The perfect iPhone case?

I seem to have a problem remembering to bring my wallet when I leave the house, so when I found Twelve South’s BookBook case for the iPhone 4 and 4s I knew it was the solution I needed. It arrived in a very cool package and I immediatly put it to use. My iPhone is always with me, so now I can’t forget my wallet.

I’ve used Twelve South products before, so I was familiar with thier innovative designs and just plain useful products. I still use the BookArch I purchased two notebooks back.

The BookBook looks just like a small book, but when you open it, it reveals your iPhone on one side and a small wallet on the other. The all leather BookBook has a soft suede interior to protect the iphone. Its vintage distressed exterior hides its all-in-one iphone case + wallet interior. It took a few days to get used to it since I usually carry my iPhone naked and operate it one handed. With the BookBook you really need both hands, which is the only drawback…well almost.

A major oversight of the design is the lack of a cut out for the camera. The sales video on the Twelve South site shows the simplicity of using the camera by pushing the phone up with your finger and taking a photo, but in practice it’s awkward at best. Besides adding time to the picture taking process, it also results in part of the screen not being visable, making framing your shot a challenge.

So today I took the case to a local shoe repair shop and in five minutes they cut a window for the phone camera. Problem solved.

It’s somthing you could easily do yourself using a hollow leather punch, but Militello’s Shoe Repair did it for me for free.

Now that I have it done, I feel like I should have made the hole smaller as I rarely if ever use the flash. The hole I had cut is 1/2″ diameter, but a 3/8″ hole would do the trick and look a bit nicer.

Now if I can get comfortable using my iPhone with a case, I think we might have a winner. Add a few apps like Key Ring and eWallet and it could be the perfect iPhone case.

http://www.twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook_iphone/