I was never a stickler for official cases. I never understood why I would pay over the odds for something I could buy somewhere else that would probably be just as good and a lot cheaper. When I got the chance to try out the official S4 mini S View cover I thought I’d give it a try. Mobile Fun provided the case, but there’s a range of them here.
To be frank, I’ve never used a flip cover before as I thought it them a little silly – only protecting the front part of the phone was great, but it wasn’t really for the sort of person who would end up dropping the phone. I was right and I was wrong.
Hardware
As the Galaxy S4 mini is one of a rapidly dwindling set of phones that actually have a removable back cover, you merely remove the old back casing and snap the replacement on. The back feels as if it’s the same thickness as the original cover, so that in essence, you get a replacement backing and your own one can stay as a replacement.
In use
The ‘clever’ bit is that at one side, there’s a flexible flap that extends around the side and goes onto the flip part that covers your screen. As its made by Samsung, the back cover and measurements seem nigh on perfect. Attention has obviously been paid – when you see the original site, it lists the dimensions at 60.39 x 123.75 x 11mm. That’s some serious precision. It feels about 0.5mm smaller around each edge of the phone, presumably so you can easily lift the flap up with a convenience thumb or finger as you desire.
The inside of that front cover is covered in a soft felt type of material. It was a pleasant surprise to have that against the glass fronted screen instead of the harder plastic the outer cover is made of. There must be a sensor in the phone designed to work with the flip cover, because you’re now able to see a notification window of sorts, showing your normal notification icons as well as the time and date. Nice touch again for an instant watch, which is one of the reasons I take my phone out of my pocket to glance at it. This way less of the screen has to power up for something I’m only wanting to glance at.
Opening the cover activates the whole screen, shutting the cover gives you the notifications. Easy as that. The cover doesn’t do any more than that, but its a cover. How much more would you expect it to do? Take a call, even though the cover is closed? It can do that too – just swipe the answer option in the window. The volume buttons are hidden, but that’s fine too. Just press your thumb where you normally would. The flip has the markings on the side just for ease of use too.
Overall
I’m pretty enamoured of the flip. It keeps the screen protected, shows me stuff at a glance, fits perfectly and is easy to use. Would I use this instead of a full-on cover? In this case (pun intended), yes. I haven’t taken it off since I started reviewing it – its a no brainer.