The 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the first iPhones to be sold alongside cases that are FineWoven rather than leather. Apple asserts that its new custom fabric is a "luxurious and durable microtwill" with a more suede-like texture to the reverse in order to protect the device it is designed to hold.
However, it now seems that the new apparently permanent replacement for animal-sourced accessory material may not be as sustainable as Apple insists. FineWoven iPhone cases are now available for a premium US$59 price - yet have already earned the stark epithet of "very bad" from The Verge.
The publication's reviewer Allison Johnson has gone so far as to describe the accessories as "categorically terrible", asserting that The Verge's example was "already showing wear along the edges" and responded poorly to a "fingernail test", exhibiting possibly permanent marks and scuffs.
Equally early findings from Unbox Therapy might corroborate those observations to some extent, while a "stain test" on the part of Kevin 'The Tech Ninja' Nether seemed to indicate that it might be advisable to keep peanut butter further away from the new FineWoven cases than their leather predecessors. Those detractors pale in comparison with others from MobileReviewsEh or Davis Fang, however.
Even the case's own webpage concedes that the fabric "may show wear over time", and that "interaction with MagSafe accessories will leave slight imprints", which is ostensibly just fine by Apple.
Meanwhile, consumers who also claim to have bought the cases have reportedly taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction with them, posting remarks such as "feels more like a $10 cheapo case from Amazon rather than Apple-quality, especially at this price point", "just subpar" and, simply, "received and returned" in one case.
Much of this feedback generally seems to imply a consensus that the FineWoven-made cases are not worth their leather-equivalent price-points.