I recently suffered from a dissolving backcover of my FP2, so I thought of a solution.
A friend just told me, that she was using the same backcover of her iPhone since 5 years and it still looks great. That took my interest. In her case it was the original leather case distributed by Apple itself.
I was wondering if Fairphone could think about producing a backcover for the FP2 from exactely this material. It seems to be very robust and additionally gives the phone a valent feel, which currently isn’t actually the case.
Hope I could hear some opinions and additional ideas from you to develop this idea.
My point of view:
For me and probably some other fp customers leather is a nogo, as it requires killing animals.
Usualy leather production is not very fair; lots oft unhealthy chemicals, the workers geht in contact with.
I wonder if leather is also unhealthy for the Person wearing/using it, as some oft the chemicals mit stay in the product.
A recent study testing leather shoes produced in Austria found that one pair overshot the limit for poisonous Chromium-VI by three times (9,5 mg/kg instead of 3 mg/kg).
Also a fair leather cover is probably not possible.
I guess there are different good reasons to prefer the one or the other. People, who don’t like a “Plastic Planet” might prefer metal or leather, while people prefer a robust cover might prefer plastic. This artificial leather thingy by Apple might be for those who like a certain feeling when holding their phone.
If I’m not mistaken, the FP1 had a problem with its aluminium back cover, where parts of it were dot-welded and wore off very quickly. Probably that was one of the reasons why Fairphone switched to plastic.
I personally am divided between plastic and metal. I like an aluminium back cover for the fact that it’s not plastic (or poisonous leather), but it’s almost not flexible, hence ugly dents will stay when the phone drops and hits the ground. With the current plastic cover, there are barely even scratches, let alone dents.
When it comes to material, I personally don’t need a smoothe leather-alike feeling on my smartphone. Plus, this material quickly gets scratches and that makes it look worn out rather quickly.
If a new back cover will be designed, I think it should have a higher coefficient of friction with skin. I find the FP2 quite slippery compared to other phones and hand held devices.
