HTC One (M9) Dot View 2 Case Ice Review After 3 weeks. Is it good?

coltonpan · May 7, 2015

Hi guys! This is not a detailed review. Rather, it is more like my view on the Dot View case after 3 weeks of continuous usage.

For those who's interested on the overview of the case. Please go to YouTube and watch MKBHD's overview here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ircZoqveuA I personally got pumped and bought the Dot view case because of the generally positive review of the video.

Let me say this first. It was cool and all good at first, but I started to see some issues and potential problem for the future.

These points are not included in the video from MKBHD

The Good part

I like to play Spotify music when I drive. I noticed that when you close the case while playing music, you can control the music without opening the case by swiping right or left and swiping up and down to pause or play the music.

Also, after you pick up the call, you can swipe up to get into speaker mode and swipe down to exist speaker mode.

When the phone is in idle and no notification. Double tap to wake the phone and wait for about 1-2 seconds, it will show you your most recent call history. You can call from there by swiping up on the left side of the name of the contact.

The Bad part

The dot view (when the case is close) is literally not useable under sun light. You can't see anything. NOTHING.

One hand use becomes very hard. Because the way the hinge works, it wants to close the case every moment. You literally have to use your fingers to intentionally hold on to the case door. However, I do understand that a case with a door (not even sure if that's what you call it) would certainly make one hand use a little harder. But this is just way too annoying even compare to other case with a door.

Hinge becomes weaker and weaker. The hinge was very strong at first. It closes firmly when you releases the door. But only after 3 weeks, I can tell that it doesn't close as firmly as before. When I hold my phone and tilt it a little, I can see the door opens slightly.

Also about the weak hinge. The essential function for a case is to protect the phone right? I once dropped my phone, it wasn't facing down at first, but it bounces after it hit the floor and flipped. During the flipping, the door opened and It turned out to face down and hit the floor a little bit without the protection of the door. There was no screen scratches or anything, however, there was a little scratch right next to the top speaker grill.

I did a few other test drops on the carpet and found that if the phone was facing down in the first place, the door WILL open and result in a direct hit to the screen. It can be worse then you would think. You might think that any phone with a regular case facing down is going to scratch. However, regular cases often has a bump that raises above your phone's flat level to protect it from face down drops. The dot view case doesn't have that.

The back is clear and it is extremely easy to scratch on. I even thought if I had forgotten to take off the plastic film. Before ever dropping it on the floor, it was scratched by something I don't know. I put my phones on my right pocket without any other stuff. Key scratching would not be the issue here.

It gets awkward when putting your phone into your pocket. Because the door's material, when you pull your phone, you would pull your pocket out too. It's sort of sticky and it gets your pocket all stick up to it. I don't really know how to explain it.

Your screen would get this door-print. You know how finger print works right? When you close and open the case, you'll see the dot-patterned door's "fingerprint" on your phone. It's not a huge issue though.

Okay. Overall, I thought the case was pretty cool but I'm planning to get a new case to replace this annoying case now.