Woodback Snap cases by Coverup Review

Woodback cases by Coverup

If you know me you'll know Im as passionate about my tech as I am about nature. So when a new company called CoverUp contacted me and asked if I would like to see their NEW Woodback cases, I jumped at the chance as I adore the beauty of wood and love anything handmade or crafted; so to be able to have it combined with my tech is a perfect combination for me.
I chose 2 completely different woods that Id never heard of and arnt they just beautiful.

"Made by hand designed by nature"

CoverUp specialize in designing, creating and supplying custom made accessories for tablets, phones and e-readers.

See my fully photo-loaded review of these gorgeous cases after the jump.


I cannot stress to you how much it means to have nature literally in my hand; I also love supporting new companies who hand finish their products to such a high standard.

 Click them to go fullsize for the woody macro detail!

Packaging

I knew I was going to love the cases but I was even more surprised at the green packaging which was biodegradable...even down to the boxes they are thinking of the planet.

Both my cases arrived extremely well packaged in a really firm envelope, so you can get these sent as gifts no worries.

The back of each box has a basic explanation of what wood you have chosen and how they are crafted from real wood...no plastic laminate fakes here.

 Inside each box is your case and a card explaining about the wood and how its made, these would make awesome gifts.

Carpathian Elm and Black Limba

Description

I chose Carpathian Elm and Black Limba cases for my Samsung S4 as its so beautiful to show complete opposites of the real beauty of the wood.

How are they made - The manufacturing process!

Ill set it out briefly but you so need to appreciate the work that goes into making them.

1. The wood is originally bought in from their sustainably approved supplier in large sheets.
2. They then apply special adhesive backing and cut the wood to the exact size with their laser.
3. Before they sand and finish it by hand.
4. They apply a few coats of the finish which has to be allowed to dry completely in between before they can be packed too. (This can take a few days).
5. They then manually set the wood panel into the polycarbonate shell and package the finished cases in a cardboard sleeve; which is also laser cut in-house.

 The work they put into finishing the wood  means that you should rarely ever need to clean or wipe your case. The wood is fully protected from dirt and watermarks. My first concern was how would I clean them so no worries here!

The Carpathian Elm Woodback snap case

I did some digging "pun intended" to find out where these trees originally come from and what they are best used for.

The Carpathian Elm comes from the Carpathian Mountains in France so your getting something special but the name reminded me of the boat Carpathia who picked the survivors up from the Titanic.

I really loved the intricate knots holes and I adored the coloration of this wood. The knot holes are called burls and are highly prized for veneer production and are typically used in high quality wood working, automobile interiors and high class furniture.

Now its protecting my phones isn't it just gorgeous!

 Just look at its incredible detail and EVERY case will be different, this is REAL wood so you will get unique, natural real knots and swirls on no other cases.

The second case I received was Black Limba a paler wood

 Black Limba Snap Case

Black Limba is an exotic hardwood wood...say that 10 times after a drink or 2. The most famous use was when it was used by Gibson in producing their now famous and highly sought after Flying V and Explorer guitars in 1958.

Also commonly used for table tennis bats because of its flexibility and it was thought to enhance top spin play.

Build and fit

I have to say these cases fit beautifully, I have a complete collection of snap cases for my phone...it maybe a slight addiction. My S4 has its own wardrobe...am I going crazy...maybe but my phone looks good lol.

The inner part that touches your phone is made of polycarbonate, its smooth and flexible, but certainly not too bendy; its just enough flex to completely encapsulate your phone safely.

 Both ends of my phone are exposed to easily charge or add earphones.

Here you can see how neatly the volume, on/off button holes have been cutout.

They are all super smooth with no rough edges.

Im really impressed with the protection around my camera and speaker holes. Im sure you know my rant about the camera sitting proud on the "back" of my phone...really Samsung...you should know better.

This hole is now fully protecting my camera and flash when I want to lay it flat on a table or uneven surface.

The camera, flash and speaker hole has a depth of over 4mm.

 

All I can do now is show you just how stunning both cases look on my phone; they completely sell themselves.

 Click them to go fullsize for the woody macro detail and the quality of the finish and stunning natural beauty of the wood.

 I know I got carried away taking photos...oops.

Opinion

I think you know Im absolutely in love with these cases; if you love nature and appreciate the beauty and the uniqueness of wood; you will love these cases.

