Tue, 26 Feb 2013 Sena Creativo case for iPhone review

The Sena Creativo is a pouch-style case for iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 and 4S that is ultra stylish yet offers robust protection.

Most iPhone cases are a compromise between protection and usability. What isn’t covered up is not as well protected as that which is clad in a more robust material. See: iPhone case reviews

At one end you get thin silicon skins that protect from scratched and light knocks but do little with a major crash or crack. At the other there’s the bullet-proof, military-grade case that promises to survive a nuclear attack.

The Creativo, from luxury-leather case maker Sena, offers a hallway house in one of the most stylish pouch-type cases we’ve yet seen for the iPhone.

Handcrafted from fine Italian Napa leather the slimline Creativo looks ultra stylish and still offers light but rigid protection.

With a soft velvet lining the case keeps the iPhone snug within the harder but luxury shock-absorbent padding. There’s a full top flap to cover the upper part of the iPhone’s screen. This closes with a reassuring magnetic clunk.

Its feature cutouts are away from the norm of phone cases. At the front there’s a single, lower window that allows the user to slide to awake the iPhone and see the lowest row of app icons.

So you can slide to answer and end a call without having to flip open the case, and even see the caller’s name by flipping up the magnetic closure.

There are cut outs for the speaker (although half of this is covered you can still adequately hear the ring or audio but it’s not 100% by any means), Lightning charging port, and headphone jack for play-thru functionality.The microphone is covered but, in testing, this didn’t muffle my voice to callers.

You can wake the iPhone from sleep with the top On/Off button through the leather cover but you can’t use the Home button, so you’d need to remove the phone from the Creativo to use Siri, for example.

A pouch-type case is a compromise because you can’t use the full screen or all the features while it’s encased. It does, however, offer far better protection than more immediate iPhone cases.

Personally I prefer to be able to whip out my phone and have full use of its features, such as camera and touch screen.

If your iPhone is mostly a call-based phone and apps etc take second place for most of the day then this stylish pouch case may well appeal to you.

If you’re happy with the compromise there’s few better-looking executive-style, protective iPhone cases.

The Sena Creativo is available in black, brown or red leather, at a price of US$39.99 plus $9.99 international shipping, which works out in total (at the time of writing) to be around £33.