I received the PDAir case (
PDair Leather Case for HTC Evo 4G - Flip Type (Black) by PDair - PDair.com) two weeks ago (June 18) and have had it on my Evo ever since. It arrived in a small, nice-looking cardboard box that contained the case, the removable belt clip, and a bonus gift of a leather keychain. The outer packaging was a padded envelope with actual postage stamps from Hong Kong and a sticker from customs.
Pros:
+ Evo slides into case easily but is retained snugly. Will not fall out in normal use. (If you hold the case upside-down by the fastener and shake it, then it obviously will fall out.)
+ Protects the Evo from damage if dropped. I haven't dropped it yet, but it's clear my device is nicely swaddled front, back and edges in material that is firm but shock-absorbing.
+ Has slots to carry credit card, business cards or ID. (I never leave the house without my PDA, and really like having a business card with the Evo in case a good samaritan finds it and a spare credit card in case I forget my wallet.)
+ Professional-looking black leather.
+ Has a belt clip which I haven't tried. (I will test if anybody is interested.)
+ Camera lens is fully protected when case is closed.
+ Headphone jack and Volume buttons are accessible with case closed. Rear speaker and microphone have cut-outs. USB and HDMI ports are accessible simply by undoing the bottom fastener. Power button is accessible by flipping open the lid, which also reveals the screen.
+ Case lid, when flipped back, can be used as a kickstand to hold up the Evo in portrait orientation with screen tilted at a nice angle. Very stable equilibrium; Evo can be jostled up to 30 degrees before it falls over. (Built-in kickstand does not prop up Evo in portrait.)
+ Leather lifts the Evo off any surface you might set it on, such as a wet countertop, and protects it from spills that spread towards the Evo.
Cons:
- Screen is framed by leather, which means you cannot slide your finger off the edge of the screen. At first this inhibited my use of the Swype keyboard, but after a couple of days I got used to it and it doesn't bother me. A better design, however, would be a clip that grips just the middle portion of the screen like PDAir did with the HD2 case -- not sure why the Evo case isn't the same. (See HD2 case at
PDair Leather Case for T-Mobile HTC HD2 - Flip Type (Brown) by PDair - PDair.com).
- No camera lens cutout, so to take a picture you fold back the lid to the second crease. Not hard to do. On the plus side, this means the lens is always protected when not in use.
- No cutout for the kickstand, which is not usable while in the case. Case can hold the Evo on edge in landscape, but screen is vertical rather than tilted back. Built-in kickstand is better for landscape, but you merely need to slide the Evo from the case if desired.
- Fastener to close the case is attached to the back and magnetically snaps into a little button on the lid. My previous leather flip case (for another device) had the fastener attached to the lid with the snap on the back, which made opening the lid a single smooth move: grab fastener, and use it to lift up the lid.
Verdict: I'm glad I bought the case, and I will keep it on to protect my device for the foreseeable future. The Cons are not negative enough to make me shop for another slightly-different case, but if this case needed replacement I would consider alternatives.