They are unisex as anyone would be proud to own one of these, they fit well, add substantial protection as Ive actually knocked my phone twice on our stone floor since I was testing these out and it was fine....phewey!

My camera lens now has adequate protection with the 4mm edging around lens and flash preventing any scratches and damage when lying on a surface.

They are light and smooth but not too smooth they keep slipping from your hand, they feel substantial but still have a slightly more than a "barely there" feel. I personally like to have my phone enclosed to feel confident its protected.

Cover-up offer an incredible variety of gorgeous woods for most popular makes of device check them out here. Im gutted I dont have an ipad at the moment as that would look just stunning! 

Different shades, textures and patterns all produced in the factory of nature and you will be the only one to have that design in the world; what an affordable special gift!

Checkout the whole range of Woodback cases

 HERE

from £16.95 to £19.95

Skins are also available if you prefer the barely there feel, they simply stick onto the back of your phone using the latest 3M (sticky) technology.

These range from

£12.95 to £14.95

 All my thanks goes to lovely girls at Cover-Up for kindly sending me these samples to show you.

All my views and opinions are my own.

Xtreme Blue Audio Bluetooth headphones with Mic & Mobile control Review

Xtreme Blue Audio Bluetooth headphones with Mic & Mobile control Review

Hi everyone I have another great product from Rebelite to show you. A fun colourful pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Rebelite is one of the largest distributors of cellular phone / Tablet Accessories in The United States. Since 1999 and have served millions of shoppers worldwide. They are successful because they focus on you - the end user. It's all about manufacturing world class gear for today's tech savvy end user.

Over the last few weeks Ive brought you a few products from the lovely guys at Rebelite. Ill link them all below.
So Im excited to show yet another brilliant gizmo for your devices so you know the drill just click after the jump and you'll find my full photoloaded review or scroll down a bit more for the video.

Packaging

I say one thing for Xtreme they have nailed their packaging, its strong for those overzealous postmen and its intriguing making you want to know more about whats inside. Plus lots of info on the back.

In the box you get your gorgeous headphones, a charging USB cable and instruction sheet. After-all you don't need a booklet its so simple to use.

Note; This does not come with an auxiliary cable so you must make sure your devices have Bluetooth to be able to use these gorgeous headphones.

Description

So what do you get for your buck? These Xtreme Blue Audio headphones are Bluetooth giving you hands free technology to listen to streamed music, play games and even make calls without any annoying cables.

On getting this out the box I have to say it has a lovely substantial weight to it, some headphones can feel cheapy light but this has a luxury feel to them.

I also love the accent colours you get with these headphones for those of you that don't like full on bright block colours you may like these as they offer accent colours on the headband and on the wire mesh of the headphone itself. I adore this pink, its girly but still has the quality look and feel about it.

You can also get it in Yellow, orange and neon blue fantastic bright colours that give these headphones a super fun edge to them.

 Okay lets start with the headband it has a lovely padded pink pvc leather thats really squishy and oh soooo comfortable.

Maybe you can see here the depth of squishiness it has. So for those of you like me that often game for hours you've no worries of uncomfortable headbands that dig into your skull and leave you with a center parting in your hair that you had not planned.

 To make it even more comfy the headband is completely adjustable with a smooth metal ratchet to fit you.

Both earpads have super cushions for extra comfort and I mean xtra, xtra comfort they are gorgeous. Smooth pvc leather and super squishy as I show you in my video.
 A slight thing for me is that the earcups don't swivel to fit horizontally to the head, they are fixed to the band. They fitted fine for me and I didn't really notice that they don't swivel, it could be a problem for people with smaller heads. If you need this extra swivel ability you would end up paying quite a bit more on high end headphones.

The earphones themselves are both clearly labelled left and right; most labels are so tiny you have strain to find them.

NOTE: I have had a few queries from some of you asking if it really matters if you wear them on the wrong way round.

Well yes it does; especially listening to recorded live bands, as the sound is staged by recording engineers who attempt to place the instruments in certain way for the best sound. Drums maybe slightly off-centre, vocals could be to one side, strings at the back, guitar forward and central you get the idea. 

In particular gaming as the sound effects are fed into your ear as you walk past something loud, a car explosion for example this would sound in one ear to make it more real. Hope this helps explain it....but just try it yourself to hear what I mean, just don't complain to me, if you keep getting shot playing Call of Duty.

