E&B Cases Treo 650 eNovo Case

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by William Yang

April 13, 2006

I recently purchased a Treo 650 and like most people, I needed a case to protect my new toy. Having purchased cases from EBcases before, I quickly went to their site to see what was available for my Treo and I was presently surprised by the eNovo case.

The eNovo case is a hard leather flip case that uses magnets to hold the case closed. The case comes with or without a belt clip. I opted for the belt clip.

The case is constructed of quality leather. The flip cover is made of a soft leather with a hard card insert to protect the screen and keys. The leather than surrounds the body of the Treo is made of hard contoured leather. The fit is very snug. The fit is so snug that you need to press down the side keys in order to get the Treo into the case. You will also need to press the side keys to take the Treo out of the case.

When the cover is closed, the Treo is completely protected except for the antenna. While I'm not sure the case will help my Treo survive a three feet drop onto concrete, I am confident that the case will protect my Treo from day-to-day bumps and scrapes. The back of the case has three small holes for the speaker.

When the cover is open, the Treo camera is revealed. One issue with the flip is the fact that the cover's hinge is located a quarter down from the back of the case. This is necessary to reveal the camera but when you open the case completely, the cover hangs three to four inches below the bottom of the Treo. I would have preferred the cover the hinge from the top of the Treo but I understand the design issue lies with the placement of the camera.

The hard case holds its shape thus allowing for the absence of the middle divider found in most soft leather cases. The middle divider is usually between the screen and the keys which I find distracting. Others have reported that the middle divider either covers part of the screen or gets in the way of the keyboards. The absence of the middle divider provides me with an unobstructed view of the entire face of the Treo 650. This is one of the key drivers for picking the eNovo case versus EBcase's previous Slipper Treo 650 case design.

The photo above shows the cover partially open. Hopefully you can distinguish the little metal/magnet strip at the bottom of the cover. This is small piece that holds the case closed. The magnet provides good contact and keeps the cover closed in most instances. The few times I have had the Treo in my pants pocket I have found the cover to be pushed to one side. While some might think this is a weakness of the case, what the magnet closure offers is one-handed use of the case and access to the Treo. I am able to open the cover with my thumb and a flick of the wrist.

The side of the case has a cut out for the extra side and volume buttons. This cut out is one of the biggest problems I have with the case. It is a subtle difference in the photo but the hole for the side buttons has more room around the extra side button and the too little room near to the top of the volume button. The hard contour leather is about two millimeters thick. This thickness coupled with the closeness of the case to the top volume button makes it hard to press the volume up button. While this is not a problem when looking at the phone, it is hard to tell when you are taking a call with the phone itself. I asked EBcases about this issue and they said they would try and correct it in the next release of the eNovo.

The bottom of the case provides good access to all the connectors. The sync cable that comes with the Treo fits easily into the cut out. The headphone adapter I purchased also fits into the cut out with no problem.

However, the cut out does present some issues. I bought Seidio's retractable USB hot sync cable. The face of the Seidio is one millimeters too thick to fit into the cut out thus I am unable to use the sync cable unless I remove my Treo from the case. The other problem with the cut out (and this has more to do with the overall case) is that the contoured hard leather is too thick for the case to fit into any cradles. I tried two cradles at the Palm store and none of the connectors could get into the cut out. Unless someone develops a connector adapter that increases the reach of the cradles, the eNovo case will not work with any Treo 650 cradles currently offered on the market.

All in all, I am really happy with my eNovo case. I travel frequently and I am pleased to say the eNovo case has kept my Treo safe and unscratched. I would highly recommend the eNovo case to anyone looking for a leather flip cover Treo case.