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Review: Mujjo Leather Case for iPhone 6 & 6s

For the first few months after purchasing my iPhone 6, I was a daily Apple Leather Case user. I picked up the case more out of convenience than desire, but I never truly felt it served my needs. The case felt weak, unsupportive, and more like a leather-wrap than a protective case. I’ve kept an eye out for other potential alternative leather cases, but could never find one I really loved. The Apple Leather Case seemed so close to what I would have wanted, but the way it wore down was just not appealing to me at all. A lot of other leather cases are too bulky, have a built-in wallet, or are just utterly expensive. Then Mujjo released their Leather Case for the iPhone 6(s). As soon as I laid my eyes on it, I knew I wanted it. It looked strong without adding bulk, sported a beautiful tanned leather, and was priced fairly in comparison to competing cases.

The first time I got my hands on an iPhone 6, I immediately knew I would need a case. While I think the sizing is perfect, the iPhone 6 literally slips out of my hands all the time. It feels like I’m holding an intricately crafted aluminum bar of soap. I’ve had this constant battle whenever deciding whether or not to add a case to my iPhone. I love the aesthetic of the iPhone 6 as-is, but sometimes I just want to add that tiny bit layer of extra protection, style, and most importantly grip.

I really thought Apple’s leather case lineup for the 6 would fit in nicely, but it still left me with something to be desired. The images of the cases online were beautiful, made the case appear to not add too much bulk, and would help provide better grip. It really felt like a no-brainer for me. I picked up the Apple PRODUCT(RED) Leather Case as soon as I could and began using it as my daily driver.

I love that over time leather adopts and changes colors. It adds a bit of character and personality to the item. What I never expected was how fast this Apple Leather Case would discolor and how terrible it would look doing so. The corners on my Leather Case ended up turning an extremely dirty red, and even pulling the color from the inside of my jean pockets. I expected to use the case for at least six months, but this made me shy away from that. After a few months, I abandoned it all together and just went on using the phone naked.

I still have the Leather Case next to my bedside and use it on the days I know I’ll want to a little more protection, but I don’t dare bring it anywhere I wouldn’t want to show it off. I no longer consider it to be even remotely attractive. If I were to purchase the case again, I would definitely grab the black variant as it could easily mask the ugly wear the case goes through. Annoyed with Apple’s leather case, it was time to move onto a better and more attractive solution.

Mujjo was gracious enough to send me a review unit of their new leather case. I fell in love before I even opened it out of the packaging. The case’s packaging arrived in a small cloth tote bag, adding that extra touch of thought and beauty to the experience. It almost felt like I bought a new pair of designer sunglasses. I’m not sure if this was the normal customer unboxing experience, but I was happy regardless.

The vegetable tanned leather case was even nicer in person. Images online don’t really do it justice. It looks and feels even better than I imagined it would in real life. It had an extremely soft, almost silky touch, while still feeling very durable in my hand. It had that unmistakable true leather smell, not that weird plastic fragrance that surrounds a new Apple Leather Case.

The inside of the case is suede-lined adding a bit of extra protection as to not scratch the back of the phone. I hated buying cases that looked great on the outside, but the inside just had a hard plastic. Whenever those cases got dirt and debris stuck behind it the back of the phone would usually suffer at least a few scratches.

via GIPHY

For this review, I picked up a brand new Apple Leather Case in Saddle Brown as a comparison. I wanted to be able to better judge how a new Apple Leather Case would feel in hand. Flexing and toying with Apple’s case in my hand, I realized the advantage that Mujjo built directly into their case. Apple had opted to build out their leather cases as fully leather, and forfeited any reinforcement. This makes the case flimsy as it can easily bend in your hand when the phone isn’t placed into it. Mujjo’s leather case supersedes Apple’s here by including a sort of “shell” between the suede lining and leather exterior.

Mujjo’s case is better described as a case with leather wrapped around a plastic shell, with a suede interior. While at first I wasn’t pleased knowing the case had a plastic interior and only a leather wrapping, it quickly grew on me. I could maintain the beauty of a leather case, with the reinforcement of a hardened shell. Comparing it to a brand new Apple leather case and my old one, it’s evident that including the interior shell was the way to go for structural integrity.

