A rear view of the Radius case, from Mod-3.With the season of minimal attire upon us, why leave out your iPhone?
Mod-3 has produced a case called the Radius that’s a bit like tiny beachwear for the iPhone 5.
Phones tend to take the most bashing along the corners, so the radius case places pieces of billeted aircraft aluminum on the edges, held in place by an X-shaped metal strap along the back.
The strap is just thick enough to keep the phone’s back from scratching on flat surfaces.
One of the chief claims of the Radius case is that it does not interfere with transmission because it doesn’t cover the phone’s antenna.
As inventive as the design is, it needs some improvement.
To mount the case on your phone, you have to use a supplied wrench to remove two minuscule hex bolts that hold the lower corner pieces on. The Radius does come with extra bolts in the likelihood that one of the tiny pieces skitter away.
The problem I had wasn’t losing the bolts, it was shearing them. It took very little torque to snap the heads off. That left the bolt shank filling the threaded center of the corner pieces.
If these parts were larger I could use an extractor to remove the headless screw, but it’s so tiny I would need some sort of jeweler’s tools to do it.
The lesson here is if you want to use this minimal case, keep in mind that the parts are every bit as delicate as they appear to be. You’ll need to use your most deft touch to properly attach it.
The Radius case is $70 through online retailers like BiteMyApple.
A version of this article appeared in print on 05/30/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: An iPhone Case That Pretends Not to Be There.