REVIEW – There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing a case for your phone. You may want something stylish, protective, or maybe just something uniquely you. There are fewer options however when it comes to something more eco-savvy. The Bottle Case from Nimble is both stylish and protective but has the eco-friendly angle covered in spades. Read on to find out more.
What is it?
Nimble’s Bottle Case is a protective cover for your device (in this case, iPhone 11 Pro) that is made from 100% recycled bottles. Absolutely no new plastic is used. How’s that for cool.
What’s in the box?
The packaging itself is about as recyclable as it gets. It’s a simple, flat brown cardboard with paper and paper tape. The outer pack uses creative crease lines to pop into a 3D shape. Inside you’ll find…
- Bottle Case for iPhone 11 Pro
- Info sheets
- Tech For Good Pouch
The case is protected inside the packaging by a paper wrap and Nimble sticker.
The note, the fabric swatch and the inside of the case all make it clear just what this case is made from.
Lastly, Nimble includes a peel-and-seal shipper pouch encouraging you to “Clean Out Your Junk Drawer!”. More on this in a bit.
Hardware specs
Device Compatibility: iPhone 11 Pro (Also available for iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max as well as older iPhone X/XS and XR models)
Design and features
The Bottle Case consists of a device shaped case made from recycled bottles that is covered with a fabric outer layer and interior microfiber layer. The fabric is laser cut, pulled, stretched and tucked expertly around the inner frame. The inside layer keeps all that in place and protects your phone. Only the mute switch control has an opening.
The volume and power buttons have pliable buttons under the fabric covering. They press well but are a bit hard to see or find by feel.
The camera lenses are given plenty of room and sit below the back of the case letting the case lie flat when on its back. In that position you can see that the case sides sit slightly higher than the screen which is great for protection.
The bottom speakers and lightning connector are allowed to have full access.
And if you look closely, Nimble’s Elephant logo is right there on the back.
Setup
The case is pretty pliable, so you can just press your phone in. Good to go.
Performance
The Bottle Case fits my iPhone 11 Pro really well. It’s snug in the right ways and no corners or screens of the phone are exposed to take a hit. The fabric has a really unique feel to it. It’s tactile and grippy on the sides, but kind of slippery on the back making it easy to slide in and out of pockets.
Where it’s stretched around corners it almost looks like the material is stretched thin, but it’s actually light reflecting different angles. The material looks to be pretty robust. All in all, I’m impressed with the case. The only issue I ran into is that the hole for the mute switch is pretty tight as you can see above.
There’s a five different colors available and each one supports a different charity. In order they are… Wildcoast (Black), SeaSave.org (Deep Sea), Carbonfund.org (Narwhal), Coral Reef Alliance (Red Tide), Seabin Foundation (Seagrass).
Back to the cleaning out your junk drawer stuff-sack.
This is very cool. You literally can put up to a pound of e-waste in here, go to their website and print out a label and ship it out for free. Bravo Nimble!
What I like
- Recycled material focus
- Slim design
- Color options
- 5% goes to protecting the world’s ocean and marine life
- e-Waste recycling
What I’d change
- Increase the size of the mute switch
- Would like to see better definition on the Elephant logo
Final thoughts
It’s really cool to see a company take responsibility for being eco-friendly and take it end-to-end. The Bottle Case itself is made from recycled bottles, the packaging is minimal and easily recycled, donations are made from each purchase and they provide a stuff-sack and a shipping label to send in old electronics. Nimble makes it pretty easy to feel good about what you’re buying from them and that’s not an easy thing to come by these days.
Price: $39.95
Where to buy: Nimble
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Nimble.
