With Terrapin’s range of Samsung Galaxy A5 cases hitting the market at less than half of the price of the likes of InvisibleShield’s $50 screen protector, one cannot help but reinforce the practice of waiting a bit and not rushing for the first product to hit the market, especially amidst all the hype. Personally this only serves to reaffirm my long-standing belief that when it comes to electronics accessories, particularly mobile phone accessories, the most expensive option is certainly not always the best.

I would imagine a lot of people who forked out $50 for a screen protector whose edges shortly start peeling off would be kicking themselves with the knowledge that they could perhaps have rather gone with something like a wallet case, which brings to light Terrapin’s range of wallet cases. Just by the way, you could get two of these for the same price and get much better protection.

A wallet case offers much better screen protection, particularly in covering the curved edges a lot of newer phone models are coming out with lately. So if you’re adamant you want to spend $50 then you can get two different neat designs from Terrapin.

Protection

Okay, so I’ll admit I perhaps went for style more than anything as far as my choice in a couple of leather cases. I mean these look extremely good — who would have thought genuine leather could look natural in a green or maroonish colour? What I got however was a whole lot of effective protection in addition to the styling.

Simply put; a wallet case offers full protection for the screen and I suppose I can sort of understand why a lot of people seem to have missed out on this feature since they wouldn’t ordinarily expect a wallet case to offer more protection than an explicitly defined ‘screen protector’.

The protection goes beyond just the manner in which it covers the screen and fits snugly over the phone however. You get great grip (since it’s leather) and so there’s less cringing at that moment your phone falls right of your hand.

Design & Features

With a rise in the preference for mobile payments over traditional payments such as credit cards and especially cash, carrying a separate wallet to house all these other items in addition to one for your mobile phone makes for a waste of pocket real-estate. This is where the genius in the design of this case comes to the fore in that it has some good space to house some of those essentials you might still want to carry around, like one or two credit cards, a couple of business cards maybe and your driver’s licence. All are kept in place with some good quality stitching a solid clasp to keep it closed.

I guess for me it’s all about going with a reputable brand — I mean Terrapin has been around for a good ten years, so I’d say their products and certainly their range of leather cases go down more as offering affordable value for money as opposed to being viewed as a cheaper alternative than say a phone protector. Trust me — you’ll be saving your money while getting a lot more value with this one!