It’s no secret that our cell phones have taken over the world. Go to just about any public place and you’ll see people texting away, checking their Facebook, and who knows what else.
No place is sacred anymore. From beer bars to churches, people are always checking their cell phones. I’ll admit that I have become one of those people, although I’m actively working on weaning off my constant phone addiction.
One thing that’s true for me and pretty much everyone I know is that we never leave our phone at home (at least on purpose). Because of this, what better feature to add to your phone than a bottle opener?
Sure, most beer nerds I know carry around some sort of opener on their key chains. Yet if you’re like me, I generally carry my keys less than I do my phone and there is inevitably that time when I need to open a bottle with no opener in sight. In fact I don’t even have an opener on my key ring even though I have a ton of them. I just don’t like the bulk it ads to my keys.
Enter the great people at West|280 who decided to design a case for iPhones that includes a bottle opener.
A few weeks ago they sent me two cases to try out and I quickly swapped out the cheap case I was using with their black iOpener 4 to review.
Putting it on I was a little nervous the plastic might crack and ruin the case. It’s kind of like when you first become a parent and you are way over protective, yet when your next kid comes along you ease up because you know they are a lot tougher than they look.
The first thing I noticed was that it seemed heavy. Not obnoxiously heavy, but just heavier than I was used to. But I understand, they use a heavy duty stainless steel for the opener. After just a couple of days packing this bad boy around I quickly realized it was actually pretty light. It just took a little getting used to since my old case weighed as much as a piece of saran wrap.
It’s also incredibly thin for having such a strong opener built into it. I love that it isn’t much thicker than my last case.
With the new case on my phone I was eager to find a beer to open when finally the opportunity arose. My first open was as awkward as a teenage boy going in for his first kiss. The cap bent pretty much in half and I feared a third of the bottle would come splashing out of that tasty brew.
While my first thought of the new case wasn’t the most positive, I had to open more beers in the name of research. Heck, someone needs to try it out fairly.
One thing I learned was that my technique was odd. Once I got that figured out, opening a beer is simple and even fun. Here’s their video on the correct technique.
After a few weeks of carrying this thing around I’ve grown to love this case/opener. There have been numerous occasions I’ve been able to help people open beers before they had the time to search for an opener in a cupboard. An extra bonus is that it also doubles as a fantastic conversation starter.
West|280 makes the iOpeners for the iPhone 3G/3GS, 4/4S, 5 in both black and white models. Prices start at $19.95 and go up to $39.95 for the iPhone 5 model.
An added feature is they offer a custom made BevConX app you can install on your phone. It does a lot of fun things such as records the time, date, and geo-location of where you open your beers, plays your favorite song when you open a bottle and can even update your social network on what beers you’re drinking.
So far, I’m pretty sure this is my new permanent case and would definitely recommend it to any beer fan. (and they didn’t pay me or ask me to write any of this post).