iPhone 5 design tweeks

Since the release of the iPhone 5 we have been flat out developing our new bamboo case. We managed to get the fitment of the case sorted pretty quickly but as usual the main time consuming challenge was the fine tuning, in particular getting the ratio of strength and size of the case correct. Our aim is to create a cases that will survive everyday wear and tear and have a good life expectancy but also be as sleek as possible to try and avoid ruining the refined design of the device itself.

The last specific challenge we were up against was related to the holes in the bamboo case around the speaker holes on the device. As aluminium (the material used in the construction of the iPhone 5 housing) has a higher tensile strength and is less brittle because it is not an organic material the strength is equal throughout the material. Basically you can create smaller holes and closer together in Aluminium than you can in Bamboo without causing structural weaknesses. This is partly because of the material strength itself but also because of the manufacturing techniques used to create such holes as seen in the housing of the iPhone 5 over the speakers in the device. Taking this into consideration it was virtually impossible to replicate the same amount of holes in the bamboo case as in the housing of the iPhone 5. The solution was to reduce the number of holes and increase the spacing between them. However we found this meant that the sound was impaired slightly as the holes did not align perfectly.

So back to the drawing board we went and finally we came up with the perfect solution. We decided to cut two larger holes, one around each group of speaker holes on the bottom of the device. This not only eliminated any weaknesses in the case but also meant there is no sacrifice to the sound quality when the bamboo case is fitted to the device. That being the last problem to resolve in the design we are not getting the cases into production and they will be available for you to purchase soon!