First off photos (shown with Green Onions Oleophobic SP, and generic home button protection film):
Summary:
If you want a dark grey case that has a very elegant look you could get this one, but instead you should get the power support iPhone 5 bumper, it's the same price, higher quality and has fewer flaws:
http://pawasapo.co.jp/products/iphone/pjk60.php?category=iphone_5
Let me start off by saying that this is a very good quality case. The missing link seems to have been it's functional and stylistic design, not it's engineering.
Tragic flaw #1: The Audio Jack
While this is a very good quality case, the audio jack seems to have been designed by someone who has never used an audio cable. I own 23 different 3.5mm low medium and high grade audio cables ranging from $2 to $90 in price. Not a single one of them fit into the audio port.
I also own 15 different IEMs, headphones and of coure the Apple Ear Pods, the only headphones that fit the audio jack are the Apple Ear Pods, which most listners will want to replace.
This issue is really a direct consequence of the case being unessesarily thick and wide, which I'll get to later. The caze thin edge by comparison, which I would say is it's other main competitor and all 40+ other bumpers I've tried all fit at least 90% of my audio cables if not more.
Tragic flaw #2: Slate
Simply put it's not slate, it's too dark, unsturated, and not metalic enough. It LOOKS like you have a dark grey bumper, it just plain does not looks like the rest of the phone.
They should have added a lot more metalic material to the paint and added some pearlecent blue.
Tragic flaw #3: Thickness
One would expect the Neo Hybrid EX Slim to be slim, instead it has reduced depth but is very very fat. In fact this is one of the thickest cases I have ever seen, measuring in at 2.5mm.
When manufacturers are advertising cases that are 0.5mm thin, and most bumpers being half as thick as the Neo Hybrid Slim, something is wrong. The case is 1/3rd the thickness of the phone itself (it's 7.6mm)!
This is also the reason why all other cases have a working audio jack and this one does not.
This case as a result of the thickness also has the most difficult to use vibrate toggle I have ever seen.
The thickness is completely pointless, it provides no additional protection because it's only around the middle 70% of the band. The rest of the phone, top, bottom, and all corners and edges are 1mm thick. The phone will strike the rubber when it's dropped on an edge, and will never fall perfectly flat. I've dropped the phone a dozen times with this case by accident and it has never once hit in a position that made use of the overly thick mid-band.
This case could have easily been 1.5mm thin with smarter design. It should not have 1mm-1.5mm thick rubber all around, but instead there should be only a very thin layer of rubber in the area of the mid-band. 1mm of high impact plastic will protect that area as well as 1.5mm of rubber in the other areas.
Tragic flaw #4: Muffled Speaker Grille
The iPhone 5 made an amazing upgrade to external speaker. The Spigen Neo Hybrid EX Slim is the only case I know of that completely ruins the sound quality.
Because the inside layer of rubber just has 1 big square hollow cavity around the speakers and the outside plastic has a set of thin slots, the sound exits the speaker holes, expands in a wave in the hollow area and then hits the underside of the slots. This gives the speakers a muffled sound which is deterimental to the sound quality.
The rubber band should not have been hollow around the speakers and should have had slots cut for the speakers matching the plastic to prevent the sound waves from bouncing back to their source in hollow chamber.
Tragic flaw #5: Rubber Texture
Simply put the rubber is very matte, other bumpers use more glossy rubber which better matches the phone. The iPhone 5 uses two colors, matte slate, and gloss black. Adding matte black rubber into the mix is an eyesore.
Tragic flaw #6: Non-Color Matched Buttons to save costs
Spigen tried to minimize costs by making a standardized back rubber band with grey buttons. This really does not look good and the grey buttons are an eyesore.
The buttons should have had tiny plastic inserts or have been painted slate, they stick out like a sore thumb from a considerable distance and cheapen the design.
Tragic flaw #7: The logo
The logo is obnoxiously huge and ruins the sleek lines of the design. It should have been a third of the size, or not there at all.
Tragic flaw #8: The included Back Protector
Spigen includes it's broken dual fine protector. This is simply a square protector cut out of their standard fine material with no quality control or forethought. It lifts around the Apple logo, I have installed 5 of these back protectors so far both with wet, alcohol, soap and dry instalations. In every single last situation is lifted around the Apple logo.
This was a cheap and dirty design that is fundamentally broken and needs to be discontinued.
By contrast Spigen's Soft Matte back is the BEST backing I have ever used for the iPhone 5, it is flawless and does not lift around the logo. I hand cut it into a 3 peice design and I think the dual fine square back should be replaced with a soft square back.
