Notes from the bench · every two weeks

Fit notes: what we measured, and what we changed because of it.

Short write-ups from the Novi Sad bench on camera bumps, button cut-outs, magnets and hinges. If a number on a fit sheet ever changes, the reason is here.

  • Arc 16
  • Arc 16 Pro
  • Novu S9
  • Lumo 8a
  • Lumo Fold 3
Get the next note
A man opening a folding phone under a palm tree
Latest noteLumo Fold 3 hinge0.4 mm of travel, two shells, one sleeve

Six notes, newest first

Each one ends with the product it changed.

Lumo Fold 3 standing half open on a dark table, the phone the Hinge Guard Case is cut for
2 October 2026Lumo Fold 3

The hinge moves 0.4 mm. The case had to move with it.

A one-piece shell cracked at the fold after 300 openings. The Hinge Guard is two shells and a sleeve over the hinge, so nothing bends that was not built to bend.

Hinge Guard Case · €39
Close on the three camera lenses of a white phone, where the Lens Ring Set sits
18 September 2026Arc 16 Pro

Why the camera ring is 1.4 mm and not 1.0

At 1.0 mm the outer lens touched a glass table when the phone slid. We cut rings from 0.8 to 1.6 mm and laid each phone on glass, granite and a café tabletop.

Grip Rib Case fit sheet
Clear Halo Case, close on the clear back and its magnet ring
4 September 2026Novu S9

A clear case that is still clear in spring

Clear cases yellow because of light and skin oil. The Clear Halo uses a shell that we left on a sunny Novi Sad windowsill for 90 days next to two others. Ours came back the least tinted.

Clear Halo Case · €34
Trail Bumper Case on a phone held in one hand, its raised edge around the screen
21 August 2026Arc 16, Arc 16 Pro, Novu S9

Forty drops from three metres onto concrete

The Trail Bumper is the only case we rate for a drop. We drop it corner first, face first and flat, and open the phone after every tenth fall. Forty drops, three phones, no cracked glass.

Trail Bumper Case · €44
A black phone resting on a round charging pad on a white shelf
7 August 2026Lumo 8a

No magnet in the phone, so no ring in the case

Adding a magnet ring to a phone that has none only misaligns chargers. Lumo 8a cases keep a plain back, and the Flat Charge Pad still charges them at the full 15 W.

Flat Charge Pad · €46
Grip Rib Case in Graphite lying on a dark grey desk
24 July 2026All four phones

Six rib patterns, one kept

We printed ribs at 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 mm and handed them to eleven people for a week. 1.2 mm won: enough to grip with a wet thumb, not enough to catch a pocket.

Grip Rib Case · €32
Camera lip, measured

How far the lenses stand proud on each phone

  • Arc 16 Pro
    2.9 mm
  • Novu S9
    2.4 mm
  • Arc 16
    2.2 mm
  • Lumo Fold 3
    1.8 mm
  • Lumo 8a
    1.3 mm

Our ring always sits 1.0–1.4 mm above the highest lens, so the taller the bump, the taller the ring.

Buttons, pressed or cut out

Why some keys are covered and some are open

A covered key keeps dust out and feels the same as the bare phone if the cover is 0.6 mm thick or less. We cover power and volume on every phone.

We leave a key open when the phone expects you to feel its edge: the mute switch on the Arc 16 and the fingerprint key on the side of the Lumo Fold 3.

0.6 mmcover over each key
500presses tested per key
2keys we leave open

Read the notes, then wrote back

Replies from people who carry the phones above. Two of them changed a fit sheet.

+0.2 mmadded to the Novu S9 port cut-out after a reader’s thicker charging plugNovu S9 · changed 11 Sept
A hand holding a dark phone up against a deep blue wall
“I read the camera-ring note on a Sunday and ordered the Grip Rib that night. It is the first case that does not wobble on my desk.”
Jelena Marković · Arc 16 Pro
Shell Slim Case in Marigold on an orange ground
“I wrote that the mute switch was hard to reach. Two weeks later the note said why it was open, and the new batch had a wider cut.”
Tomas Weber · Arc 16
1.5 mmwider mute-switch opening on the Arc 16 Shell Slim, from that replyArc 16 · changed 2 Oct