The topic of covers and screen protectors for smartphones is one of the most controversial. Users are usually divided into two camps:
- Those who deny the need for protection.
- Those who believe that the use of protection is necessary.
But there is also a third, intermediate group of those who consider it necessary to use one thing, films or covers. Therefore, on specialized forums in the topics of accessories for devices, a real battle of adherents of security against adherents of naturalness often unfolds.
Without these reflections, which prompted me to search for the case, there would be no material today about the 'friendly' case.
It is difficult for me to attribute myself to any particular group, since my position on the need for covers and films largely depends on the specific device, and first of all on how convenient this device is to use out of the box.
Samsung's Galaxy series smartphones are a good example in this regard. Starting from the sixth generation, using them as is 'out of the box' turned out to be inconvenient for me – smartphones turned out to be slippery for me. Therefore, using Galaxy smartphones as the main ones, I decided to try full-body film first, and then covers. In the end, I settled on a very thin TPU case, only needed to prevent the phone from slipping in my hand.
But the wife believes that a cover and a film for a phone are required, and it is better that there are several covers, of different colors and with different prints.
Having taken care of this issue, I decided to look for covers on her Galaxy S8, and it turned out that there are not so many offers for the flagship of the year before last.
It turned out to find either original covers with an irresponsible price tag, or Chinese noun at prices that are also far from acceptable.
Of course, you can always order on Aliexpress, but this is not only a lottery, but also wait from two weeks to two months.
Searches led me to the description of the original Samsung Friends Female Edition cases, which I will allow myself to copy from the official Samsung website (not advertising):
'' The Galaxy Friends Case brings a whole new level of personalization to the interface of your Samsung mobile device. Put the Galaxy Friends case on a compatible smartphone connected to the Internet, and you will automatically have access to an exclusive graphic set available only for the owner of the case, consisting of AOD (Always on Display), a lock screen, a special theme, and access to the music service Yandex.Music and unique playlist GF Cocktail party. The Galaxy Friends case allows you to create a magical mood thanks to the bright colors of the updated design of your smartphone 'inside and outside', as well as the groovy music of the exclusive Cocktail party playlist from Yandex.Music, which gives you 3 months of free subscription as a gift. '
Thus, we get both a branded case of an unusual color, and a unique design theme, as well as a 3-month subscription to the Yandex.Music service. Sounds good, but you need to figure out how good everything is in reality. We will order covers and check (but where and how we will order, there is a small surprise about that at the end).
So, the covers came to me in two of the three available colors.
The cases themselves are packed in very solid plastic boxes, in which they are located on a kind of plastic podium.
The box itself is a separate accessory that can be used to store something. Yes, it sounds in the spirit of 'Very Skillful Pens', but the case has a very solid packaging, I could not resist turning on the zealous owner (Plyushkin).
On one side of the package there are bulges, and on the other side there are holes exactly opposite the bulges. This is done for ease of transportation and storage – so that the boxes are fixed one on top of the other and do not scratch each other's glass. An interesting solution, I see this for the first time.
But enough about the box, let's go directly to the covers.
The covers are made of dense hard plastic, on which high-quality printing is applied. The colors are bright and the print is free from defects. The inner side is white, with a sticker over its entire area.
At the bottom of this decal is a message advising you not to remove this decal.
In places for buttons, cutouts are made without thin jumpers, which means that the cover should not deform in these places. The top and bottom ends are retracted to provide easy access to the connectors, as well as to simplify the design.
On the inside, on the left of the sticker, you can see a slight recess, under which the NFC chip is hidden, which provides the very 'cleverness' of the case, which is mentioned in the description.
On the phone, the case sits confidently, while not greatly increasing the size of the device. Yes, the plastic is not the thinnest, however, given the narrow body of the S8, the dimensions increased due to the cover remained within the comfortable limits.
Cutouts do not interfere with pressing buttons, and this is a plus compared to cases that have holes exactly around buttons and connectors, or beads instead of holes and cutouts.
Among the shortcomings of ergonomics, I cannot but mention the slipperiness of the case. He's really slippery. Of course, the phone slips less in the case than without it, but it still slips.
As for the prints, they are exclusively for women, with a big bias towards the youth audience. Should appeal to those who love everything bright, catchy. Although the watermelon case doesn't seem so flashy.
