There have been a few threads linking to the Shenit TPU Bumper Case that have kinda died out because, well, it's no longer available on Amazon despite having been available long ago with a very future ship date. I ordered mine when the listing first went up on Amazon and it just arrived today! Here are my observations and judgments:
The Details
The case is made from two materials: TPU and a hard plastic. You can see the two materials in the photos on Amazon. It's done in a way that is still incredibly low-profile. The TPU covers all buttons, corners/edges, and ports (not the camera lens nor camera light, though). The hard plastic covers the back, the back corners, and some of the sides. The hard plastic is a *perfect fit* over the camera lens ring - from the back of the phone it is 100% impossible to tell the color of my phone.
Something that can be very clearly seen in the photos, and is the same with the official bumper, are the angles at which the sides have. This causes the feeling that the back edges of the phone "stick out". This seems to be a love-it or hate-it thing for most people. I'm torn about whether I like it or not - it definitely seems different than what I'm used to. That said, this was by no means a surprise for me and I expected it to be just like this. So in my Pro/Con list, this is what I'm talking about with the "back corners sticking out".
Oh, and it came with a piece of red velcro for some reason!
The Good
Overall, it's a very nice and snug fit on the phone yet it's not terribly difficult (also not terribly easy, in a good way) to get it off of the phone. With this case on the phone, I'm certainly not concerned with the phone slipping out whether pulling the phone out of a purse with something tugging on the case nor with skinny jean pockets or anything else. The feel of it is a mix of a TPU feel and a "soft" feel for hard plastic (think the feel of the back of the black version of the Nexus 5 to mean what I mean "soft" for hard plastic, not Quicksand case "soft"). Nobody will have problems with this slipping in and out of their pockets nor is it incredibly slippery either.
For protection, this provides the protection you would hope from a TPU case and not much more. As you can see in the photos, every corner and edge is covered by TPU including the four corners on both the front and back as well as the edges along both the front and back of the phone. The back of the phone, however is only covered with the hard plastic. Take a look at the photos and you can tell where the TPU ends on the insides of the case and where the hard plastic begins on the outsides of the case. This case might protect your phone from a drop and it might not - just like with all TPU cases. If you buy this and you play first-person shooter games where you can change your armor out, this case could be thought of as light armor or perhaps medium armor but no where near heavy armor.
It is definitely an attractive (and Nexus branded!) case that doesn't look like what many of the other $14 cases out there look like. As you can see from the photos, the case is molded perfectly to fit with the camera ring cutout. Speaking of the camera ring, the case is just a tad thicker on the back side than your camera ring so if you lay it down on the back, your camera ring is no longer a protrusion. This may have some implications for those of you with magnetic accessories for the camera ring but I can't really comment much on that. Ultimately, unless you look at the port cutouts or see my white speaker on the front, this case makes it impossible to tell the color of my phone - that's how perfect the molding is for the fit. The ONLY flaw I could find with the case's fit was for the microphone on the top of the phone. The microphone isn't perfectly centered in the hole but it's also not covered either.
The Bad
There are three primary problems I have with the case.
First of all, a quick browsing at the time I wrote this turned up quite unfruitful in actually identifying where you can even buy this case today! It is now listed as unavailable on all of the Amazon postings and even all of the eBay cases that look just like the OEM bumper case have seemed to vanish. I'm curious if you can even buy this case anymore as I couldn't find it anywhere now!
So here's the first knock on the case: The buttons have a mushy feel with terrible feedback on the power/volume buttons. We all know that cases tend to be Good, Meh, or Bad here and this case definitely qualifies as bad. Sorry!
And the last thing:The USB Port cutout, while appearing quite large, is unfortunately too small for a variety of USB cables. The first 3 USB cables I randomly grabbed didn't fit comfortable in the space provided although the fourth one did. So you'll have to find a cable that will fit in there if you ever need one and don't use Qi for all of your charging needs.
Pros:
Cons:
I hope you enjoy!!
