When I first heard about home 3D printing a few years ago, one of the oft-mentioned things 3D printers could potentially make for consumers was a new iPhone case. Since then, there have been countless designs and services for 3D printed smartphone cases, all very pretty but with little innovation. TrindoCase is a newcomer to the 3D printed smartphone case game and what they are trying to launch on Indiegogo has offered some new tricks that may just prove that it is possible to improve on phone case design and services.
Trindo Indiegogo Promovideo from Trindo on Vimeo.
TrindoCase is a service where you can design your smartphone case, or Smartbags as they call them, online, using software that the TrindoCase team is in the process of developing. The “configurator” is meant to be easy to use, so that anyone can create a cool case that is then printed and sent to you so that you can customize your smartphone, whether it’s a Blackberry z10, Nexus 4, iPhones, or anything else you can think of. Some of their pre-made phone cases are from their cityclip series, phone cases with different skylines and city names cut out of the back.
The biggest difference between the TrindoCase design and other printed smartphone cases is their ability to be modified. You have the basic protective rim around your phone that can remain constant, but the back itself can be popped out and replaced with a new backing, so that you could, potentially, have a variety of interchangeable phone backs. Then, on top of this feature, you have the ability to print phone backs with wallet clips to keep all of your essentials together, thus reducing the clutter in your pockets and making muggings more efficient. You can also order a magnetic phone back, to turn your smartphone into a giant magnet.
In addition to wallet clips, they have phone backs with built-in stands to make viewing videos on your phone more comfortable and stands to use as a camera tripod, perhaps to go with their last feature. The Trindo team is offering a set of magnetic camera phone lenses (a fisheye, a 2x zoom, and a macro lens) which can be attached to your smartphone to turn it into a legit camera.
The project has 25 days left to go with only 3.527€ of its 30.000€ goal.
Source: Indiegogo
I will print a different case, for every day of the year.