In recent times when a new phone is released it’s a bit of a struggle to get a decent case for it for the first few weeks. The Nexus 5 was no exception as soon as I had ordered my Nexus 5 I set about ordering some cases, so far only two have arrived and they’re both from Spigen.
The two I’ve got so far are the Ultra Hybrid case and the Slim Armor case. They’re similar but quite different and the pricing is quite different too. So let’s have a look at them both.
Ultra Hybrid case
The Ultra Hybrid case is basically a bumper case with a clear plastic back panel. It easily fits onto the Nexus 5, with the phone just pushing into the case. The bumper part of the case itself is made of a solid rubbery material that flexes, the power and volume buttons are covered with a slightly softer more flexible material to allow button pushing. The backplate is made of a clear plastic that allows you to see through to the back of the Nexus, which is handy if you’ve got the white version.
In use the case is pretty solid, the screen is protected from face down drops as the rubber bumper sits proud of the screen, the buttons being flush to the bumper tend to get pushed by accident, especially the volume buttons. Which I found myself pressing every time I turned the screen off. I solved this by locking the volume controls using Audio Manager. The back of the case also has four rubber feet in the corners that add grip and stop it sliding off a surface.
Rather interestingly and somewhat peculiarly the case comes with two cardboard cut outs to fit in the clear panel. Personally I don’t like these, but no doubt if you’re a little creative you could make your own inserts.
Slim Armor case
I do like a good solid phone case and the Spigen Slim Armor case is pretty solid. On the outset it looks like it’s going to be a dual layer case and it is pretty much that. Sort of. It’s made of two layers that do separate, but you don’t need to split them to fit the case, it actually flexes to allow the phone to slot in. The inner layer is made of a softer rubbery material and the outer layer is made of a hard plastic, which on the Nexus 5 is available in three different colours, white, black and gold. Once again the back panel has rubber feet in the corners to stop the Nexus skidding around on a flat surface.
In use the Slim Armor case is pretty solid, easy to fit, it allows easy access to the ports and sockets and best of all it has some really rather nice buttons on it, which unlike the Ultra Hybrid case the buttons really feel nice to use. No accidental volume adjustment here.
Conclusion
Overall I’m impressed with these Spigen cases, Spigen haven’t really made much effort in the UK in the past and recently their cases have been easily purchased on Amazon, the nice thing is that these cases exist for other devices, I’ve just had a Slim Armor case delivered for my Galaxy Note 3 and it’s just the same as this just a lot bigger.
These cases offer a decent level of protection, especially if combined with a screen protector. You can get these cases from Amazon, here (£8.90) for the Ultra Hybrid case and here (£15.99) for the Slim Armor case.