Upgrading to pleather.
Fancy.
Honestly, they should’ve been faux leather from the jump. A lot of that stuff has become pretty good over the past decade. You don’t get some of the cool wear marks, but the good stuff is really durable and looks nice for a long time. It’s not the faux leather from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
I like the feel of fine woven. Got it with my 15 pro max.
It’s aged a bit but not worn through or fraying. I did spray it with scotchgard when I first got it though which probably helped somewhat.
My wife and I were in the camp where everything just started to peel and come apart in the first few months. When we brought them in to Apple, the employees said that they were getting a lot of cases that just started falling apart.
You have to wonder how finewoven ever got out of preliminary testing. Were they always that poorly designed, or did someone change something at the last minute?
I’ve trusted the Otterbox Defender for 15 years.
I wish someone did like 100-drop drop tests with a dozen different cases. If it could be proven I could trust a thinner case just as much as:
I’d go for it. Yes, YouTubers will drop a phone a couple times, but that could be a case test or a luck test.
At risk of sounding like I’m advertising, I replaced my OtterBox with a Dbrand case a few months ago and I’ve been incredibly happy with it. I feel like it’s done just as well with my drops and it’s much thinner and lighter.
Otterbox has been tried and true for me since the old HTC Evo 3D. It’s been solid on spills and long drops. I’ve shifted to more fashionable cases but if I’m camping I’m always swapping to the otterbox.