[Nexus 5 Accessories] ximaginex:
Acase Superleggera Pro

vs

Spigen Slim Armor

For Nexus 5​

Prologue:

Going to have a good ol' fashion case off here for the Nexus 5. At first I was excited, thinking that I would actually take measurements and pictures, but then I remembered that I'm too lazy for that kind of stuff. Therefore, this will only be a personal comparison with color-codie goodness. A little warning that already I'm biased towards Acase because I've used a superleggera pro for my iPhone 4s (never going back to Apple) and after two years of dropping, that phone looks like its brand new (with loads of finger prints :good: ). Besides the protection, I also just love the smooth feel of matte...

Summary:

Both cases have their advantages, but personally I went with Acase.

Main Points:

If you didn't know, both of these cases are supposedly dual-layered cases. This means that these cases have two pieces to their design. Whether that actually adds to the protection and shock absorption or not, I have no idea. What I do know is that psychologically, I feel like my phone has better protection.

Superleggera Pro:

Silicone Case with a Poly-carbonate shell

Nice smooth feel but super slippery.

Example: Case face down, back up. Try to slide your hand against the back. Barely any friction or resistance when sliding my hand across.

Good enough lift in the back to protect the camera but no extra corner stands like the Slim Armor for airflow. Great lift in the front as well.

[*]Clicky feedback when pressing volume and power buttons. You can press the power button without accidently pressing the volume buttons too.

(Note: See Slim Armor main points for details)

A little Acase branding on the bottom of the back of the case.

Slim Armor:

Hard TPU with a Poly-carbonate Shell

Nice smooth feel, making it a little slippery but not too slippery.

Example: Case face down, back up. Try to slide your hand against the back. I felt resistance from my hand sticking to the case.

[*]Nice lift in the back for airflow and nice lift in the front to protect the screen.

[*]Buttons lose their clicky feedback. Big problem for me. Also had some occasional issues with locking the screen since the amount of force needed to press the power button makes you also press the volume buttons if you have your finger there.

Spigen branding on the lower part of the back of the case and on the right side. Looks cooler than the Acase branding but who cares really.

Review:

To me. dual-layer means two different layers put together to make one great case. With the Slim Armor, I was expecting silicone plus the poly-carbonate like the Acase I was already used to. As far as silicon vs hard tpu for the base part of the case, I haven't read or seen anything that sets a clear winner.

With the positioning of the second layer of poly-carbonate Acase wins here. I mean when I drop my phone it hits the corners or at least near the corners more often than it lands perfectly on its side. With the Slim Armor, the hard shell poly-carbonate pretty much just covers the side and the corners are covered only by the hard tpu. Spigen claims that there are "air-pockets" in those corners in their advertising but I don't know how effective these "air-pockets" are. Anyway, If I wanted hard tpu to protect my corners, I'd just get a hard tpu case. The Acase has all around dual-layering except for the buttons and cut-outs like the headphone slot. With the Acase I feel I'm getting the true dual-layered protection I'm looking for where both the hard shell and the silicone cover the corners for that added and padded protection.

Button feedback is another pet-peeve/preference for me. Acase, since its silicone, has perfect feedback. Easy to press down and you feel and hear that click. Spigen, no feedback...at all. Thanks to hard tpu, its hard to press your buttons down. Now I'm not saying that its impossible to press the button down but the resistance of hard tpu not only kills your clicky feedback but it also can make you squeeze your phone hard enough to press the volume at the same time as the power button.

Both cases pick up on finger prints pretty easily. The Acase can also pick up on dust, lint, etc with its silicone. Personally, I can put up with this for a better feeling case. After a little back and forth case swapping, I realized that the Acase has more lift than the Slim armor in the front Due to the thickness of the silicone at that point. The case also wraps around the edges more (something I liked) without making my screen protector peel up at the edges.

Both cases have plenty of space for the micro-usb and speaker cut-outs. However, with most cases there are issues with the headphone port. My tiny apple headphone jacks fit perfectly for both cases, however my bulky (1 cm diameter) speaker jack only fit with the Acase. Since the Acase uses stretchy silicone, I could push the headphone in at the expense of stretching the silicone a little. With the Slim Armor, there was no way to get it in without taking off the case at the top. (I will note that its easier to take the top part of the Slim Armor off than it is to take the Superleggera Pro)

Width and length are the same for both cases, however the Acase is slightly thicker. For me, this means more protection at the cost of a barely noticeable additional thickness. Both cases feel great in the hand, I just felt like the Superleggera Pro had more pro's and a better feel than the Slim Armor.

Edit:

Just got a chance to test the Acase with a wireless charger (CHOETECH Stadium) and it works! The charger isn't that special, so I'm going to assume that most chargers should work with the Acase. I still recommend you conduct your own research on wireless chargers and compare it to the CHOETECH so you can confirm that whatever you buy will work as well. I'm not supporting CHOETECH in any way, just stating the charger I used to test the ability to wirelessly charge through the Acase.