Review – My eternal pursuit of the perfect and simple iPhone case brought me back to one of my favorite Apple accessory manufacturers, Twelve South.Today, let’s take a look at their SurfacePad for iPhone 12.
What is it?
This SurfacePad It is a slim, MagSafe-compatible leather protective case for iPhone that can wrap around from back to front and provide 360º protection. It has two card slots on the inside of the front cover with repositionable adhesive.
Hardware specifications
- Ultra-thin protective case to protect the surface of iPhone
- Fully compatible with MagSafe with add-on cards
- Made of luxurious soft Napa leather
- Two internal pockets for ID/bank cards
Design and features
When the name “Twelve South” appears in my feed or email, there is always a smile on my face. I have been using their products since the iPhone 4 days. Their beautiful small schoolbags basically wrap the iPhone in a small book cover.
Fast forward 10 years later, the iPhone 12 is slim, almost borderless, magnetically assisted wireless charging and a series of cameras on the back. Although it is the spiritual successor to the miracle of the industrial design of the iPhone 4, I really cannot fit it in a bulky case.
Twelve South has been adjusting their protective case with the changes of iPhone, and finally launched the SurfacePad for iPhone 12.
Although the larger BookBook Still exists For modern mobile phones (believe me, despite the large number, I have carefully studied this situation in the past) SurfacePad It is Twelve South’s view on a more concise case.
The case is made of beautiful, soft nappa leather, with nylon stitching on the outside, which looks good and strong. I noticed a few areas where the stitches are knotted, which may be the end of the thread, which happens to be the area where my hand is comfortably holding the phone. I did not try to trim or melt the thread, but this is a minor flaw and may vary from case to case.
The case is almost featureless, just smooth leather, with a small logo on the front, and two volume button indicators on the side, so you can know where to increase and decrease the volume.
On the inside front cover of the case, the material leaning on the screen is soft felt. This is also the side of the housing, there are two card slots, both of which seem to have a little depth to surround the card shape.
The inner back cover has a sticky, repositionable adhesive that can be placed on the back of the iPhone.
There are some magnetic materials on the housing, just like any MagSafe housing you may have encountered. I think these are positioning magnets for MagSafe peripherals (such as chargers and brackets), so you can use them with a case. In fact, you can easily use the MagSafe charger without removing the case, and it works as well as using a bare metal.
It is worth mentioning that the casing is flush with the side of the phone, so there are few ways to protect the top, bottom and right side of the phone. But I really like this. It further deepens the impression that the shell is integrated with the phone.
set up
Apart from peeling the backing from the adhesive (Twelve South cleverly mentioned that you might want to keep it, even if you did remove and store the case) and place it on the phone, there are few other ways to set it up.
Fortunately, it is easy to peel off when you try to locate the enclosure From July Correct. The case itself is almost exactly the same height and width as the iPhone itself, so this is very obvious when the case is not completely flush with the edge of the phone.
After 2-3 attempts, I managed to do it. The adhesive is strong enough, and you really don’t have to worry about it moving or falling off accidentally. In fact, after about a week, it was difficult to peel off the case from the back of the phone.
Performance
This is indeed a minimalist case. During the evaluation period, in order to fully reflect the spirit of SurfacePad, I managed to reduce the contents of my wallet to only two cards-a credit card and my ID card. Naturally, both cards can be easily slid into the card slot, and it does not seem to increase the overall volume of the case, because the front cover has a built-in “depth”, which means that it is still the same thickness regardless of whether there is a card or not. May wish to use these slots.
I also tucked an emergency 20-dollar bill that was folded twice in the back of my ID card, but apart from this and two cards, I only brought a mobile phone case and a mobile phone, and no extra wallet was needed. I admit that my wallet is usually placed in the empty space of my pocket, and it feels like I forgot something for about a week or so.But it is liberation. I just need to remember my phone, keys and boom, everything goes well.
It’s not about you can not Still carry your wallet with you-you can put the two most commonly used cards in the SurfacePad case and the less frequently used cards in your pocket.But it does make you wonder what you are need Carry. The fact that I can not carry a wallet many times does indicate the number of things that are usually present in digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and barcode membership cards.
The card slot is quite deep, and because of the thin case of the watch, it is sometimes awkward to remove the card from the card slot. I started inserting my credit card a little less than all the way down, which helped.
There must be some NFC shield on the front of the SurfacePad. I can’t get the checkout reader to trigger a purchase while waving the box on it, which may be a good thing.
Although SurfacePad has received my high evaluation in terms of appearance, portability and wallet function, it still cannot solve the problem of using a mobile phone with a complete wrap-around protective case.
You can hold it like a book, but the cover plate is not strong enough to fix it only by the cover plate, and the phone will not fall to a strange angle. You can fold the protective cover around the back of the phone, but it will not be flush with the back, forming an acute triangle with a curved spine and the protective cover, effectively doubling the thickness of one side of the phone.
You can also hold the phone with your right hand and let the phone case hang on one side, but because of your spine, you cannot wrap your fingers around the side of the phone. There is no natural way to maintain it. You can get used to it, but I did start to yearn for a way that I can hold my caseless iPhone firmly with either hand without the extra material protruding from the side. Of course, this is a personal preference, but it made me finally give up almost all cases I have used.
what do I like
- Extremely thin, simple housing
- Attractive colors, which really match the aesthetics of the iPhone
- It may be the phone you need to carry with you!
- Still suitable for MagSafe accessories
Areas for improvement
- There are a few small obstacles at the seam, but this is very picky
- For some people, only two card slots may not be an entry point
- It can be embarrassing to hold for a long time
Final thoughts
In addition to the inherent awkwardness of using a full-wrapped phone case, the SurfacePad case is an amazing product launched by one of my favorite Apple accessory manufacturers. Its beautiful leather, minimal method, and MagSafe compatibility far exceed the small complaints I can think of.
Price: 49.99 USD
Where to buy: You can buy SurfacePad for iPhone 12 directly from the following website South Twelve.
source: The sample of this product is made by South Twelve.
