All my iPhones to date, starting with my 3GS, have lived inside a Smart Case from Waterfield Designs; my iPads have likewise lived in one of their Ultimate Sleeve cases. They are a local firm here in San Francisco, and I love their products and their service. 

When I pre-ordered my 6, the site I visited next was theirs to get an estimate of when they would have my favourite case ready for the new phone.

But there was no Smart Case listed for the iPhone 6. I reached out to them on Twitter, and it seems it will not be there for a while. They do have a number of other options, but none really appealed to me in the way the Smart Case had (and I have had 3 of them now spanning 5 years of use, so they have become familiar).

Joli Originals

That started me on a search for other options that might fit the bill. Aside from a raft of case options from the regular large manufacturers, I stumbled on Joli Originals in a review of premium cases for iPhone 5 devices and when I visited their site they were taking pre-orders for iPhone 6 sleeves.

Not local by any means (they are based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands), but I got a similar vibe from them in terms of the love they put into their products & also the fast response to a query on Twitter.

So, I pre-ordered a smooth grey sleeve with black interior (the red almost had me, but my more conservative side won out at the final moment).

I am hopeful that it will arrive by the end of this week (they tweeted that they were hoping to ship most pre-orders on Monday) & I am looking forward to seeing it and trying it on the phone.

Temporary Case

Very quickly on Friday it became apparent I would need something relatively inexpensive to protect my phone in my pocket until the Joli sleeve arrived. Our local Target had nothing that appealed to me, so I scanned Amazon. Amazingly they had a case available for delivery on Sunday (unusual), that I thought would probably work for a short time: the i-Blason wallet style case. Not my normal style at all, but I really wanted so something that would cover the glass while in my pocket. 

As promised, it arrived on Sunday (thank you Amazon Prime) and while it is not going to win any style awards, it is doing the job of protecting the phone in my pocket. Not sure how you are meant to make a call without a headset, but I rarely make calls anyway, and do prefer to use my Bluetooth headphones when I do, so I don’t foresee that being a problem).