Keep your iPhone classy with the Spigen Neo Hybrid Metal for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus!
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Need a protective case to keep your iPhone 6 classy? Check out the Spigen Neo Hybrid Metal for the iPHone 6 and 6 Plus. This is a slim iPhone case and it’s really more of a fancy case but I do feel it’s going to offer the same amount of protection as Spigen’s own Tough and Slim armors.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are sleek looking devices and a lot of times, case manufacturers seem to bring down the quality of the iPhone by wrapping them up in crappy plastic but this Dia-Cut Aluminum bumper on this Spigen case is pretty awesome and has the same level of class or nice-ness as a case 10 times it’s cost such as the Element Ronin Titanium.
The only gripe that I have about this case is that its pretty minor and a little more difficult to deal with in one hand and its going to definitely show wear and tear if you’re a little rougher with your iPhone .
Based on my time with the case for our Spigen Neo Hybrid Metal review, we gave it a score of 4.2 Eh’s out of 5. The Neo-Hybrid metal does better than Spigen’s own Tough Armor, better than the Element Ion, is on the same level as the Incipio DualPro, Urban Armor Gear but not as well as Tech 21 and Griffin Survivor Core cases. If you’re wondering how this case fares against other cases, check out our comparison tool!
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Design – A great blend of rubber and metal!
In terms of design, this is a fairly slim iPhone and doesn’t add much weight or bulk to the case. The slime iPhone case fits well together and because of the metal bumper, doesn’t stretch which is nice (though it can deform if you don’t have an iPhone in the case). The Neo Hybrid Metal is a little tough to take off as you really have to get your fingernails between the TPU sleeve and metal bumper but that’s something you’re going to have to suffer through for this great case.
The case doesn’t wear as well as non-metal cases as drops may deform the case a bit but the metal bumper does seem to hold up to light scratching from keys and rocks.
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Protection – So thin and droppable? The perfect slim tough case?
In terms of protection, the case isn’t drop rated though Spigen does include its “Advanced Shock Absorption Technology, Web Pattern TPU case”. We’re really not big fans of case manufacturers who claim that their products are tough without really providing a specific drop height but we dropped our iPhone from 4 ft in the case and it survived.
In terms of screen protection, the case doesn’t come with a screen protector and the lip is only 0.8 mm which isn’t very high though according to Spigen, provides optimal screen protection. I think that’s a typing error as the depth of the Neo Hybrid is a little deeper than the tough armor so you’re going to be be able to install 3rd party screen protectors with this case and still have a bit of clearance.
Like all Spigen cases, the Apple logo is exposed so there is a chance that dust/debris or damage might occur to the back of the case.
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Functionality – Like fine wine, this case gets better with time
In terms of accessing your iPhone inside the case, you can easily get to your hardware buttons and unlike the slim armor, getting to your mute switch is fairly easy. The cutouts at the bottom are large enough to hand 3rd party cables like from Amazon basics but the cutout for the headphones will only handle headphones that are slightly larger than Apple’s earpods.
For our Spigen Neo Hybrid Metal Review, we did pay attention to the signal strength of the iPhone in the case and from what we can tell, the metal bumper doesn’t doesn’t really degrade signal quality.
Now we’re not a signal’s engineer so what you’re about to read may be rife with errors but its our best understanding of wireless signals. To track the signal strength, we converted the display on our iPhone to actual numbers to give us a better breakdown of the signal strength. Now the values that show up on the iPhone are almost always going to be negative with values that are closer to 0 will be stronger and values that are further away from 0 are weaker.
Signal strength is based on a logarithmic scale so a difference in values that are closer to 0 are going to be bigger than differences in values that are further away from 0. With all that being said, our iPhone signal strength in our office sat between -112 and -118 dbm’s which is awful considering that 5 bars is around -60 dbm’s. Taking the case on and off didn’t result in any big changes in signal strength which is great!
The last thing we will note is that 1-handing your iPhone is a little harder with this case because the edges of is pretty slick so it doesn’t really sit in your hand and there’s nothing in the way of accessing your iPhone’s touchscreen.
