A bump in the road!
A bumper case is a sweet compromise between using the phone as manufactured and sheathing it in a figurative armour. The RhinoShield CrashGuard has done well in this space and while price is a genuine concern when purchasing it in India, it also has its fair share of issues with its width, buttons and removal. Far cry from that is the ‘Walnutt’ bumper case. Going by the different brands and prices this case is sold under, it seems to be a generic case, rather than one from a specific company.
The case was devoid of any retail packaging and instead came in a plastic zipper bag with a ‘7G(4.7)’ sticker, the ones found with most roadside vendors. While it is usually sold as a ‘Trio’ colour option, the Black variant I had purchased was a ‘Duo’ comprising of only black and grey. However, some people might be in for a surprise as the front is completely grey. This may or may not be to one’s liking and while I would have preferred it to be black to go along with the phone, it wasn’t quite the deal breaker.
The deal breaker for me then was the fact that the case isn’t at all compatible with full screen tempered glass protectors as it applies a lot of pressure at the corners. Depending on how you install the case, the tempered glass rises up and air starts filling in either at the bottom left or right.
In terms of the added width, the phone wasn’t much difficult to draw from the pocket or to hold in the hand for one-handed use. Depending on where you look, the product listing mentions the material to be flexible TPU, rubber or gel. While I am no material expert, this simply feels like cheap silicone, in which case lint accumulation might be a problem. On the plus side, the case is light and weighs in at 15 grams. All the cut-outs seem to be properly done and are easily accessible. The camera lens cut-out is actually well done for the iPhone 7, unlike how it is depicted in the product images.
If I can get by the all-grey front, I definitely can’t let go of the grey tab with the ‘Walnutt’ branding at the back. Cutting it off is not an option since it will ruin the look. I can’t understand why most brands feel the need to make the customer advertise their brand after a full-price purchase, but most often that happens to be the case. If you can live with it, then this isn’t much of an issue. Below the tab are the holes for attaching a lanyard.
To conclude, if you are on the lookout for a value-for-money bumper case, then this one certainly fits the bill since there are hardly any options available. I can imagine it fulfilling its basic purpose of preventing the phone from being dented on minor falls, though its effectiveness at larger heights or angles is questionable. A tempered glass then is a must to go along with this case but then the incompatibility of the full screen ones led me to return the case without so much as a hesitance.
