)

4) For the flipcase I cut away the credit card part, to reduce the thickness. Note that some flip cases MIGHT have saved on the material under this - I felt with a finger first before cutting, and it was not the case on this model.

All can be done with a pocket knife, and takes perhaps 3-15min, depending on the level of precision you require of the result. You have to be an extreme perfectionist or really clumsy to use an hour...

ADD; Due to the cases I have been playing with being of SOFT and not HARD material, i have felt no need to make any cuts for the power, volume and camera button. So they are 'hidden functions' for the non transparent cases.

[raphaelcno 21]

My personal experience: 

 

1. Frosted/matte color makes dust less visible than transparent color: 

 

2. Anti-slip edges are very useful when you wear gloves in winter ❄️🧤🙂: 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Motorola-Moto-Z-Z-Play-Skidproof-Matte-Rubber-Gel-skin-case-cover/182500449057

 

[SteffenWi 139]

So - I got the phone today and I'm completely satisfied with the pouch that came with it. The only thing I would have loved - or something I will have to buy - would have been a more 'gritty' backside, similiar to the Moto Z Plus. The FxTec Pro1 is slippery compared to every other phone I ever had. (@Eske didn't you write somewhere that they received feedback on that during a meet up and wanted to make it less slippery?)

 

edit

after comparing it to phones of my colleagues, it doesn't seem that bad. I guess I just naturally went for phones that had a 'grittier' panel or were smaller. The combination of 'bigger' (compared to N900 or Neo Freerunner) and smooth surface is something I did not experience before.

Edited November 20, 2019 by SteffenWi

[Krzysieq 55]

What is the thickness of the keyboard half of Pro1? Looking at length x width alone, anything that fits Honor 20, Honor 20 lite, Honor 10, Honor 10 lite or Huawei nova 5t has a fair chance to fit the Pro1's bottom half. Here are all the phones with nearest dimensions (width x length):

Target is Pro1 with 154x73.6mm, thickness unknown at the time of this writing.

 

Lenovo S5 (154 x 73.5 x 7.8 mm )

Note7 (153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9)

Huawei nova 5t (154.3 x 74 x 7.8 mm)

Honor 20 (154.3 x 74 x 7.9 mm)

Honor 20 lite (154.8 x 73.6 x 8 mm)

Honor 20i (154.8 x 73.6 x 8 mm)

Honor 20S (154.3 x 74 x 7.9 mm)

Honor 10 lite (154.8 x 73.6 x 8 mm)

They're all about the same thickness, but as usual, the devil is in the details... And of course the layout of ports and buttons might mean some carving out with a precision knife to get an exact fit.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Krzysieq