by It’s somewhat ironic the iPhone has made many owners less reliant on traditional means of communication like talking on the phone, instead favoring messaging, surfing, or social networking. But if your iPhone winds up glued to your ear all day, there’s a new case on the market that will have you swiping for joy.
Available in steel-black or brushed titanium, Moshi SenseCover is a portfolio-style iPhone cover combining a protective polycarbonate back with a stylish leatherette front that magnetically latches for maximum protection while closed. This hybrid design allows iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s owners to answer calls and even talk on the phone without actually opening the cover.
With wraparound protection for the iPhone 5/5s, Moshi’s SenseCover allows the phone to be used without actually opening the cover.
Moshi accomplishes this feat by embedding four proprietary “SensArray” pads into the cover’s face, capable of picking up the swipe of a thumb or finger in the same way a naked iPhone display does while sliding to unlock. It’s a pretty neat technical accomplishment, but ultimately one that’s of little utility if you’re one of those people who can go days without receiving a single phone call thanks to email and messaging.
That’s not to say SenseCover is without merit: there’s a perfect cutaway on the front to catch a glimpse of time and date, and SensArray comes in handy for dismissing alarms, too. The entire front can fold up behind the polycarbonate back, but doing so blocks the camera lens entirely and tends to get in the way of the volume and mute buttons.
There’s also the matter of the iPhone 5s and its Touch ID–enabled home button, which is completely obscured by the front of the SenseCover. We unlock our handset numerous times throughout the day, so the added step of first swinging open the front cover wound up being one too many for us.
Weighing only 26 grams, Moshi has managed to produce an attractive, feather-light wraparound cover that doesn’t add unnecessary bulk to the svelte iPhone. The package also includes optional backside buffer film with a microfiber cloth for application, which is presumably intended to keep the handset from getting scuffed up while being snapped into SenseCover, but we had no such problems without it.
The bottom line. Costly though it may be, there’s no denying Moshi’s SenseCover is a unique and stylish portfolio case for the iPhone, but its appeal is limited for those who use Apple’s handset for everything except talking.
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