Last week I received Case-Mate’s “Slim Folio” case for Samsung’s latest phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Cases to my liking have been hard to come by for the Note 3 so far. After using the Momax case on the Note 2 and then the Belkin Snap Folio case, I wanted something that protected both the front and back of the phone without having a popper on the front of the case which meant pressing on the screen to close the case. I also quite enjoyed being able to use the case as a stand. The Case-Mate Slim Folio case is the first case for the Note 3 that comes very close to ticking all the boxes.
Upon receiving the Slim Folio case, I noticed that the phone didn’t sit in the case as you would expect. Instead Case-Mate have used a technology called “SmartGrip”. It’s basically just an adhesive but, strong enough to keep the phone secure. The SmartGrip adhesive technology has been designed so that it is also reusable, you can take your phone off easily and put it back in with no problems and it doesn’t leave any residue on the case.
When you take the case out of the packaging, the SmartGrip technology panel has a clear plastic film covering it, which can be reapplied if you take your phone out of the case. After using the case for a few days, it lives up to Case-Mate’s claims that is is reusable and leaves no residue on the phone.
The stand aspect of the case works well and for a phone the size of the Galaxy Note 3 it’s a very handy feature. The Case-Mate Slim Folio case offers a faux leather texture which feels nice to hold and doesn’t add much bulk.
There were a few niggles I had with the case however. As soon as I noticed how the Note 3 sat in the case, I noticed that it meant there were no sides to the case. This leaves the Note 3 unprotected along one side and at the top and the bottom. While many won’t have an issue with this, I prefer my devices to have just that little bit extra protection to keep it looking like new. As I look after my phone though it shouldn’t be too much of a problem and to many, won’t be a problem at all. The second issue I had was also a tiny issue as well. If you need to take the back off the phone for any reason (battery pull, sim card change etc) it’s not that easy to remove the back cover while it’s attached to the case. It isn’t impossible though and the case does remove really easily but, it is something worth considering.
There was only one more problem I encountered and unfortunately it is a bigger issue than the previous two. As this case shuts by a magnet rather than a popper, it can interfere with the S-Pen. Along the right hand side in the middle there is a small spot where the S-Pen input isn’t recognized and near that spot the S-Pen goes a little bit “wonky”. My attempt to draw straight vertical lines shows how the S-Pen becomes unaligned in this particular spot near the magnet.
Overall however, I am very happy with the case. Despite the S-Pen being one of the huge selling points of the Note 3, I don’t use it all that much so the unalignment of the S-Pen hasn’t been too much of an issue for me and I had in fact used S-Note a few times before noticing this problem.
The Case-Mate Slim Folio case retails for £29.99 and can be bought here.
Mark Ray
Jan 15. 2014
Nice case indeed, but still reckon Spigen S View cover is by far much better than case mate one, and it’s cheaper as well.