In our ThanoTech K11 Bumper Review, find out why the new iPhone 7 version is awesome!
ThanoTech K11 Bumper Review – Didn’t think they could improve on the iPhone 6s’s TOP Bumper but ThanoTech did!
(Click for the full review table)
The ThanoTech K11 Bumper is a tiny bumper for your iPhone that allows you to showcase the design of the iPhone without the bulk or sacrificing protection. ThanoTech uses a unique method of fusing metal and TPU together and is currently the only company that can. You may find others but they’re not authentic.
Before we get into the guts of the review, the bumper that showed in this review is a prototype. We’re excited to show you the prototype because it allows us to their design process. What’s even more exciting to us is to talk about an improved product made by a company that is pushing forward with their goods rather than just filling in the headphone jack and slapping an iPhone 7 label on it.
The K11 Bumper for the iPhone 6s was the best bumper for the iPhone 6s but how about the iPhone 7? For the K11 Bumper for the iPhone 7, we’ve given it a score of 4.2 Eh’s out of 5. This score makes it the fifth highest rated cases out of every class of iPhone 7 case we’ve reviewed so far.
If you need more information, check out our iPhone 6s review. If you have a penchant for supporting small companies that love making awesome things, head over to their kickstarter page and show Thanotech some love. If you’re looking for other reviews, check out our Top 10 lists for slim cases, clear cases and wallet iPhone 7 cases.
Design – Bigger than the old bumper but still smaller than anything else we’ve reviewed
So what are the design differences between the old K11 bumper and the new K11? From normal viewing distance, you’ll notice that the new K11 has a lot more TPU. This is probably the biggest and best upgrade that Thanotech could have done in our opinion from a day-to-day usage standpoint because it improves the handling of the iPhone 7 Plus greatly. The newly added TPU portions have ridges on the that helps with keeping the iPhone stable in your hand.The updated bumper is actually larger than the old bumper but the differences are quite minimal and not noticeable unless you’re comparing the two side-by-side. The new bumper is a gram heavier a little under 0.5 mm wider from our measurements. The updated bumper fits well together, weighs almost nothing but like any aluminum bumper, you’re going to run into wear/tear issues but that’s expected.
We will note that the sides of the case are slick when compared to other cases, but the TPU pieces at the bottom minimise the slickness when the device is in your hand. Installation of the bumper is a little easier due to the larger TPU pieces which are important for the chronic case switcher.
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Protection – Uh…drop this tiny bumper from 16 ft?
When it comes to protection, the ThanoTech’s K11 Bumper doesn’t come with an official looking Mil-Std 810G logo. But don’t let that scare you away from the K11 Bumper. It is much tougher than you think. Don’t believe us? Watch their Kickstarter video. It shows the K11 Bumper being dropped from 4ft, 6ft and 16 ft.That’s all nice but what happened when we dropped it? We did five drops ranging from 4ft to 10ft with face-first drops on concrete at every drop height. Our iPhone 7 Plus survived every face-first fall at 4ft and 6ft but the face-first drop from 10 ft ended the useful life of our beloved rose pink iPhone 7 Plus.
Is this a surprise to us? No. Why? Because who in their right mind is going to drop a giant iPhone 7 Plus from 10ft?
Thanotech will also be shipping a back protector with the bumper, so those who have a Jet Black iPhone won’t have to worry about damage to their fancy looking iOS device. Our only gripe when it comes to protection are the shadow edges as thicker screen protectors will extend past the edge of the case.
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Functionality – It’s like there isn’t anything there
Accessing your iPhone is a breeze in the K11 Bumper. With the original bumpers, people complained about the loose buttons on the bumper, so ThanoTech went and re-designed them. On the new bumper, even after dropping it several times, only one of the buttons made a tiny bit of noise. The bumper was silent when it came to button rattling before the drop test.There is a bigger lip for the camera portion of the iPhone 7, so the lenses aren’t propping the iPhone up on a flat surface. We didn’t have any issues accessing the hardware on the iPhone. The mute switch cutout is much larger which helps improve the access.
The only problem we had were the smooth edges which may make picking your iPhone up off a flat surface a little harder when compared to other cases.
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Have questions for our ThanoTech K11 Bumper Review for the iPhone 7? Please ask them below, or on our Google+ page or our Facebook page or our About Us page. To stay up to date on everything we’re doing, check out our Twitter and Instagram feeds!
Andy
January 9, 2017 at 4:54 pm
What are the K11 v2 back protectors like? I see that they are shipping two with each purchase but I can’t find any details. I have a Jet Black phone on the way and I know I need something to protect it from scratches.
Aaron Ho
January 11, 2017 at 4:16 pm
I never got the back protectors with the prototype. I’m assuming that they are just PET protectors.
Matt
January 26, 2017 at 7:06 am
Got my case today. It’s very well built and paired it with E2E they make and feels like a great combo — and looks like a naked iPhone. Took the back protector off as soon as I put it on. Makes back of phone look dirty. Otherwise very happy.
Aaron, love the videos. Curious if you had screen protector on with those drop videos? Thanks for the hard work and sacrifice!
Aaron Ho
January 27, 2017 at 10:19 pm
I did not!
drew
January 26, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Did you have a screen protector on while using this bumper? I just got mine and my only issue is the lip isn’t large enough to keep the screen off a surface face down. I haven’t tried thanotech’s own screen protector so maybe mine is just too thick but interested to hear from others who’ve bought this.