Original HTC leather case/pouch PO S520 review [11 may]
Hi guys,
I have just bought the PO S520 case for my Desire. What can I say? First impression - a nice case with a sleek minimalistic design.
The leather quality is good, you can actually smell that it's real leather (not the faux leather as sold plenty at eBay). The leather is quite soft, you can bend the case very easily if you want to. There are also two.. erm.. "hardening plates" inside the case itself that hold its shape so that it does not feel too soft just like a piece of leather. The "plates" are quite soft as well, apparently made from thin plastic or hard paper. Those are nothing that you can actually see, as they are "sewed in" into the front and rear part of the case. I hope you understand what I mean.
The ex-Blackberry owners having those super-hard-leather-cases that feel like leather but are hard as a rock - no, the PO S520 is not like one of these.
The inner lining is made of some kind of a soft polyester fabric (the one you meet quite often on the inner part of skiing winter gloves, for example). The quality seems to be ok at a first glance.
The phone fits nicely in the case, no parts are sticking out.
The pouch felt a bit tight for the Desire at the first time, (specially the lower part) So i tried to see how stretchable it is. On my way from Tottenham Court Rd to South Kensington (20 mins roughly) I was trying to stretch it with a mock-up Desire (the one they use at stores for display purposes) inserting it slightly angled, holding the pouch a bit skewed etc. When I arrived to work the pouch already felt much more comfortable. So, the verdict is ==> Yes, it does stretch.
As for the pull-out strip. I was very worried about this one as it actually wraps around the whole lower part of your phone when it's inside the pouch. And, of course, when you pull your phone out, it experiences a lot of friction. I was afraid of the phone's soft-touch coating to disappear with time. Looking more carefully has shown that HTC has at least thought about this thing and has made the "inner" side of the strip (the one that faces your phone when inserted) a bit more silky and glossy that might *cough* help the soft-touchiness to live a bit longer.
One pleasant thing to notice was a small magnet inside the end of the pull-out strip. Thus the end does not flutter around but sits tight attached to the case at all times.
A bit less pleasant thing to notice were the inner stitches. On one of the pics showing the inside of the pouch you see two black stitches on the inner-backside. Those are not very flush and may leave "soft-scratches" on the backside of your Desire, so be careful or ask your mum for a solution, she definitely knows how to handle the stitches

I personally do not think that this is a real issue as the stitches are nothing "hard" or "sharp".
Right now I have used the pouch for some 90 minutes. Will keep playing with it for the rest of the day and will update the review if needed.
If you have anything to add - don't be shy
Cheers.