I’ve got a few watch straps made from Horween® leather. It’s nice. Soft, smooth, pliable, and with a natural look that stands between classy and rugged. I thought it was time to get some Horween on a phone case. Nomad now makes leather cases in two versions, full-grain leather and Horween leather. The latter costs more, but it has that iconic look and feel to it. I decided to get a case in their “natural” color. This is a sort of light tan. I knew that it, like my other light cases, would darken with time. It certainly did, and has the rugged look you’d expect now, after using it off and on for a few months. However, the case also had some serious problems with grip that lead me to dislike testing it out.
It’s like Nomad put all their points into protection and looks, and completely forgot to make the case less slippery than a bar of soap.
In This Article:
Specs
- Width: 68.94mm
- Height: 137.92mm (about 2mm taller than most cases, for the NFT card and lanyard)
- Depth: 11.05mm
- Weight: 29g
Protection 10/10
I don’t do intentional “drop tests.” I use my own phone, my own gear, and this website doesn’t make enough money to even pay for its hosting. Drop tests? No. That said, I drop tested the hell out of this case. The why will be explained in the “Ergonomics” section below. I’ll save you the scroll, it’s a slippery case.
But I really did drop my phone in this case far more often than I usually drop my phone case. Apologies to my downstairs neighbors. Seriously, they’ve got to think I actually do drop tests up here.
Nomad says their case provides 10 feet of drop protection. It’s one of those boasts that sounds reasonable. The leather on this case is only on the back and just slightly around the back edge. The sides are protected by TPE, a dense rubber-like material that’s amazing at absorbing shock. Pair that with some air gaps, ample screen protection, protection for the camera, and added protection on the bottom, and you have a surprisingly protective case. Nomad talks about the rugged looks of their leather a lot, but the protection of this case backs up that rugged appearance.
On the bottom, there’s space for a lanyard. Nomad’s cases used to accept Moment’s lens adapters, so this would be helpful for keeping your iPhone and your phone lenses safe. Now it’s just there to make sure you don’t drop your slippery iPhone.
Unfortunately, I don’t like lanyards very much. But that additional thickness on the bottom does improve protection, and despite dropping my iPhone countless times in this case, it’s still in one piece.
Looks 7.5/10
You buy a case like this largely for its looks. Leather that will patina into a rugged, personalized look quickly draws you in. It looks good, exactly as advertised. The light color of the “natural” tone might be a bit prone to darkening, but it still looks good. Different, but still good.
The real problem isn’t the leather. It’s the TPE. While this bumper around the phone provides protection, it doesn’t look very high-end. Many other leather cases involve the leather wrapping all the way around the case and metal or metallic buttons. This has TPE and plastic buttons. The result isn’t a case that looks like it’s $70. Putting leather all around it would have made it more slippery, but the TPE, which can become discolored and cheapens the appearance of the case, really pulls down what would otherwise be a great looking product. If I put this next to one of my cheaper leather cases and asked you which one was more expensive, you’d guess the cheaper one, just because of the material choices on the edges. Someone who knows leather might recognize the quality of Horween leather, but most people aren’t leather aficionados.
The Horween leather looks and feels luxurious. The rest detracts from that, unfortunately.
Ergonomics 2/10
I’ve been holding this in since the beginning of the review. The ergonomics! First, the buttons, aka: why this case didn’t get a 0/10. The buttons are completely floating, and actually separate from the case itself. If Nomad wanted, they could even sell replacement buttons in other colors for you to swap out. They’re extremely tactile. The mute switch cutout is as large as it can reasonably be, and is one of the easier to use mute switches.
Okay, good stuff out of the way? Now for the bad.
This case is slippery. The leather on the back is incredibly smooth and your hand will slide right off. It answers the question, “What if a wet bar of soap was a phone case.” I couldn’t even get my Apple MagSafe Wallet to stick on the back very well. Nomad didn’t even lean into an advantage they have here. Since they used TPE on the sides, they could have easily added grooves, waves, anything to improve the grip on the side of the case. They didn’t. Instead, it’s a smooth matte texture that also isn’t very grippy.
I dropped my iPhone in this so many times. Sure, the case is protective, but any one of those drops could have been fatal—for my phone screen.
I had a realization: I can’t return this case. I’ve had it for months. It’s mine now. However, I also knew that it was just far too slippery to use. I would never use it again after I finished writing this review. So… how do I save it from a permanent place in the junk drawer? Silicone grip stickers might work, but they slide and I didn’t want the adhesive ruining the leather. Plus, they kind of look lousy, especially on a case that isn’t clear. So, I broke out an old cellphone case-fixing friend. My dremel tool. I used this to cut grooves into the sides and smooth them out. The end result is sloppy, but proves my theory: it improved grip substantially just to have a bit of texture on the sides. I could go back over it and clean it up better, but I proved what I set out to prove: I am good at designing cases.
Pay me, phone companies.
I don’t think you should start hacking up your cases. It’s dangerous, do not do it, I am an idiot, I should not have done this, you shouldn’t either. Still, it’s hard not to see how easily this case could have been fixed.
The bottom has a spot for a wrist strap on each side. Given how slippery this case is, you might want to use it. This area does increase the height of your phone slightly, which also may make it harder to grip. This case was only a few fractions of a millimeter wider than Apple’s leather case, and only a few millimeters taller, yet it feels so much larger. It feels bulky, in fact. I loved this case when I first looked at it. I started hating it a few hours into actually holding and using it.