The Details
The case is made from two materials: TPU and a hard plastic. You can see the two materials in the photos on Amazon. It's done in a way that is still incredibly low-profile. The TPU covers all buttons, corners/edges, and ports (not the camera lens nor camera light, though). The hard plastic covers the back, the back corners, and some of the sides. The hard plastic is a *perfect fit* over the camera lens ring - from the back of the phone it is 100% impossible to tell the color of my phone.
Something that can be very clearly seen in the photos, and is the same with the official bumper, are the angles at which the sides have. This causes the feeling that the back edges of the phone "stick out". This seems to be a love-it or hate-it thing for most people. I'm torn about whether I like it or not - it definitely seems different than what I'm used to. That said, this was by no means a surprise for me and I expected it to be just like this. So in my Pro/Con list, this is what I'm talking about with the "back corners sticking out".
Oh, and it came with a piece of red velcro for some reason!
The Good
Overall, it's a very nice and snug fit on the phone yet it's not terribly difficult (also not terribly easy, in a good way) to get it off of the phone. With this case on the phone, I'm certainly not concerned with the phone slipping out whether pulling the phone out of a purse with something tugging on the case nor with skinny jean pockets or anything else. The feel of it is a mix of a TPU feel and a "soft" feel for hard plastic (think the feel of the back of the black version of the Nexus 5 to mean what I mean "soft" for hard plastic, not Quicksand case "soft"). Nobody will have problems with this slipping in and out of their pockets nor is it incredibly slippery either.
For protection, this provides the protection you would hope from a TPU case and not much more. As you can see in the photos, every corner and edge is covered by TPU including the four corners on both the front and back as well as the edges along both the front and back of the phone. The back of the phone, however is only covered with the hard plastic. Take a look at the photos and you can tell where the TPU ends on the insides of the case and where the hard plastic begins on the outsides of the case. This case might protect your phone from a drop and it might not - just like with all TPU cases. If you buy this and you play first-person shooter games where you can change your armor out, this case could be thought of as light armor or perhaps medium armor but no where near heavy armor.
It is definitely an attractive (and Nexus branded!) case that doesn't look like what many of the other $14 cases out there look like. As you can see from the photos, the case is molded perfectly to fit with the camera ring cutout. Speaking of the camera ring, the case is just a tad thicker on the back side than your camera ring so if you lay it down on the back, your camera ring is no longer a protrusion. This may have some implications for those of you with magnetic accessories for the camera ring but I can't really comment much on that. Ultimately, unless you look at the port cutouts or see my white speaker on the front, this case makes it impossible to tell the color of my phone - that's how perfect the molding is for the fit. The ONLY flaw I could find with the case's fit was for the microphone on the top of the phone. The microphone isn't perfectly centered in the hole but it's also not covered either.
The Bad
There are three primary problems I have with the case.
First of all, a quick browsing at the time I wrote this turned up quite unfruitful in actually identifying where you can even buy this case today! It is now listed as unavailable on all of the Amazon postings and even all of the eBay cases that look just like the OEM bumper case have seemed to vanish. I'm curious if you can even buy this case anymore as I couldn't find it anywhere now!
So here's the first knock on the case: The buttons have a mushy feel with terrible feedback on the power/volume buttons. We all know that cases tend to be Good, Meh, or Bad here and this case definitely qualifies as bad. Sorry!
And the last thing:The USB Port cutout, while appearing quite large, is unfortunately too small for a variety of USB cables. The first 3 USB cables I randomly grabbed didn't fit comfortable in the space provided although the fourth one did. So you'll have to find a cable that will fit in there if you ever need one and don't use Qi for all of your charging needs.
Pros:
- Nexus Branded!
- Plenty of color options and cheap (it was $14 shipped from Amazon)
- Great snug fit with perfect molding to the phone
- Feels like you hope it would feel from the photos
- Very low profile - better than your typical TPU case (except for the back corners sticking out)
- Plenty of room around the 3.5mm audio port.
- Won't affect NFC, Qi, or radios
Cons:
- Hard to buy (no longer on Amazon and the eBay lookalikes are no longer listed either)
- Took a month to ship
- Bad button tactile feedback
- Many USB cables won't fit in the cutout for the USB port
I hope you enjoy!!
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