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Have questions about our Spigen Neo Hybrid Metal review for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus? Please ask them on our Google+ page or on our Facebook page.
Steve Francisco
January 22, 2015 at 5:47 am
I found after a month of usually with the bro hybrid aluminum the cellular reception is affected by the case. My wife and I both have the iPhone 6. She has the apple leather case on and her phone will have 2-3 bars of 4g service and mine with the spigen will read no service. About thirty seconds after taking the case off the bars and 4g symbol show up. This has happened about two dozens times when I am with my wife.
Aaron Ho
January 23, 2015 at 4:08 pm
Hmm..that’s interesting. I didn’t have any issues with the signal strength of my iPhones. Good to know.
Thanks for the comment.
Nick
February 3, 2015 at 7:02 pm
I just bought the neo hybrid metal and consistently noted the same result: Take off the case and I gain one bar of reception (and notice alot better wifi & data reception), but put it back on and the reception drops at least one bar immidiately again.
It was so bad that I returned the case within hours of putting it on my phone! Too bad, because it looks amazing!
On a sidenote: the mute button is really hard to reach with this case on!
James
January 26, 2015 at 9:48 pm
I purchased the new hybrid metal for my 6 plus and after one 4 foot drop and the case is useless.
It was so bent out of shape I couldn use it anymore, also I didn’t notice any signal loss with the case.
B
March 9, 2015 at 2:14 am
After watching your review, I immediately decided to buy this case. i loved the look and feel of it on my phone. Reception is a setback tho.had to stop using it.
B
March 9, 2015 at 2:17 am
Signal loss is an issue. Sad. I loved the look and feel it gave my phone.
Aaron Ho
March 11, 2015 at 2:21 pm
How bad was it?
Ryoma
March 10, 2015 at 6:52 am
Hello, again. This is Ryoma from Japan.
Today I would like to introduce this iPhone case to you:
http://www.alexcious.com/featured/real_edge_for_iphone_6
It is a iPhone 6/6+ case machined from duralumin and stainless steel by Iriso, who have technique to put 20,000 parts on 1 square centimeter space.
This case is really precise and tough as you can see. Please check it out if you are interested!
Thank you,
Ryoma
Aaron Ho
March 11, 2015 at 2:10 pm
Ryoma, that case looks awesome. Can I get a review case?
Bababenny
April 9, 2015 at 1:58 pm
I don’t care how good Ryoma’s case is—-it’s $330. For that price, it better be able to cook me dinner…and then some.
Aaron Ho
April 9, 2015 at 3:43 pm
Lol.
David C
May 29, 2015 at 8:57 pm
Hi! I had two things: one, this case sucks. it literally broke like snapped. Thankfully, I my phone was not harmed. Two, I was wondering if you could do a review for the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case? It seems to be better than the neo hybrid, but I would love to see a review before purchasing.
Cheers!
Raul Martin
October 6, 2015 at 1:49 pm
Hi. I have just bought an iPhone 6s and I was checking which case will be the best fit for me. I do really like the Spigen Neo Hybrid, but I am a little bit afraid about the screen protector. Which one would you recommend? Reading some reviews, it seems like the screen protector that comes with the MightyShell will be a good fit, but my worry is: would the 3D touch work well with this kind of screen protector?
Thank you
Aaron Ho
October 7, 2015 at 9:07 pm
It does. I tried it the Mightyshell’s screen protector this past weekend. The mighty shell is a tougher case but will add a bit of bulk when compared to the Spigen case.
Cleggy06
October 16, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Firstly I have to say Thank you for some great reviews, the site has been really helpful (now shared with many friends) – although some of your top suggestions are not available in the UK yet. Have recently bought the Spigen Neo Hybrid case with the non metal band – have you tested this against the metal version… I did not like the idea of having the hole on the back cover so opted for the other but fear have compromised on protection… although their promise is the same??? Many thanks.
Aaron Ho
October 16, 2015 at 3:48 pm
I’ve got the Spigen Cases coming…once they arrive, I’ll put them up on my ranking tool! http://www.mobilereviews-eh.ca/in-the-pipe/