Dot Flip Cover Case for HTC One (M8) - Grey

As alot of reviews appear to be mostly negative, I will try to balance it out with my thoughts!First I'm pleased to see Amazon and others follow suit in a much lower price point than the original RRP of £35.After the frustration of trying to find one of these cases in another color than "grey", I've finally got my hands on a purple and the blue case. I have to say that they are both high quality in both the packaging and the product itself. The case looks far more premium than most of the cheap and cheerful cases you can easily find around the web.As I have a gun metal (grey) HTC M8, both colors of the case certainly compliments the phone itself whilst providing neat features and of course the protection!I haven't had a problem with the obstruction of the case during use, yes the case snaps closed when it's not in use which may not be easy for certain uses but I feel more comfortable that this is the purpose of the case in the first place.The benefits of the actual "dot view" are more of a style/gimmick but provide a painless and swift way to see the time, battery percentage and the tap to view, answer/reject calls or dismiss the alarm is also a great function. I personally find this useful as I unfortunately suffer sweaty palms so I certainly don't like to get my phone slippery and wet! When opening the case the phone also unlocks itself which is also a neat feature to unlock the device.Overall, if you're on the fence, I would certainly recommend this case and I think it is the most pretty case i have ever owned for a phone.

You know what? it is WORTH ITI had this phone for nearly a year before I bought it. I liked the metal phone so much I did not want to cover it with anything....And the metal is so slippery I dropped it maybe 10 times before I gave in and bought thisIt is cheaper now than it was previously... and it is very impressive. The build quality is good. The cover sits perfectly closed and the front is rubbery in texture but the back is plastic. And with a mechanism I still cannot understand the cover does not eventually lose the automatic springiness with time and will by default close and stay closed easily (held with a tiny magnetic strip)The added touch activated features on the phone are as follows: double tap to 'wake screen' and double tap again to sleep - this shows the time and messages. A large symbol tells you what kind there is - the individual ones I have discovered so far are WhatsApp, email, missed calls, emails. You can also swipe to see the last 3 calls and select one to call by swiping on the case itself! No opening required so far... The great feature which they don't mention - you can control music from the front of the case. Pause/Next/Previous in a pixelated cartoon that you can swipe. This is thoughtful and useful - well done!In terms of aesthetics - the pixelated picture is very retro and cool and can be replaced by any photo you want (you can preview in the DotView App) and on holidays automatically changes to a fun cartoon (hearts on Valentine's, a pumpkin for Halloween etc). This is a very cool feature and I am amazed how many people are impressed with it!PS - blue works very well with gunmetal grey. Lots of compliments so far!I think a case for your phone is a big ask.... we pay a lot for something quite personal and with this phone it is because it is so good looking. To cover it up seems counter-intuitive. But this makes a powerful case (apologies!) in that it gets over the M8's slipperiness, is good looking and genuinely adds interesting and useful functionality from a tech perspective. At least it isn't boring!

I recently bought an HTC One M8 and, being a sucker for gimmicks like this, immediately bought the dot view case. First things first, the actual dot matrix-style front cover is really cool and generally works very well. I had no problem getting the handset to respond to my touch commands through the cover. Having said that, the display through cover is a bit dim and a struggle to read in sunlight. Also, as the front cover can flex somewhat due to the soft material, the dots and display don't always line up perfectly, causing the colours to bleed into neighbouring dots. On the whole though, it is very effective and looks great.Unfortunately, it appears that HTC got this far in the design and figured they'd done enough, as the case's performance leaves a lot to be desired. The cover has no way of locking into place, seemingly relying on the stiffness in the hinge. If you hold the handset upside down, the cover will open on its own to about 45 degrees. Not particularly comforting when you consider that that's the way the phone will inevitably fall (sod's law) if you drop it. Further to that, the handset is only held within the case by small tabs in each corner. While these appear to be good enough to prevent it pinging out of the case if you drop and catch it by the cover, they don't do a very good job of covering the corners or edges of that lovely metal phone. The back of the case is curved, which feels nice in the hand, but doesn't allow the cover to fold all the way back, meaning it always seems to be in the way when trying to use the phone. The materials used are not particularly premium either, but they are fine enough.I also get the impression that more could be accomplished with the software. It shows basic information when double tapped, along with allowing you to voice dial with a swipe from the top, but I imagine there's no reason why they couldn't allow custom commands by sweeping from the left, right and bottom. You can choose from a variety of backgrounds though, which all look pretty good.In summary, this case is very nice idea, and a handy accessory to show off to iPhone-toting friends. Truthfully though it's best thought of as just an 'accessory', because as protection for your handset (and at £17+), you can probably get a lot better for a lot less.