Steve Litchfield

Unusually, for me, this case wasn't sent in for review - I sought it out and bought it and for good reason. The last few years have mostly seen me with a clear TPU case on my phones, in this case an iPhone 14 Pro Max, and usually a Ringke case with MagSafe built in. I've had about four of these, one for each year because the clear material starts to 'yellow' and look a bit tacky. It's a common issue with clear TPU, it seems - something to do with ultra-violet radiation when outside. So yes, I replace the case each year, and sized for the iPhone I'm currently rocking. Except that this time I wanted to look further 'up market'. Given that I wasn't upgrading to the 16 series (I still prefer stainless steel to titanium and I'm not convinced by the new 'Camera Control'), I had funds to invest in a top notch case. In the end it only cost me about £24, I read up about this TORRAS case and it fit the bill across the board: Being smoked black, it...

I just do not understand. Well, I do, but... I've heard family, friends, podcasters, and YouTubers all say how they keep leaving their 2023-sized smartphone behind. On a bus, in a taxi, at home when going out, in the car, and so on.  Back in the day (2004), phones were small enough that they'd comfortably fit in almost any pocket. Which meant that you rarely forgot it. In the last half decade, however, phones are now big enough and heavy enough that you have to choose an appropriate pocket and have a strategy for insertion and extraction in most circumstances. Well, maybe ladies have an edge here, if there's a bag on the go, as it were. But I contend that all of this is a problem. Perhaps a first world one, but something to be thought about, at least. Because there's a solution, and one which I've used since the earliest PDAs in the late 1990s: a belt holster. No, don't laugh (people usually do) - get past the style barrier and you'll admit that carrying a ...

The story so far... I can't live without a belt case for my PDA/smartphone/whatever. Really. I've tried, and I kept leaving it behind. And don't talk to me about pockets - these are fine when I have a jacket or coat, but I find today's giant phones uncomfortable in a trouser front pocket. I'm clearly in a worldwide minority here - maybe I'm just too slender!  So belt case it is. And my go to for the last decade has been PDAir - I won't link to their web site because it's effectively dead now. Either coronavirus or just market forces or mis-management caused their demise. Which was a great shame, since their slender vertical belt pouches were/are perfect for me. Here's an early sample, from 2013 for the Lumia 1020: Since then I've managed to get half a dozen (gradually larger) PDAir belt pouches and these have done my various Android and then iPhones right up to date. In each case, I like to have the phone in a slimline TPU case (for grip) and the...