Allison Johnson: Apple’s New FineWoven iPhone Cases Are Very Bad - The Verge

But FineWoven is very much not the premium material that leather is. When I popped the MagSafe wallet out of its box, I could clearly see some places where it was already showing wear along the edges. Little bits of lint immediately caught on the fabric, too. And then there’s the fingernail test.

To each their own, but I find this change to be quite un-Apple-like. Usually when Apple makes a change for moral or legal reasons, they come out with something better than before and make it look like an upgrade that just made sense. Look at their shift to USB-C this year for a masterclass in this.

With the admission that I have not gotten my iPhone 15 Pro yet, so I haven’t used this case on a phone, my initial impressions taking it out of the box was that this is definitely a downgrade from the leather case I’ve been using for years. I love Apple’s leather cases, and I think they were worth the extra money compared to similar but in my opinion inferior cases.

And this isn’t to say I love what it takes to create leather products. As far as I can remember, my phone cases are the only leather products I’ve bought in the past decade. I would just hope that the replacement for leather would be something better. As of today, I’m not convinced FineWoven will be better, but we’ll see if my tune changes after using it on an actual phone for a few months.