Pop Sockets are weird: a little warty thing goes on the back of your phone because phones got so big that they’re now hard to hold for a lot of people. It’s effective, but inelegant—the technological equivalent of a pocket protector.
A Kickstarter campaign is trying to reinvent the Pop Socket, along with all the vaguely similar accessory gadgets that have been sprouting on the backs of modern phones. They call it the Ohsnap. It’s a surprisingly complex little thing that tries to make the phone grip/kickstand/thingamajig more useful in some situations and less awkward in others.
The attempt is admirable, but the result is frustrating. The Ohsnap trades in some annoyances of the Pop Socket for annoyances of its own. It’s a study in compromises, and while some Pop Socket users will love it, others will abandon it and go back to the annoyances that they know and love tolerate.
It’s kind of beautiful, in a consumer sort of way. A gadget fixes the failings of another gadget but has its own failings, so another gadget fixes that gadget, and fails differently. It’s an ouroboros of accessories, weird plastic trinkets all the way down.
Surprisingly, Lots of Moving Parts
The Ohsnap has three distinct parts: a plastic frame that sticks directly to your phone (or more likely its case) via double-sticky tape, a snazzy aluminum oval that slides into the plastic, and an inner ring with a flexible strip made out of the same stuff as the snap bracelets that were popular when I was in elementary school.
A lot is going on here, so let’s break it down by function. The Ohsnap can:
- Work as a “finger ring” by popping out the inner plastic tab and hooking one side into the other. The ring can spin around for the best possible grip.
- Work as a kickstand, with the two tabs unhooked and making little “legs” to prop up your phone.
- Fold up flat, with tapered sides that make it much easier to slip into a pocket than the sharp bump of a Pop Socket.
- Stick to any ferrous metal surface, thanks to surprisingly strong magnets beneath the aluminum ring.
- And the Ohsnap still works with wireless charging, because you can slip the aluminum ring off of the plastic frame.
So, all of those options are supposed to make the Ohsnap better than the Pop Socket.
One Step Forward, One Step Back
Unfortunately, the response after using the Ohsnap for a week is a pretty resounding “eh.” A lot of the points above hold: the whole thing is considerably slimmer than a Pop Socket, and with its sloping edges on all sides, it’s more comfy to hold in your hand when folded up. It’s also much, much easier to slip in and out of your pocket.
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Source : The Ohsnap Phone Grip is a Study in Ergonomic Compromises