Surprisingly, this addition doesn’t add a lot of bulk to the case. The phone feels a tiny bit thicker, but the added grip, protection, and look is worth it. This is all probably due in part to the soft leather exterior. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the leather just feels great. It’s soft and smooth, almost like silk, but unmistakably leather.

The suede interior did feel and look weird, but I knew it’s not an area me or anyone else would be looking at often.

Mujjo’s shell extend a little bit past the leather wrapping to give a small lip around the case. It helps when placing the phone face down on a table, or when pulling it out of jean pockets. Apple’s case would rub against the edge of my pockets and slowly began pulling away color from my pants, and onto the leather. I still believe this is the primary reason that mine discolored so quickly.

I’ve never been a fan of cut-outs in a case. It always made me feel like the case was incomplete adding that. Mujjo’s case has cut-outs at the top, bottom, and sides of the case. After using it daily for a week, I really began to grow a new appreciation for it.

The open bottom makes it so that a user could easily dock it into a multitude of docks, like Apple’s iPhone Lightning Dock, without having to remove the case each time. The cut-outs on the side added a physical advantage that I lost with the iPhone 6’s smooth feel. To this day, I can still rarely tell what button my finger is on when I pick it up. Is it the volume buttons? The side sleep/wake button? The buttons are so smooth and not immediately intuitive that I would often turn up the volume instead of waking my phone when I meant to. Mujjo’s decision to add cut-outs on the side have helped me out. The sizing difference in the cut-outs on the side made it clear as to which button was underneath my fingers at any given time.

After just a few days of using the case everyday, I already began seeing the color change and adapt to my usage. It’s something I really appreciate. The patina became this beautiful darker brown leather along the edges, while the back remained a lighter color. It added character to the case immediately, and made me feel like it truly was mine. A pair of joggers I own have zipper teeth in the pocket, and unfortunately those did frequently catch and “scratch” some of the case a bit. The case started looking showing light scars along it, but I really loved it. These scratches and color changes became a small visual journal of my device’s usage.

At the end of the day, Mujjo’s leather case is no doubt going to be go-to iPhone case. It’s a beautiful accessory that not only adds an additional bit of style to my device, but offers protection in an attractive manner. It’s easily a fan favorite too as various friends and family members have complimented it.

The Mujjo Leather Case in Tan is available now from Mujjo for €33.02 or from Amazon for $44.95. For those looking for a similar case, but with an added wallet option, the Mujjo Leather Wallet Case in Tan is also available from Mujjo for €33.02 or Amazon for $54.95. You can read our full review on the Leather Wallet case here.

Have any questions about the case, or feel like I’ve missed something? Feel free to reach out to me at @gregbarbosa or by leaving a comment below.

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Comments

  1. rnc - 8 years ago

    Nice ad.

    But Apple’s better.

  2. Trooper (@Trooper311) - 8 years ago

    Looks nice but I’d rather not spend the 50 dollars.

  3. FYI Apple’s Leather case is also a plastic shell sandwiched between leather and suede. I accidentally cut a corner on mine and had to file down the plastic so it wasn’t sharp.

  4. Alex Tira (@alxtira) - 8 years ago

    I like the look of my Apple Saddle Brown case, especially aged. It’s now dark brown all over and looks classy. The one thing I have against it is that you need to press the covered side buttons quite firm to activate them. It also means that you will sometimes activate the button on the other side. This Mujjo case seems like a handy improvement in that respect, also in terms of orientation like the review mentions.

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      The buttons thing on the Apple case still trips me up to this day. Like you said, you have to press quite firmly. It’s worse when I firmly press on the volume instead of the lock and end up blaring the music in my headphones way louder than comfortable.

    • disconnectedchildblog - 8 years ago

      I also hated the Apple leather cases for how hard they made it to be able to press my phone’s buttons. Then I saw a tip on Reddit that recommended taking the case off the phone and pressing each of the button overlays on the case about 30 times. This made a very noticeable difference for me and now I have no problems pressing my phone’s buttons while using an Apple leather case with my iPhone 6s.

      • amazingrugs - 8 years ago

        Great tip! Just did that on my case, made a world of difference.

        This sounds crazy, but I would love to steal the demo cases at the Apple Store. They are all so worn in and feel extremely soft compared to a brand new case!