Protection in it's Class: 10/10
The bumper is tight and countoured to the band which means drop forces will be evenly distributed unlike uncontoured bands which rely only pressure and only make contact with the phone on it's thin edges. The rubber is stiff enough to be protective, and the plastic around the band is very durable, resisting severe scratches even after brushing up against concrete.
Function: 3/10
The audio jack issue just can't be ignored, and was one of the defining flaws of this case.
On the plus side, the case has a rubber band which means that it will stay firmly gripped to your hand, or when laying on a table, and won't slide out of a pocket.
The case is thin, a little thicker on the back, and has a nice feel in your hand.
The buttons are also perfectly usable by any person and I have big fingers. They are perfectly responsive due to the high quality engineering.
The vibrate switch on the other hand is very hard to use, and can only be used by someone with decent sized finger nails due to the unessesarily thick case. No fingernails means you cannot operate which is unlike most other cases.
The case will not work with the 30 pin to lightning adaptor cable or many third party lightning cables.
The included matte back protector cannot be installed properly and lay flat.
The screen protector is the great ultra crystal one, which is one of my top favorites out of the 20 or so I've tried.
The external speaker sound quality is reduced as noted above.
Design: 7/10
There's a lot to complain about with the design, it's too thick, it's not the right color, none of the colors match, the logo is too big, the buttons aren't color matched and look super cheap, but in the end it's a nice clean design that above all looks elegant. There are very very very few bumpers that are both thin and elegant so that must be taken into consideration.
Overall: 6/10
If you've seen my other threads you know I'm absurdly picky. I've purchased over 60 different cases, and have a lot of criticism for all of them. In the end though like I said this is one of a very small number of elegant minimalist and thin cases out there. However, like I also said if you want a thin dark grey case, get the powersupport iPhone 5 bumper. This is a $40 shipped case and I also feel that for that price they could have done better.
The power support bumper is better in every measurable and conceivable way. Is the same price (note, it's not released in the US yet), and solves ALL of the tragic flaws of this case except for it's color, which would be virtually identical between the two - not having the same metalic pearlecent look of the iPhone 5's real slate color. The PS bumper is just a better dark grey elegant thin bumper.
My only suggestion to Spigen would be to make a revised Neo Hybrid EX Feather, which solves all the tragic flaws listed above.
Hope that was helpful.
Summary:
If you want a dark grey case that has a very elegant look you could get this one, but instead you should get the power support iPhone 5 bumper, it's the same price, higher quality and has fewer flaws:
http://pawasapo.co.jp/products/iphone/pjk60.php?category=iphone_5
Let me start off by saying that this is a very good quality case. The missing link seems to have been it's functional and stylistic design, not it's engineering.
Tragic flaw #1: The Audio Jack
While this is a very good quality case, the audio jack seems to have been designed by someone who has never used an audio cable. I own 23 different 3.5mm low medium and high grade audio cables ranging from $2 to $90 in price. Not a single one of them fit into the audio port.
I also own 15 different IEMs, headphones and of coure the Apple Ear Pods, the only headphones that fit the audio jack are the Apple Ear Pods, which most listners will want to replace.
This issue is really a direct consequence of the case being unessesarily thick and wide, which I'll get to later. The caze thin edge by comparison, which I would say is it's other main competitor and all 40+ other bumpers I've tried all fit at least 90% of my audio cables if not more.
Tragic flaw #2: Slate
Simply put it's not slate, it's too dark, unsturated, and not metalic enough. It LOOKS like you have a dark grey bumper, it just plain does not looks like the rest of the phone.
They should have added a lot more metalic material to the paint and added some pearlecent blue.
Tragic flaw #3: Thickness
One would expect the Neo Hybrid EX Slim to be slim, instead it has reduced depth but is very very fat. In fact this is one of the thickest cases I have ever seen, measuring in at 2.5mm.
When manufacturers are advertising cases that are 0.5mm thin, and most bumpers being half as thick as the Neo Hybrid Slim, something is wrong. The case is 1/3rd the thickness of the phone itself (it's 7.6mm)!
This is also the reason why all other cases have a working audio jack and this one does not.
This case as a result of the thickness also has the most difficult to use vibrate toggle I have ever seen.
The thickness is completely pointless, it provides no additional protection because it's only around the middle 70% of the band. The rest of the phone, top, bottom, and all corners and edges are 1mm thick. The phone will strike the rubber when it's dropped on an edge, and will never fall perfectly flat. I've dropped the phone a dozen times with this case by accident and it has never once hit in a position that made use of the overly thick mid-band.