It seems to me that it would be appropriate to release the fourth version, in calmer colors, without flashy colors. In my opinion, this would expand the potential audience of customers, catering to those who like less defiant colors. But who am I to argue with marketers.
From the appearance, we move on to one of the main features of the covers – the 'smart' component. I apologize for this inappropriate word in this case, but it is difficult to say otherwise.
So, after you put the case on the phone, an inscription appears on the screen asking you to install data for the Galaxy Friends application. After agreeing with security policies, etc. the necessary resources will be downloaded to the phone, during the download of which the pictures will change, showing you possible design options. After installing all the necessary resources, you will be prompted to apply the theme, after which an item with settings for your new skin will appear in the notification panel.
The Galaxy Friends Female theme will appear in the list of themes, which will be available only while the case is on the phone.
As soon as you remove the case, the theme will automatically disappear from the list of available ones, and the default theme will be applied instead, and not the one you had before using the case.
Desktop wallpapers, icons and other content are the same for all three cases. The only thing that depends on the cover you put on is what wallpaper will be on the lock screen. So, with a 'watermelon' case, there will be a 'watermelon' lock screen, etc.
The theme itself is well-designed and contains not only the desktop wallpaper, lock screen and icons, but also other design elements.
In addition to the theme, Yandex.Music will be installed during the download process, where a free premium account will be available for a period of three months.
An interesting proposal, unusual.
By the way, you don't need to enable NFC to apply the theme. Apparently, Samsung's proprietary MST technology is used.
Now let's move on to what we were not recommended to do – let's try to peel off the sticker on the inside of the case and see what kind of chip is installed there.
We heat the sticker with a hairdryer and peel it off quite easily. And inside we are waiting for what was expected – a chip that serves as the key to download and apply exclusive themes. Pay attention to the size of the chip – it does not have an external antenna. Similar chips are now being put into modern bank cards.
However, one chip is not enough to keep the theme always on, so there is something else. Peel off the sticker to the end, and we find a flat thin magnet with a coil inside. Quite a simple but effective solution.
So, if you liked the theme and want to use it with another case, then with the proper skill and dexterity, you can peel off the chip and magnet and use them with another case, the main thing is to arrange them exactly as they are in the original case, otherwise there will be no miracle will happen.
We put the phone on a chip and a magnet, and voila!
Afterword instead of conclusion
And finally – about the most important thing, about the price. Taking into account that this is an original case from Samsung, while having additional functions in the form of exclusive content, the price tag in the official store is unpleasantly surprising.
2,990 rubles for a piece of plastic, even with the added value of a theme and a subscription to Yandex.Music, looks excessive.
Therefore, buying such a cover can be advised only to those who, well, really like the design theme, or to those for whom 2,990 rubles is not money at all.
However, if everything were so unambiguous and bad, then this material simply would not come out, since it would not make sense.
Remember at the very beginning I said that I came across a description of the case when I was just googling inexpensive options for cases in Russian retail? So, first of all, I was attracted not by the description, but by the price tag. The link led to the website of the Positronic chain of stores (this is also not an advertisement – no one pays me or asks me to write all these names of stores and retail chains). So, following the link to the Positronics website, I refreshed the page several times before I believed that the price tag was not a mistake – 20 rubles.
Yes, twenty rubles zero kopecks. This is the price listed on the Positronics website for the original Galaxy Friends case for the S8.
Having made an order, I was sure that they would call me back and apologize for the mistake in the price, or, as is usually the case, they would simply cancel the order and say that the covers were out. But no, three days after ordering, they called me and offered to come to the store and pick up my order.
I came and paid a monstrous amount of 40 rubles! and took my order. The seller at the outlet was no less surprised than mine, and when issuing the order he repeated – this is probably some kind of mistake.
As you can see, the covers are without defects, without pitfalls. The only pity is that I ordered only two, ignoring the pink one. By the way, at the time of this writing, the covers are still on the site and can be ordered. Which I took advantage of by ordering pink for the set.
Why are they still in stock? Perhaps because the description of the covers does not contain explicit specifics about what kind of covers, and most importantly, does not contain photos of the product.
Maybe that's why they haven't been snapped up yet. But I think that after the release of this article, the situation will change quickly. ?
So, if someone is looking for a high-quality, bright case with unusual functionality, you still have time to please yourself with such an exclusive little thing.