Apple’s new FineWoven cases for iPhone 15 are a huge swing and miss. They suck. Apple should remove them from sale and refund everyone who’s already bought one. You could pretty much stop reading the story at this point, but I’ll offer a few pieces of supporting evidence for my claims.
When I unboxed my two new FineWoven cases for iPhone 15 Pro Max, my first impressions were negative. I shared my thoughts on Twitter but refrained from posting anything more in-depth until I could spend some time actually using the cases with the cases on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Well, that’s what I did this weekend, and my feelings didn’t change. In fact, some time with the FineWoven cases in the real world made me even more disappointed.
The design of the FineWoven case is fundamentally bad. In the image above, you can see what my case looks like after less than 48 hours of use. I didn’t do anything wild, either. I took my iPhone 15 Pro Max outdoors to do some camera testing but otherwise had a pretty low-key weekend.
But I didn’t “baby” the case either, and you shouldn’t have to. I tossed it in my backpack, took it in and out of my pockets, and tossed it on wireless chargers. I treated it how a phone case is meant to be treated.
The design is also just uncomfortable to hold. The back is made from a velvety material, which Apple refers to as “suede” in a few of its marketing. This is fine, other than the aforementioned durability problems. The kicker, however, is the rubber (faux leather? plastic?) edges. These are hard, rough, and hard to hold for more than a few minutes at a time without digging into your hands.
But here’s the straw that broke the camel’s back for me: the cutout on the FiveWoven cases for USB-C is so narrow and imprecise that many USB-C cables don’t fit through the hole. I first encountered this on Saturday night when I tried to plug a Nomad USB-C cable into my iPhone 15. The edges of the connector are just ever-so-slightly too wide.
You can see in the image above how the cable doesn’t fit and how I tried to jam it in there by raising the case below the iPhone’s edges slightly.
Stephen Hackett at 512 Pixels noticed something similar. He also pointed out that the cutout seems to vary from case to case, and the cutout isn’t properly centered on some of the cases.
Apple’s USB-C cables fit through the FineWoven case’s hole with no problem. But this means people buying third-party cables will have to somehow check before their purchase that said cable will actually work with their FineWoven case. That seems a bit ridiculous, right?
Federico Viticci shared this on Mastodon: “Went out for dinner with friends last night and set my phone on the table. Like I have done HUNDREDS of times since 2008. Woke up this morning with a stain on the FineWoven case.”
And Parker Ortolani shared this image showing Apple’s demo display of FineWoven cases at an Apple Store, looking beat to crap:
A few other tidbits:
- We’re told that Apple Stores are having to replace the FineWoven cases on display at least once a day because they become so gross-looking.
- Some Apple Store employees are actively encouraging buyers to opt for silicone cases or third-party cases.
- This also explains why it was so hard to get hands-on time with FineWoven at Steve Jobs Theater after the iPhone 15 event. I had to specifically ask to see the case. They weren’t just readily available on the tables to try.
I used a leather case on my iPhone 14 Pro Max for a year, and it looks worn down and ragged. But again, I used it for an entire year. If FineWoven cases are already looking this bad for many people, will they even last a year? This is a valid question worth asking when they cost a whopping $59.
The obvious counterargument to all of this is that cases are meant to get dirty, meant to get beat up. After all, it’s better if your case looks bad than if the phone itself looks bad.
Apple made the right call by ditching leather this year for environmental reasons. I’m all for not using animals to make phone cases. But again, FineWoven is not the answer. What’s the environmental impact of these cases having to be replaced? Or the environmental impact of every Apple Store having to swap the display units daily?
You’re better off buying Apple’s silicone case for iPhone 15 or just opting for a third-party case of some sort. Or just use your iPhone 15 case-less. I think that’s my plan, at least for the time being. If you already dropped $50 on a FineWoven case, I’d recommend checking out Apple’s 14-day return policy.
At the end of the day, does any of this really matter? These are just phone cases. There are bigger problems in the world. But here we are. It’s a Monday morning, and I just spent 90 minutes ranting about phone cases. Such is life.
Anyway, have a great week, everyone!
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