One of my favorite memories was listening to Just an Illusion by Imagination on my "Walkman" amazed by the music traveling from one ear through my head to another ear and back again. I was "Lost in music"...eep yes I am that old...! Imagination was a band in the 80's and a Walkman was like an MP3 player or Ipod and it had a tape which was like an SD card and batteries that you had to replace and buy from a shop, you know the internet with bricks...... oww, just Google it.

 Back to the Blue Audios; both earpads have been cleverly designed using the black ABS plastic accented with your colour choice on the metal mesh in my case pastel pink.

  One earpad has the Xtreme logo printed in the centre.

 The right earpad is where all the action happens, it has the buttons very cleverly designed into the earcap itself. So from a distance it looks like just the design.The central hole is for an LED which either flashes red or blue for charging or pairing. See my video footage.

 The on/off and accept calls button is easily accessible with your fingers.

 The other buttons are + and - volume and fast forward and rewind track, these are easy to get the hang of.

Underneath the buttons on the same right earpad is your charging port and if you look carefully the microphone hole for calls.

Charging

Charging, Pairing and Bluetooth

The headphones only took a few hours to fully charge and the LED glows red till charged then turns off.

I show you guys in my video how easy it is to connect to Bluetooth. But to give you a brief rundown;

1. Hold the on/off button for 5 seconds to turn the headphones on; it bleeps and flashes blue meaning its looking for your Bluetooth signal.This is an instant pairing button.
2. Turn on Bluetooth on your device (phone, tablet, PC or laptop), you will see a code #51421 come up, just press the scan. I wasn't asked for any passwords.
3. It connects almost immediately. Your ready to Rock!!
4. Once paired you only ever need to turn on Bluetooth on your phone and then turn on the headphones it immediately connects, this is super cool as its so fast. No more fiddling on your phone to connect devices...brilliant!

They say in the instructions the Bluetooth range extends up to 33 feet; but it goes quite a bit further to almost 40 feet..with nothing in between and outside; but it also still continued to play music when I left my phone upstairs, then I went all the way downstairs and out into the garden which is quite impressive, especially in out cottage which has super thick walls. So it should easily go the distance in a more modern home; depending on your electricity and wifi setups which can sometimes interfere with signals.

Checkout my video review too and get to see them, then you get to listen to me ramble on rather than read my rambles lol.

Sound

I have to say the sound on these headphones has a gorgeous balance between trebles and Bass and even bass lovers like me will really enjoy using these. I have been gaming using these and the atmospheric sounds is perfect and a good test is when Im getting lost in World of Warcraft and barely noticing that I am wearing them, the explosions, fighting and voices are nicely realistic making these a fantastic all rounder.

Opinion

Alter tracks and volume and answer calls all by just touching the earpad...cool huh!; so you don't even need to get your expensive phone out of your bag or jacket to control your music.

The small but responsive microphone allows you to make calls over your phone or SKYPE etc, and its fantastic for gaming.

Inside are 40mm drivers that deliver gorgeous Bass, something I really wasn't expecting from such a lower cost headphone. Plus the mid, highs and trebles are balanced brilliantly giving a great sound experience whether listening to music, gaming or chatting to your Mum.

Plus its super comfy soft ear cushions and adjustable band gives you long hours of wear without any discomfort.

WALL-E approved; dont they look good on him!

I love these, not just the great sound but really love its stylish design too, the bright colours are not too in your face but enough to give them a fun look. Fantastic affordable gift for anyone who loves their music and gaming.

Pro's

• Great fun bright design.
• Good balanced sound.
• 1 button Bluetooth pairing.
• Noise cancellation.
• Lightweight.
• Super soft and padded.

Con's

• No Auxiliary port or cable but this would add to the price.

You can buy yours from Amazon.com
Here

GET 5% off

 anything from the Rebelite catalogue on Amazon.com

Using my Rebelite Promo Code; 

9MTS6FSR.

Checkout my other Rebelite Reviews
 Extreme Watershow Bluetooth Speakers
Xtreme Blue Audio Talk &Walk Bluetooth, noise canceling Headphones, 
 WAVEstream Bluetooth Soundbar
Xtreme fashion stylus pen

Lost in Music with my headphones again,
"WALL-E bring them back I need them!"


All my thanks goes to the lovely guys at Rebelite for kindly sending me these samples to show you.
All my views and opinions are my own and I have not been paid for this review.