Andrew Kay: The Case In Question

Drawn by style, I revert to common sense

I have been fascinated by Mike Ward’s trials and troubles with the Apple Watch. I did sense that he was hasty in his initial dismissal, but rather surprised to read last week that he had relented and bought a new one. Well done Mike for embracing the new, I hope it proves to be a useful addition to your technological battery.
I have started to wear a wrist watch again too, but a conventional one. My Skagen is about ten years old and works perfectly well at doing what it sets out to do, which is tell the time. I had stopped wearing a watch when my phone had become an easy way of telling the time – or at least so I thought.
One day, laden with bags and running late, I struggled to get my phone from my pocket to see just how late I really was. The phone, once located, fell to the ground and the front smashed into thousands of tiny shards of razor sharp glass. Now I know that many of you will have done the same and I can see an iPhone from my desk that has a shattered facia. I was lucky and had insurance, but for a while I was terrified of using the phone in case a shard of glass severed my ear or a vital artery.

I was of course rather cross with both the inconvenience and the case which I had been assured would offer ample protection from such an accident. It did not!
I recently upgraded my iPhone to a new model and having done so discovered that the nice, and rather expensive case that I had bought, would no longer fit. I decided to buy a new one and looked in horror at the immense range on offer. There were slim ones, bouncy ones, ones with extra battery capacity (rejected as they made the phone as heavy as a brick), patterned ones and frankly rather silly ones.
In the end I chose a rather smart brown leather one that had compartments for credit cards etc. I rather liked that idea, being able to take out my phone and leave my wallet at home.
Within days I realised my mistake. The leather case was pretty useless. The front flap had no fixing so it… well, it flapped about. The leather was slippery and it was difficult to make a firm purchase on its surface with my hand and to be honest my pockets were unable to hold the beast in place. Within days I had dropped the thing several times. Action was required.
I decided to abandon it and buy something more practical. I looked around and chose the Tech 21. I had dismissed it at first as it seemed to be too simple and, forgive me, too inexpensive. I was wrong. Simple is good, it simply wraps my phone in a protective layer that has what appear to be bouncy buffers around the edges. It is inobtrusive too, I can see the phone properly and the rather clever, as ever, Apple sleek lines.
The casing is easy to grip and it does not try to escape my pockets either – and there’s no silly flap to flap about.
I’m embarrassed to say how much I spent on the leather case and I am too embarrassed to give it away as I know that at some point the recipient will drop it, break their phone and blame me.

Over the years I have been very critical of the number of objects offered to us that are the triumph of fashion over function. Surely design should encompass both needs, looking good and actually doing the job in hand. The Tech 21 does that for me and in a rather stylishly discreet manner, it’s there working away in its own way without making a song and dance about it. I take my wallet with me again, it was only a trial separation and we are now on the best of terms once again and getting on as before.
The case? Well it’s the Evo Mesh Sport, don’t laugh, I know I am about as sporty as a Zimmer frame, but that is the name and my model is a discreet black one, although it does come in a lot of rather vibrant colours which I guess could be described as sporty although I doubt that they will make you any sportier.
Cost? Well £29.95 which is an awful lot less than the disfunctional leather jobbie that now languishes in the orphan sock draw with other ill-advised purchases.
www.tech21.com