Windows Phone Thoughts: French Riviera Elegance - a Noreve Case Review

Construction
I'm not a connoisseur of leather products, but this one seems very well crafted. The leather has that rich, soft feel of an expensive pair of shoes, and the stitching is tight and consistent. I couldn't find a thread end anywhere and there were no loose threads hanging about. The edges are either rolled and stitched or glued and sealed. All access openings have been stitched as well, to ensure they don't fray. Clearly, there has been care in the building of this case. The main section of the case, where the PDA is stored has been stiffened with some sort of material to help it keep its shape. The PDA is slipped into this section through the top and the interior (front and back) has been lined with a ribbed, non-slip cloth to make sure the unit doesn't fall out – even when the case is held open and upside down. (I tried this a number of times and even with gentle shaking, there was no movement of the unit at all. It felt very secure).


Figure 5: The working portion of the case, where the PDA is stored. You can see the pattern of the non-slip cloth on the inside of the case which keeps the unit firmly in place.


Figure 6: My Eten X500 – all snug and cozy. As noted in the text, the unit slides in from the top. I quite like that the unit is entirely enclosed, rather than just the bottom half, like my PDAir case.

The front cover of the case hinges on the bottom and flips over the front and top of the unit to clasp on to the back. Three small magnets are sewn into the flap and the back of the unit to hold the case securely closed. The front cover includes what feels like foam padding and is completely clear of markings except for the small Noreve logo in the top right.

In Use
On the Eten X500 version I tested, cutaways had been provided for all of the items you would access in normal use. The Power button, Reset slot, and Camera button are available from the right side.


Figure 7: A view of the right side of the unit.

The Volume, Recording and Headphone jack are available from the left.


Figure 8: The left side of the case. There is a lot of room provided for access to the buttons, so it never feels like the case is getting in the way.

A big plus over other cases I've tried is that the camera on the back panel is fully exposed and usable while the case is closed!


Figure 9: Noreve has made sure the the camera is completely clear and available for use without having to open the case.

Unfortunately, the design doesn't include access to the MicroSD slot or USB slots on the bottom of the unit when the case is closed. For me, access to the card slot is not such a big deal, since I'm not really comfortable with swapping those tiny MicroSD cards on a regular basis. I tend to just buy a bigger capacity card and put everything onto it and leave it there. Not having access to the USB port though, is a bit of a pain since I don't like having to open up the case just to sync up with my desktop and/or charge up the Eten. My thinking is that Noreve opted to make sure all the 'day-to-day operations' parts of the PDA are available at all times, rather than the parts you'd only access occasionally.

There are two pockets provided for credit/business cards and two pockets for Mini/Micro SD cards (finally!) in the front cover. Most of the cases I've dealt with provided slots for standard SD cards, which are way too big for Mini or Micro SD, so it was great to see someone had designed this case with the actual Eten X500 user in mind. The slots also come with finger holes in the bottom, so you can push the cards out.


Figure 10: A view inside the top cover of the case. Note the two pockets for Mini/MicroSD cards. Just above these (near the top of the picture) are two pockets for storing credit or business cards.

The credit/business card pockets are very snug on the sides for a standard credit card, requiring a little bit of oomf to get the cards in and out. That may soften up as they get more use, but I'm a little worried about damaging the leather at the edges. The fit for business cards is better, although I don't think they'll accommodate more than about 5 or 6 in each pocket. The top closure still worked very well even with 2 credit cards installed in the front cover.