This case could have easily been 1.5mm thin with smarter design. It should not have 1mm-1.5mm thick rubber all around, but instead there should be only a very thin layer of rubber in the area of the mid-band. 1mm of high impact plastic will protect that area as well as 1.5mm of rubber in the other areas.
Tragic flaw #4: Muffled Speaker Grille
The iPhone 5 made an amazing upgrade to external speaker. The Spigen Neo Hybrid EX Slim is the only case I know of that completely ruins the sound quality.
Because the inside layer of rubber just has 1 big square hollow cavity around the speakers and the outside plastic has a set of thin slots, the sound exits the speaker holes, expands in a wave in the hollow area and then hits the underside of the slots. This gives the speakers a muffled sound which is deterimental to the sound quality.
The rubber band should not have been hollow around the speakers and should have had slots cut for the speakers matching the plastic to prevent the sound waves from bouncing back to their source in hollow chamber.
Tragic flaw #5: Rubber Texture
Simply put the rubber is very matte, other bumpers use more glossy rubber which better matches the phone. The iPhone 5 uses two colors, matte slate, and gloss black. Adding matte black rubber into the mix is an eyesore.
Tragic flaw #6: Non-Color Matched Buttons to save costs
Spigen tried to minimize costs by making a standardized back rubber band with grey buttons. This really does not look good and the grey buttons are an eyesore.
The buttons should have had tiny plastic inserts or have been painted slate, they stick out like a sore thumb from a considerable distance and cheapen the design.
Tragic flaw #7: The logo
The logo is obnoxiously huge and ruins the sleek lines of the design. It should have been a third of the size, or not there at all.
Tragic flaw #8: The included Back Protector
Spigen includes it's broken dual fine protector. This is simply a square protector cut out of their standard fine material with no quality control or forethought. It lifts around the Apple logo, I have installed 5 of these back protectors so far both with wet, alcohol, soap and dry instalations. In every single last situation is lifted around the Apple logo.
This was a cheap and dirty design that is fundamentally broken and needs to be discontinued.
By contrast Spigen's Soft Matte back is the BEST backing I have ever used for the iPhone 5, it is flawless and does not lift around the logo. I hand cut it into a 3 peice design and I think the dual fine square back should be replaced with a soft square back.
Protection in it's Class: 10/10
The bumper is tight and countoured to the band which means drop forces will be evenly distributed unlike uncontoured bands which rely only pressure and only make contact with the phone on it's thin edges. The rubber is stiff enough to be protective, and the plastic around the band is very durable, resisting severe scratches even after brushing up against concrete.
Function: 3/10
The audio jack issue just can't be ignored, and was one of the defining flaws of this case.
On the plus side, the case has a rubber band which means that it will stay firmly gripped to your hand, or when laying on a table, and won't slide out of a pocket.
The case is thin, a little thicker on the back, and has a nice feel in your hand.
The buttons are also perfectly usable by any person and I have big fingers. They are perfectly responsive due to the high quality engineering.
The vibrate switch on the other hand is very hard to use, and can only be used by someone with decent sized finger nails due to the unessesarily thick case. No fingernails means you cannot operate which is unlike most other cases.
The case will not work with the 30 pin to lightning adaptor cable or many third party lightning cables.
The included matte back protector cannot be installed properly and lay flat.
The screen protector is the great ultra crystal one, which is one of my top favorites out of the 20 or so I've tried.
The external speaker sound quality is reduced as noted above.
Design: 7/10
There's a lot to complain about with the design, it's too thick, it's not the right color, none of the colors match, the logo is too big, the buttons aren't color matched and look super cheap, but in the end it's a nice clean design that above all looks elegant. There are very very very few bumpers that are both thin and elegant so that must be taken into consideration.
Overall: 6/10
If you've seen my other threads you know I'm absurdly picky. I've purchased over 60 different cases, and have a lot of criticism for all of them. In the end though like I said this is one of a very small number of elegant minimalist and thin cases out there. However, like I also said if you want a thin dark grey case, get the powersupport iPhone 5 bumper. This is a $40 shipped case and I also feel that for that price they could have done better.
The power support bumper is better in every measurable and conceivable way. Is the same price (note, it's not released in the US yet), and solves ALL of the tragic flaws of this case except for it's color, which would be virtually identical between the two - not having the same metalic pearlecent look of the iPhone 5's real slate color. The PS bumper is just a better dark grey elegant thin bumper.
My only suggestion to Spigen would be to make a revised Neo Hybrid EX Feather, which solves all the tragic flaws listed above.
Hope that was helpful.
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