Proporta Alu-Leather Flip-Type Case for the HTC Wizard

First I want to thank Judie for this opportunity. I love the
Gadgeteer site and this was a great chance to contribute.
(Shameless sucking up finished, now to the review);

I just got the Qtek 9100 Windows Mobile phone and was looking
for a case for it when I read the post asking for a reviewer from
someone. It was like fate. I was blessed. Judie sent me the case
and I opened it up and was immediately disappointed. I will explain
a bit more later.

First Impressions:

My first impression upon opening the package containing the

Alu-Leather Flip Type Case for the HTC Wizard was that I was
impressed with the quality. This was my first non-aluminum case
from Proporta and was
pleasantly surprised by the quality. The case is a very supple
smooth black leather with perfect stitches. All the stitches are
tight, evenly spaced and seem of high quality thread. It also has
the embossed Proporta logo on the front, very nicely done and very
high quality as well. The box contains the case, an instruction
sheet, the belt clip and the swivel screw for the back of the case
to connect to the belt clip. The case has that great smell of a new
leather product. You can just hold it up to your nose and smell it
all day. Quality…

The belt clip is the standard type that you can put onto your
belt with a push button release to quickly remove it without
fighting with the clip.

Standard Belt Clip and swivel screw.

Here you can see both the hole for the camera lens and where the
swivel screw gets attached. You have to remove the small plastic
screw to put the swivel in.

And here we have the swivel screw attached. It only screws in.
It appears to be ok but I have had one of these work loose in the
past and cause my phone to fall off my belt. Now I am paranoid
about it. This one seems to tighten up nicely though.

Attached to the case on the back. It seems pretty secure but I
would hate for my phone to fall off my belt. (Again)

Depress it and it will release the case.

More Details:

The case flips open from the top and has two MiniSD card slots
on the top of the case. The left side has the clear plastic which
secures the phone into the case. This is where I was beginning to
be disappointed as I suspected how this would hold the phone to the
case.

The case is held closed by the use of a small flip over magnetic
catch. The magnet is very strong and I don’t believe you would ever
have to worry about it coming loose accidentally.

The top also has the Alu referred to in the type of case
Alu-Leather. This is padded on the outside and has a fairly thick
sheet of aluminum in between the leather. It will provide excellent
protection to the screen.

Here is a close up of the interior plastic holder for the
phone.

As you can see, the case will add very little overall to the
size of the phone. Most people complain that the phone is to thick
already, This will not help them to feel any better but to me it is
not an issue. Side by side.

Side shot in the case to show thickness. Again, this is not to
thick to me. This is the left side of the phone. As you can see all
the buttons on this side are easily accessible with only the camera
button being difficult to get to. As I don’t use the camera on my
cell phone, I don’t care about that. The reset button is covered
completely. This is the velcro closure so it is not that giant of a
deal but it is an inconvenience to have to undo it to push the
reset button.

This is the right side of the phone in the case. The buttons are
easy to use on this side.

Front view with the phone in the case and it is closed. The
phone is completely covered. You have pretty good protection
overall from the normal daily bumps but I still would not want to
drop my phone in this case as the sides are exposed and
unprotected. The case closed pretty snug over the phone in this
case. The buttons must be set to not be active while the phone is
off or you will accidentally press them with the tightness of the
case at the top where it contacts the phone. In this picture the
top of your phone is as the bottom of the picture where the clasp
is.

Here the case is open to use the phone. The screen cover hangs
down and would be hanging beside your face while talking, this was
very annoying. Your choices were to let it all hang out or hold it
up behind the phone. Neither was very comfortable to me.
Additionally, you must open the case to plug in your sync cable.
While not a big deal it is an inconvenience. After market cradles
are available but you would have to remove the phone from the case
to use them. Big pain with the mounting design.

And now the part I really hated. To put the phone in the case
you slide it open and put the keyboard part into the plastic
holder. This was a tight fit.

Then you have to put the velcro tab between the keyboard and the
screen. It was a really tight fit and did not want to go. Work it
back and forth and it will slide through.

From the bottom side of the screen you pull the velcro tab
completely through and pull it tight.

Here it can fasten to the side tab to secure the phone into the
case.

Now the phone is pretty secure in the case. It would take a
small force of nature to make the phone fall out of the case. Now
this seems like a good thing but I had two major issues with this
design. The first was that the use of the keyboard is hindered in
my opinion. You lose some of the tactile feedback of the keys
because of the plastic over them.

When you slide the screen closed the second issue I had with
this design cropped up. It made the sliding of the keyboard more
difficult. The slide action is no longer smooth and easy. It
requires a small degree of force now. I really hated this because
it felt like there was undue pressure on the sliding action
now.

.

Circled in red is the area where the plastic is between the two
halves of the phone. It is very hard to see here but the very tiny
space is now completely filled with the plastic. It really did
hinder the smooth slide action of the screen. Additionally, I
noticed tiny scratched in the plastic on the case that holds the
phone. Over time I believe this would only wear more and more. I am
unsure of the long term effect of this on the sliding
mechanism.

This case has some really nice qualities. It’s build quality and
workmanship is superb and a very good attempt for this phone. I
will say I am sympathetic to the difficulties of designing a case
for this sliding screen design. It is near impossible. I think this
was a good effort but not one I am willing to use due to the issues
mentioned above. I would say if you want a good case and can live
with the pressure between the screen and the body and the keys
being covered by plastic then this is the case for you. If you want
a great case that does not put pressures where they do not belong
then I have to say, keep looking.