Sustainability 2/10
On one hand, the case comes in a nice box. It’s all cardboard, no plastic, and features a rope pull tab on the top to open it. Nice!
On the other hand, the cattle that go into beef and leather are choking the planet, burning down rain forests, and are generally not very good for the environment.
On the other other hand (what, you only have two?), leather is more biodegradable than plastic.
And in my fourth hand, you have the TPE shell, which is not more biodegradable than plastic… because it basically is plastic.
It’s a nice box though.
Nomad says they’re carbon neutral and you can even pay an additional fee to have your shipment be “carbon negative.” Personally, I’m skeptical of these kind of, “throw money at it and it’s good for the environment” solutions. Unless you’re controlling your supply chain, cutting your emissions, controlling the waste from your products and recycling it yourself, planting trees yourself, and powering everything with renewable energy, buying some credits just doesn’t seem like a guarantee of a better planet. Could it be helpful? Maybe? Can I promise you it’s helpful? Nope. I just don’t know. For all I know, you might be better off paying $1/tree and planting a few around the world yourself. Or just planting a tree in your back yard. Swapping out your grass lawn for a garden of wildflowers and some biodiversity. All of that feels, to me, more green than flipping a switch on a checkout form.
Durability 7.5/10
The light color of the leather was always going to spell trouble. It’s just more likely to show discoloration and pick up other colors. Even the TPE around the edges can do that. But the leather still looks good. It has picked up some dark marks from a MagSafe accessory or something else, but, in general, it just looks rugged, worn. It looks like it’s supposed to after a few months. The leather isn’t fragile, it’s not so thin that a scratch will ruin it, it certainly looks nice. I think if you want it to last a long time, you should go with a darker color, but you won’t be upset with the lighter one if you expect it to age and wear with time.
Value 1/10
This case is five cents short of $70. A case that was so slippery I said, “Nope, I’m never going to use it, let’s experiment.” It was $70. Down the tube on a case with, sure, nice leather, but utterly useless since it’s so hard to hold. The leather is nice, for sure, but the rest of it is like something you’d find on any generic case with TPE. It just doesn’t feel like it’s worth the money. It’s already destined for my junk drawer, and at $70, that’s a really bad investment.
I mean, the buttons are plastic! Even cheaper cases at least use aluminum. Hell, even Nomad’s cheaper case uses aluminum! Come on, guys. This was pathetic. It really tainted their brand for me.
MagSafe Compatibility 4/6
The MagSafe strength is average, and it has the vertical alignment bar. That scores it a 4/6 on the ol’ MagSafe ranking system.
In my experience, the only thing that was a problem was anything that had to stick to the back. My Wallet would slip right off. It’s just too smooth. I certainly didn’t consider, “A case that’s too slippery to even work with magnets” when I designed that MagSafe ranking system. But, really, if this scoring was a bit more subjective like the other scores in this review, it would be like a 6/10. Works for charging, but your wallet won’t be secure on the back.
Other Features
Nomad’s cases come with a hidden feature: digital business cards. Through a partnership with Popl, there’s a small NFC chip in the case. This allows someone with a phone that includes NFC (most cellphones these days) to simply tap the back of your case and get your contact information. Popl’s service lets you upload photos, information, links to websites and social networks, and more. It’s handy for swapping trickier to exchange information, or when you want to swap more than one piece of information. It works well, I was able to test it with my iPhone and Pixel 5a. Both were able to pick up on the tag in just a few seconds and open a website with my info on it.
The case also has an extended bottom with loops for a lanyard. It has a space on each side, so you can put a left or right handed lanyard on it, or a longer loop that you could use to wear your iPhone as a crossbody.
Nomad’s cases used to have an adapter for the Moment lens system, but they removed that for the iPhone 13 series. It’s a shame, more cases with this system means more choices in case, since Moment’s aren’t what they used to be. Although, at the same time, Moment’s Horween leather case is a slippery bar of soap, and who wants their expensive lenses on something like that?
Overall 3/10
I hate that I hate this case. I love the look of the Horween leather, but the rest of it? It’s just too slippery to be useful. Nomad has serious potential here, and just wasted all of it. It’s crazy expensive for how useless it is too. All it takes is some slightly dry hands, and your phone is falling. So many of the scratches on the leather on the back were from me losing my grip on my iPhone, having to catch it with my hand, and accidentally digging in with a fingernail. It looks great, and the other items in my junk drawer will attest to that. Something that costs $70 should be more than a piece of quality leather slapped on a mediocre (if I’m being kind) case. There’s no reason Nomad couldn’t have made this case more grippy. Even their cheaper “Sport” case has more grippy sides! Nomad has the molds to make a better case, they just haven’t. I thought they might have learned and made the iPhone 14 version different, but it’s the same as the iPhone 13 (much in the way the iPhone 14 is basically an iPhone 13, am I right?).
This is a great looking case. But outside of the leather, it doesn’t feel high-end. It doesn’t feel like a $70 case. It feels cheap. It doesn’t even feel like something you can safely use every day. I don’t even want to recommend their new, cheaper leather case because that one has the same TPE bumpers and might be just as slippery. Nomad could have fixed this problem with a case design that was made for grip. Instead, they slapped some Horween leather on a lousy case and called it a day. I’m really disappointed in them for that.