HTC One Double Dip Flip case review

The HTC Double Dip Flip is one of two cases that HTC has released officially for the HTC One.  Retailing at $39.99, one of its key features is the ability to easily stand your phone in landscape.  The HTC One is an amazing phone but can the Double Dip Flip case match up to it?

Price: MSRP $39.99, but you can purchase the HTC One Double Dip Flip case from Mobile Fun for $22.99.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice about this case is how similar it looks to the Samsung Galaxy Flip Cover.  Like the Flip Covers, this case has a front flip cover that can easily be opened when you need to use your phone.  The outside color of the case is black and has an HTC logo etched on the front cover.   The material is mostly made out of a leather like material except for a few pieces of polycarbonate.  The interior of the case, on the other hand, is made out of microfiber and in the color red.  There are two slits in the front flip cover for the speakers and cutouts for the power button, headphone jack, micro-USB port, flash, and camera.

Protection

The phone easily slides into the case, in fact, it might be too easy.  The phone is a little loose while in the case and you can easily take your phone off without any effort.  The case does not have an extended lip so the display on your phone is exposed.  This is not an issue when the front flip cover is closed since it offers adequate protection.  However, if the front flip cover is open and you drop your phone, the display will take damage.  A lot of phone cases nowadays have the extended lip so that when you drop your phone (on a flat surface), it helps prevent the display from taking the impact.  Surprisingly, the case also offers almost no protection on the side of the phone with the volume rocker.  If you drop your phone on that side, your phone could be damaged.

Use

As I mentioned before, the front flip cover has two slits for the speakers so you can still listen to your music if the cover is closed.  However, I would like to point out that the slits only exposes half of the speakers on both sides.  The front speakers have four rows each but the slits only shows two.  Using the front flip cover as a landscape stand is very easy to do and works very well.  I really enjoyed watching videos while using this feature.

An issue that you will experience when the front flip cover is closed is that it blocks the notification light.  If you heavily rely on the notification light, this will be a major issue for you.  The only way to check is to open the cover.  You will also notice that if you keep the cover open for an extended period of time, the cover refuses to lie flat.  This is easily fixed by closing the cover and smoothing out where the cover folds.  Again, this not a real issue but more of an annoyance.

When making calls with this case, you have to flip open the cover and fold it to the back of the phone.  Doing this adds a little bulk to the phone and holding it this way also took a little bit of getting used to.  However, it was still fairly comfortable to hold and I had no issues when making phone calls.  Taking pictures or videos is an entirely different matter.  It is very awkward to hold the phone because you cannot fold the cover behind the phone (doing so will block the camera).  Instead, you have to let the cover hang down which affects how you hold the phone.  When taking pictures, I ended up taking it off since the cover was very annoying.

Final Verdict

The HTC Double Dip Flip falls flat on several places.  First of all, the phone is supposed to be made out of premium materials.  However, after using it for only a few days, the back of the case already has a crease down the middle.  The cover also seems to have several design flaws that affects both the protection and the use of your phone.  The only thing I can highlight about HTC Double Dip Flip case is its ability to easily stand your phone on landscape.  I would not recommend this case considering if you’re planning on paying full retail price, but there are some great deals out there which make the Double Dip Flip slightly more appealing.