Bamboo

It's been an anxious just-about-two-months waiting for my new iPhone case to arrive. I preordered, so I got ahead in the queue (for whatever that was worth), and a very generous discount, but because these Grove cases are mostly handmade, in a small shop in Oregon (even the aluminum bezels are anodized there), they tend to be kinda slow to manufacture. But mine has arrived at last.

(One thing I discovered, while waiting and waiting and waiting and checking for updates — patience isn't my strong suit — is how pointless Facebook really is. Grove has a Facebook page, where updates are posted from time to time, but mostly it's just short bursts of blah blah blah from customers, interspersed with people asking for information about the status of their orders and being politely told to send an email, instead. And more of the same from others who didn't get that message. I think I'll go back to letting this entire phenomenon pass me by, thanks.)

I wish there were a way to adequately describe the scent — the lovely aroma of wood, with a hint of what seems to be lemon. That must be the oil the case has been hand-rubbed with, to bring out the grain in the bamboo. (I can still smell it in my office.) The wood is otherwise unfinished (with no varnish or polyurethane coating), and I'm told it will wear it's age attractively with use.

It's very nicely packaged, too. The remainder of the wooden block the case pieces were cut from serves first as a sort of package, then can be used as a picture frame.

I have become accustomed (reluctantly) to using the iPhone without a case, though with persistent uncertainty — it's always felt fragile and delicate and small in my hands (even though it isn't, really). This bamboo case is thin, though not insubstantial, and it seems to add just enough dimension to the phone to make it slightly more comfortable to hold.



The case has been so carefully designed and manufactured that it just fits over the phone, with only friction (believe it or not) to hold it in place. The two pieces (that's the lower part, shown loose in the photo above) slide on and stay on, unless you remove them. Or, in my case, unless you place the phone in a very snug-fitting canvas case, and the added size makes it difficult to get the phone in and out, and when you try to remove it, the bottom half gets stuck. That was a disappointment (though the case I've been using was never designed for the iPhone 4 to begin with).

Which brings me to my only other disappointment thus far — the hole in the bottom of the case for the dock connector is just a bit too small to accommodate any of the dock cables I have. (I've been planning on getting a SendStation Dock Extender, anyway, but I might need to tinker with it a bit to get it to work.) The lower part of the case sides off easily, but I'm concerned that constantly removing it will inevitably lead to scratches, no matter how careful I am.

This is a very attractive, very beautiful iPhone case. It might not be the most durable (most cases are made from silicone, or plastic), but I like the warm, organic quality of the wood, and that's a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make. (And if your buttons are pushed by buzzwords like "sustainability" and "responsible," this is undoubtedly the case for you.) To be honest, it does seem expensive at $69.00 ($89.00 if you have the back custom engraved, by laser), though perhaps less so when you understand how much care went into this, and how much of the work was done by hand.