Case for AT&T Fuze.... Part One....

[Reid Kistler]

Finding a good case for the AT&T Fuze is proving to be a challenge. Although the difficulty obviously varies according to Personal Preference (How, exactly, does one define "Good?"), nearly all of the options seen to date feature one or more Significant Flaws, many of which are due to the relatively complex design of the device (Touch Screen, sliding keyboard, speaker & camera lens on the back...).

1) A "Slip Case" requires that you remove the unit in order to use it.
Yes, you CAN make & receive phone calls using a Blue Tooth connection & Voice Command, which works while driving, when (Of Course!) No One would ever consider trying to hand-dial a number and/or take notes. But Eventually you will want to / need to access the screen / hardware buttons, and constantly having to fish your PDA out of a slip case only increases the probability of eventually Dropping it :( (and / or losing the case!).

2) There are a number of nice looking leather cases available for the Fuze / Touch Pro, which are designed to permit at least some functionality without having to remove the unit - and many of which feature cut-outs for the camera lens & speaker, etc. But nearly all of them have at least one Significant Flaw: They secure the device to the case by means of a plastic sheath that covers the top of the keyboard.
While an obvious tactic, this technique has at least 3 major flaws:
a) It looks funky. Perhaps a minor complaint to begin with, but past experience with thin, clear, sheets of plastic suggest that appearance is likely to deteriorate over time;
b) A plastic sheet over the keyboard does not Enhance one's ability to use said keyboard; and
c) The sliding mechanism on the Fuze is fairly precise: even a thin sheet of plastic forces the gap between the two units open. Given enough time, this seems likely to cause damage to either the unit and/or the cover itself (see a above...).

"Tested" b) & c) with a variety of plastic sheets gathered from around the house.

3) One of the few leather cases that does not use a plastic sheet over the keyboard is by Noreve. This is a nice looking case, but its design leaves 2 questions: 1) 3 tall 'bent fingers' help to hold the un-opened Fuze in place - alas, when the keyboard is opened it APPEARS that these will interfere with attempts to actually USE the keyboard (or, at least, those keys located near the fingers); 2) the design seems to leave a lot of the Fuze exposed. This may be nit-picking a bit, but compared to a Mythical "Ideal" Case.....

Also, alas!, the Noreve is NOT inexpensive at around $45 - although for fancy-dress business use that may be less of an issue....

4) There are a number of 'plastic shell' cases, made out of a variey of materials - from real Hard Plastic, to silicone, to rubberized plastic, to Aluminum, and varying in price from Under $10 to Around $30 (or more?). By their nature, these tend to leave the SCREEN entirely exposed - a fairly large No-No - and or Look Funky, and / or seem to offer little protection either from the elements (Primarily Dust...) or Drops, although it is possible that the softer silicone ones would be more protective than some of the thin hard ones....

At least some owners are using one of these snap-on cases WITH a slip case: the slip case (perhaps with a belt loop) provides protection & carry convenience, while the snap-case protects against scratches to the body and helps keep finger prints down...

Also, a number of users have reported having trouble with the Touch Screen while using some of the snap-on cases: apparently they tend to put pressure on the screen corner(s) which renders it un-responsive (filing the inner surface of the case is the best recommendation to alleviate this).

.........

OK: has become a small book :o & am being called away by the love of my life to consider Shopping Duties :eek: - so will have to wrap this up later.....

[Reid Kistler]

Additional Thoughts:

You either LIKE a belt-clip/loop case or you don't. Personally find that SOMETIMES a belt clip is handy, but mostly NOT - and the attachment that is so handy for clipping to a belt tends to add substantial girth when trying to carry a case within a coat or pants pocket.

You can find cases with clips that can be removed, sometimes to a flat surface, although more often a raised area remains (there has to be some mechanism for holding the clasp on after all).

Have also read of complaints about the "temporary" clips being less than secure. (The one on my RhinoSkin will unscrew itself eventually - but it is seldom in place: alas, there is a permanently raised receptacle for it on the back of the case....)

Am currently using a cheap / inexpensive case by Bytech: around $6, looks OK, sold for a Nokia N95, but in a package that claims "Fits most Small Size Phones."
This would work well for my wife's Shine - slightly too wide, but not by much - and she may well end up with it (would protect phone while rattling around in her purse).

Again, For The Price, was pleasantly surprised by the Bytech: but after a couple weeks usage have found that if I place the Fuze in a certain orientation there is a 'ridge' within the case that catches the screen protector, which is now permanently bent in the lower R corner, and has an additional crinkle about 40% of the way up. I could not figure out how that happened, but apparently my wife's fingers are more senstive & SHE found a couple of interior ridges.

Anyway, knew that the Bytech was not a "Permanent" solution, and at $6 it is hard to get Really Upset - but was hoping to put off an additional case searching for a longer period of time....

So: what to do????

Saw a Possible Solution sometime last week in a YOUTUBE video: a leather case demonstrated by gaugau.jp.

Turns out the case is from Capdase, and is just now becoming available on sites that are NOT written in Japanese (!): both Xell Telecom, and an Ebay vendor (from Hong Kong, per memory).

As yet, have no idea whether this is indeed a "Good" case: it certainly LOOKS intriguing, but could be poorly made or simply not workable in the 'real world.'

Like the Noreve, it leaves the top & bottom (and most of one side) open to the elements, instead of large 'fingers' it uses what amounts to 1/2 (the bottom half) of a snap-on case to hold the Fuze: the leather portion is attached to this snap-on unit and then wraps around the device. (This connection points seems likely to be the weak spot.) This case does not feature a belt clip.

Look for Capdase Leather Bifold for HTC Touch Pro - or at the "What's New" listings at xell.com; around $30 or so.

............

Another interesting case is the Carrymobile, which actually appears to provide full wrap-around coverage, but at the expense of leaving the keyboard in a (relatively) deep well that seems likely to interfere with a greater number of keys than the Noreve case. The Carrymobile also has a funky Double Front Flap arrangement that covers the screen but leaves the lower front buttons always exposed. (Why?)

Around $25 - 30, or a bit more with S&H.
...........


Once again, just thinking out loud; but if anyone has any experience with a Capdase leather case (for Touch Pro / Fuze or otherwise), what was / is your impression?

And Ditto for any other alternative, especially any that we have overlooked.....

Merry Almost Christmas! :)

[Richard76]

At the risk of boring some, I wanted to revive this thread. Mainly because I just wanted to share what works for me. As already stated, cases are as personal as customizing with your devices with your favourite ringtones, tabs, widgets and homescreens. Personally, I think I have more cases in my desk than my local Rogers store but that's another story.

Typically, I have at least 2 but sometimes 3 cases for each device I own or have owned. Each one serves a different need. For example, for my Fuze I normally use a black, faux leather belt-clip case with a magnetic closure. I completely dislike any case that has velcro (can't stand the sound). The belt clip is made of preformed metal, attached to the case (low profile) and covers in the same faux leather.

I call this my "business case" because I normally wear this during business hours. When I get into my vehicle, I take it out of this case and set it into a generic phone holder attached to my dashboard, right next to my radio display. From here it is connected to my sound system via bluetooth and I have the option of plugging a 3.5 mm stereo jack into my sound system for music. But most importantly, the display is right there in easy reach and sight.

Then I have a 2-piece hard case with a belt-clip holster. This case has the smooth rubber-like feel to it and when it clips to the device, it does not interfere with the slider at all. I use this case primarily when I use my non-BT headphones to listen to music because the faux leather case does not have a cut-out for the headphone jack.

In choosing a case for any device, my prime consideration is that I like to use my device "naked" so the majority of my cases are similar to the first type.