Apple recently announced new FineWoven iPhone cases to replace its excellently reviewed leather ones. The review are quite negative. If you’re going to hide your new iPhone in a case in order to try to get $20-$40 extra by minimizing scratches for trade-in or resale, get a real leather case from a third-party maker.
Sarah Jackson for Business Insider:
The Verge‘s Allison Johnson wrote that the FineWoven case is “categorically terrible.”
“When we first inspected the cases after picking them up at Apple Park, Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel picked one up and ran his fingernails across it five times — and that was all it took to leave a trail of indelible scuffs on the fabric,” she wrote. “The scratches are still there a week later, no matter how many times I’ve tried ‘buffing’ it out by rubbing my finger over it.”
Carrie Marshall of gadget and tech news site T3 wrote that the case “feels more like very fine felt or the faux-velvet you get on things like cheap jewellery boxes” and was “a bit of a dust magnet.”
Some customers took to Reddit to express their disappointment.
MacDailyNews Take: A lesson Apple seems to have missed in this, er, case: If it ain’t broke, don’t “fix” it.
At Apple’s next shareholders meeting, someone should ask CEO Tim Cook how much this “FineWoven” virtue-signaling debacle cost the company in iPhone accessory sales vs. previous years when the company sold real leather cases.
Regardless, we never add weight (and heat) and deny ourselves the use of our iPhones as they were designed to be used: case-free.
Apple’s meticulously-designed iPhones aren’t meant to be hidden; naked iPhones only for us. — MacDailyNews, July 10, 2017
See also: Did Apple deliberately release ‘FineWoven’ junk in order to focus criticism on a meaningless accessory instead of iPhone 15? – September 26, 2023
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Not to defend “fine woven” anything, but it’s been pointed out that scratching your fingernails five times on a leather case will likely cause permanent damage, too.
No, of course not while you’re dumping on leather Mr. PC Leftist. NO, its not easy to scratch rugged leather with your fingernail as opposed to FILMSY FABRIC…
Geo – I’m hardly “dumping” on leather (like most folks, I have some leather coats, shoes and furniture), and I’m hardly a “PC Leftist”. That said, I will without further comments until I’ve actually had a chance to hold a FineWoven case. I suggest all those posting here do the same. (But who am I kidding? Folks here like to bash Apple for ANYTHING they do that’s better for the planet than rolling coal.)
Wish there was an “edit comment” function. Meant to type “I will withhold further comments…”
Who are you kidding? Your full post BASHES LEATHER from the get go, WriterLiar. What you own has ZERO to do with putting down leather in a NEGATIVE light. Also noted, your weaselly defense of Apple you continue in your response.
“Folks here like to bash Apple for ANYTHING they do that’s better for the planet than rolling coal.”
When Apple does something stupid, Exhibit A their latest presentation dominated by green robot virtue signaling team with a nifty new logo, to remove leather from their line of products is utterly RIDICULOUS!
Leather is a rugged natural material mankind has been using since we lived in caves. Their are 100% natural ways to tan leather used by mountain men back to caveman before manufacturing and oil was used. Please explain how not using leather is making the planet cleaner? Manufacturing and transporting these cases is not making the planet cleaner, get real.
Since your blinders are TIGHT supporting Leftist causes, I’ll explain it to you. The Leftist Vegans, Leftist vegetarians and Leftist Liberals at large abhor and firmly DENOUNCE the use of leather. Let’s ask Tim Cook and his employees if they own leather products, shall we?…
I think GoeB is having a tough day.
Well they want to be “Environmental Friendly” and Don’t want to kill animals for leather cases. Meh. Get a cheap plastic case and be done with it. Of Thought, is People are gonna put large cases on their phone, why not just make a phone that’s more durable, thicker made out of protective polymer, it’ll be much cheaper. It’s like wrapping your Expensive watch in duct tape to protect it.
“cheap plastic case” that contains oil byproducts and confounds the issue–that Apple is missing the the forest for the tree–does what?
I think it was the iPhone 11 where somebody reported that they scratch easily and suddenly everybody seemed to be deliberately scratching their iPhones to see how they cope.
Before that I think it was iPhone 6 which would bend if subjected to significant force. Suddenly everybody started bending iPhones.
Once a story about abusing an Apple product gains traction, it takes off all by itself. The real test is how products perform in the real world. If the finewoven cases prove to be prone to damage, then fair enough, criticism is in order, but resistance to deliberate damage isn’t a factor of much importance.
Apple should trust their customers to do the right thing! Apple shouldn’t be the conscience for their customers. Just sell premium products at a premium price and let their customers decide what they think is best for the environment.
Perhaps their App Store closed garden policy of “we know what’s good for you” is extending to Apple sourced accessories now.
Xennex1170,
Apples and oranges. The App Store policy is about controlling the quality of the end users experience. FineWoven iPhone cases are an ideological act that’s not grounded or guided any serious science or sound business practice. It’s Apple trying to show how righteous they are for trying to “save the planet.”
Apple uses carbon credits like Catholics used “indulgences” centuries ago. Both are “tools” employed to justify past actions deemed unclean, or unholy…while at the same time, effectively enabling (covering) the bad actions to continue.
Apple so proudly dumps leather for other options that are often oil bi-products. If the planet was their major concern, why chose a relatively “exotic” material like Ti (harder to mine/process) instead of using a more common material, like steel (more abundant, processing more pedestrian = less energy used)?
Apple’s recent commercial exemplified “holy” hubris perfectly and dripped with cringe. Who in the H at Apple thought people would be positively impressed with that piece of tripe?
Apple needs to virtue signal a lot, because it is the least virtuous company around these days, mostly because of its communist virtue signaling.
My wife’s FineWoven iPhone case on her new iPhone 15 Pro seems to be holding up extremely well. (I don’t use a case and never had since my first iPhone 3G.) True, she’s only had the iPhone for four days, but she puts that phone through a lot of “wear and tear”. It will be interesting to see how it holds up over the next year.
Thanks for a comment from someone who actually HAS the new FineWoven case. Hope it holds up for you!
Love the banger MDN posts like this
Btw, there’s another way to look at that cringy environmental skit, where ‘mother nature’ is actually a Tetzel-like manifestation of ESG policy that transmutes climate hysteria into real-world financial consequences for those that don’t pay up and play along. I see Apple now more as playing the game rather than being suckered into the climate nonsense. Other evidence being their emphasis on restoring habitat rather than just reducing CO2. Also interesting that ‘mother nature’ boasted full control of the weather/climate irregardless of what Apple was about to present to ‘her’.
This is what happens when a person (TC) becomes obsessed with an idea.
Phone case arguments are meaningless when we have 3rd party alternatives. For those of you that point to political reasons for this case not being leather says a lot about you.