  5. Nate Eigsti - 8 years ago

    For those interested, they are also selling Mujjo cases on Touch of Modern (a daily deals site). The case above is discounted to $27.99. It’s only discounted for 2 more days – you can find it here: https://www.touchofmodern.com/i/E3NGSWXV. I have the one with the credit card holder on the back and have really liked it – I get lots of compliments.

    • freerange5 - 8 years ago

      Sorry Nate, but that website/company sucks! I refuse to do biz with a company that won’t even let you even view their site without giving up your personal information – a totally moronic business model.

  6. Nate Eigsti - 8 years ago

    I tried to add a comment, but it didn’t work. I really like this case.

  7. Almirante José - 8 years ago

    Have you tried to take a flash picture with the case on?
    Mine blurs it all. The light hits the side of the case lens cutout and ruins the picture.

    If you shoot flash pictures, stay away from this case

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      I actually did, just last night. I took three pictures: with the Mujjo case, without it, and with an Apple Case. I couldn’t tell any differences at all. I definitely didn’t see a blur though.

    • Nate Eigsti - 8 years ago

      Yes, I have taken photos with this case on for about a year now. I can tell no difference with the case on or off. Regardless of using flash or not.

  8. michaelcpearson7 - 8 years ago

    I have previously purchased one of these case but I don’t remember if it was for the 6 or 5S. Nevertheless… The case is beautiful, feels great in the hand and is an eye-catcher. Here is the problem… after about a month the leather started pealing around edges at the bottom front. I’m a guy who takes great care of his phone (never broke a screen dating back to the 3GS). It goes in my pocket, in the hand and lays flat on it’s back on the desk. So I was a bit stumped when it began to happen and I could see the plastic where the leather use to be. I didn’t bother returning it because I think the company is in the Netherlands.

    So… Beautiful… but for me it was not long lasting.

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      I’ll keep an eye out for this Michael, that IS disappointing but thus far I haven’t seen that issue just yet.

    • Jason Lesh (@jasonwlesh) - 8 years ago

      I loved the case as well. Until the exact same thing happened to me. The leather began pealing away at the edges about a month and a half after I purchased it. Most unfortunate as it was my favorite case. Switched to a Grovemade walnut case that hasn’t had any problems.

    • Mujjo (@MujjoStore) - 8 years ago

      @ michaelcpearson7/ Jason Lesh

      I am sorry to hear your case has been broken after such a short time. Please send an email to support(at)mujjo,com, include your mujjo.com order ID and some pictures, and we will start the replacement procedure.

      Furthermore, I would like to give you more information on what we’ve been working on, to improve the quality of the case.

      Redesign

      For almost a year, we’ve been working very hard to redesign the iPhone cases, making them more durable, while maintaining the beautiful aesthetics. To do so, we had to redesign the case from the ground up and rethink the production process and methods. We managed to redesign the cases successfully, by changing the base layer of the case in a completely different shape, adding a moulded edge.

      Introducing moulded edge

      Made from a durable, polished polycarbonate, the moulded edge strengthens the durability of our leather case at the most fragile points. The moulded edge is a major improvement that toughens the edges of the case and enables it to withstand the damaging wear and tear caused by friction against rough materials such as jeans pockets.

      Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

    • Andrew Curtis - 8 years ago

      I had the same experience. Mujjo is the worst case I have ever bought.

      The Kavaj wallet case I have now on my 6s is great. And before that the Hex solo case for the iPhone 5 was the best case I have ever owned. They lasted so long I wore through the leather on the corners from pulling it in/out of my pocket, yet it didn’t go to tatters like the Mujjo started doing I the first few months. My first Hex solo case lasted me about 2 years and when it wore out I bought another.

  9. Testa Ussa - 8 years ago

    That’s great when you get the review copy for free but for me to pay and then have it come apart within 3 months is no a good deal

  10. bogdanphotos - 8 years ago

    what i don’t like about this 3rd party acceesories (including the case here) is that they need to put their names on it. that takes out of the elegance.
    leave it simple. make it quality and i would buy it. i paid for your product. i don’t want to make you advertising for free. If you want that, give me the case for free.

  11. cydianerd - 8 years ago

    I wonder if it scratches the iPhone. The hardness is not looking good.

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      It has yet to scratch my phone at all.

  12. dailycardoodle - 8 years ago

    The described construction (plastic shell with leather on one side, faux suede on the inside) is exactly the same as the Apple case. What difference is the author seeing?

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      It’s not though, did you see the GIF? Apple’s Leather Case doesn’t include a hard plastic shell interior.

      • dailycardoodle - 8 years ago

        Of course it does! Do you think it’s just some leather?!

      • dailycardoodle - 8 years ago

        It may be a different thickness or type of plastic, but it’s the same construction.

  13. Niklas Modin - 8 years ago

    One thing I’ve seen on a lot of cases including the one I’m using, and that I learned the hard way is bad is that the upper part actually is exposed. I have a wallet case with the upper part exposed, and it has absolutely taken a lot of beating and finally it slipped and landed right on the upper exposed section cracking my screen. Not by a lot, but it took the speaker down.

    Apples case seem to have coverage on the top part, but then I don’t get the wallet style.

    I’m still looking for a case that’s both wallet style AND has protection for the upper edge.

  14. nielsvangraas - 8 years ago

    Although this Mujjo looks amazing the quality is very poor. I had to return it twice now. After a couple of months (normal usage) the leather comes off. I hope Mujjo will improve the quality of this case, i really like the design.

  15. Ron Tozier (@p8blr) - 8 years ago

    PSA: I’ve had two of the Mujjo cases (wallet style) and both fell apart quickly. The first one had the rubber bead along the seam fall off in the first week, the Amazon seller was nice and replaced that for me. On the second one the rubber bead lasted a little longer, about a month, but eventually fell off too. I contacted Mujjo about this one and they said to take up all complaints with the seller. I didn’t want to keep pestering the Amazon seller so I just replaced it with something else. On a different note, the internal plastic case they use is pretty brittle IMO. It cracked when I dropped it, but I accept responsibility for that one…

  16. Manc Yeung - 8 years ago

    I used it before, but it lasted only for 1months and the edge of it started falling off.
    If they could fix it, it am happy to buy Mujjo’s product again. Their design are nice.

  17. GLD (@g_ditmeyer) - 8 years ago

    Ordered and have to say disappointed. As someone who has lost more than one credit card while on the go this looked to be the perfect solution and from the pictures looked to be similar in quality to the apple 6S Plus leather case. Far from it. Very plastic feel to the case and it is brittle. The plastic bar over the top of the camera was broken when I received it. The leather feels more like vinyl but that may change over time. Raised plastic border around the outside is a bit rough and makes the cover feel cheap. The card slot does what it is supposed to but again, feels more like vinyl than leather. Two cards and the material feels stretched and not likely to return. Though it does not look like anything will slide out once secured but the pocket is no longer flat against the phone. Has me doubting it will last with any use. Maybe I am being too picky for what it is. But I expected more. Lesson learned, best to handle and experience first hand prior to buying something like this.

  18. Daniel Kestenholz - 7 years ago

    This is such a cheat case. Thought to support small and creative business and ordered the Full Grain Leather Case for iPhone 7.

    Guess what.

    It’s basically a piece of plastic with leather glued to the bottom and the top. The plastic border is sharp, so when you hold the phone it’s pretty uncomfortable, destroying the beautiful haptics and ergonomics the iPhone 7 has.

    First thing I did go to the Apple shop and by their leather case.

    What a difference.

    Forget this Mujjo stuff. And I have to pay for both delivery and return shipping, even though my unit wasn’t up to that advertised premium quality.

    Apple’s so much better, in every sense.

  19. Daniel Kestenholz - 7 years ago

    The first thing I did after ordering the Mujjo case was going to the Apple store and buy their leather case. I am all for supporting smaller and creative businesses, but that Mujjo case is such a letdown. Not only was the finishing poor, I can imagine the leather to quickly peel off the cheap plastic case used. That plastic case, which is not covered along the upper border, feels harsh and bad in the hand, yes it cuts in your finger, destroying the smooth and beautiful feeling the iPhone design implements. I reckon net cost of this case are a 2-3 dollars, the quality is just nowhere where the original Apple leather case is which now happily covers the phone.