Krusell Cases and Multidapt® System
The Krusell Multidapt® System
I’m going to begin this case review in a most unusual manner: by talking about the clip. To even refer to Krusell’s Multidapt® as a clip is an injustice. That would be like referring to a stealth jet as a mere airplane. The Multidapt® gives you a flexibility that isn’t seen anywhere else, and is available on all their cases, and separately to use on cases that don’t come with a clip.
The patented Multidapt® system is the hub of the Krusell assortment. Having the Multidapt® “female” on a Krusell case enables endless possibilities on how to carry a device. This system also allows an almost completely flat back to your case for those times you simply want to put your case in a briefcase, purse, or jacket pocket without a button sticking out.
There are three choices of connections to the “female” base. There is a plastic button to attach plastic holders, a metal button to attach metal holders, and holders which fit directly into the “female” hub with no need for an intermediary. The combinations seem limited only by your imagination.
I was instantly struck by the ingenuity and variety of the Multidapt® system. My first inclination was to grab the swivel, because that’s what I’ve always used in the past. Then I looked at the spring clip and saw how tight it was and decided to give it a try since I don’t wear belts anyway unless I’m in uniform. Ahhhhh but look at the heavy duty belt clips! Metal or leather, and made for durability, nothing will knock those babies off!
Thread your belt through either the leather or the heavy metal belt holder and you’re ready for whatever the active outdoors has to throw at you! Of course, there are still active outdoor types with no belts. I’m thinking of all the Lance Armstrong wannabes out there. With the Multidapt®, you can just clip your Treo to the handlebars of your bike, and off you go.
Frankly, whether you choose a Krusell case or not, you should go with the Multidapt® system.
The Krusell Case
I looked at two very similar Krusell cases: the Krusell Classic, and the Krusell Platinum. Apart from some very minor differences, the two are indistinguishable. In the photo above, the Classic is on the left, the Platinum on the right. At first glance, both are highly polished leather, and after opening the package, I couldn’t resist putting my nose up to each, and smelling the rich leather scent.
The workmanship is beautiful. It is a leather case any professional would be proud to show off. The Classic case shows off the stitching, while you have to search for the stitches on the Platinum case. The keypad is covered with a soft plastic that allows key presses, without interfering, and without losing the tactile sense of the individual keys.
The leather on both cases is strong, but supple. This is a thick case. If you are looking for something to keep down the bulk, this is not the case for you. However, it offers excellent protection for your Treo. The design includes a cover that snaps at the bottom and opens upwards to expose the face of your Treo. This cover adds thickness to the case, but also serves to protect the camera lens. There are two additional snaps on the back of the case which must be undone in order to access the camera. I found that for short calls, having it flap about was a nuisance. I would have preferred it open downward, so that the face cover hung below my chin instead of waving about behind my ear.
As you can see from the above photo, however, there is an advantage to the protective cover opening from the bottom. For long phone calls, or for extended use of any kind, the cover folds completely back, and snaps back in place backwards forming a handle. The flap is actually multifunctional, and besides being a handle, contains a slot for credit/business cards, and dual sim slots. I was surprised that even with a sim card in the holder, the pressure did not cause the auto-answering so many people complained about with early Treo cases.
Inserting the Treo 650 proved to be no problem. There is enough give that your Treo slides in and out smoothly, and with the snap closure that completely surrounds the device, there is no worry of it flying out.
The only complaint I have about these beautiful cases is the fit. It’s just a hair’s breath too shallow. If you look at the photo above, you can see that the ear “bump” is not centered in the cutout. Unfortunately, this carries down throughout, and the leather at the top of the screen comes down just a little bit over the screen itself, somtimes hiding characters, or making stylus taps difficult. The last leather strip between the screen and the keys (where the plastic begins) covers just the very tip of the five way pad, and the home and menu buttons. The home and menu buttons are small enough - they can’t afford even a fraction to be covered.
I hope that in time, the leather will give way just a little so that the fit is perfect, because combined with the Multidapt®, I’ve never felt so secure carrying my Treo.
For more about Krusell cases and the Multidapt® system, visit Krusell online.
To discuss the Krusell case or the Multidapt® system, visit the mtdn forum.
Filed under: Accessory reviews
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Very nice review, Alli.
I choice Krusell for my case needs as well after realizing the great utility that the multidapt system provides. I went with the Horizontic+ (Sm-Wide) and the spring clip that you mentioned. The case sits firmly on my belt and provides both protection and a carrying space for extra SD cards (I carry movies on them to watch while commuting).
I even got the same one for my father for his Blackberry 7100 - this is a great case.
Alli, this is a wonderful article! Your a motivation to all of us here! BTW, nice nails! lol!
In my search for cases for my 650 I tried it and destroyed it. Quality is good but the thing is for office people not the working class or those like me who get out there in the real world. I tried both the metal and plastic clips. Metal worked ok. The adapter sewn to the case is this items weak point.
I have purchased two Krussel Classic cases for the Treo 600, for both me and my wife. Considering the rave reviews this case gets, we were both very disappointed at how poorly the construction stood up to regular wear and tear.
And let me just say right up front that I AM your typical office worker, not some guy lugging the Treo around in the brush, and my wife just carries her Treo attached to her purse, so we are not talking extremes here. The part of case that broke for both of us (right at around 3 months in both instances) was the multidapt adapter on the case itself.
Both of us got Krussel classic cases with the extra large spring clip. It worked perfectly for either sliding the Treo into a pants pocket or attaching to the belt and held it very securely and initially I was VERY happy with it.
Unfortunately, though, for reasons I cannot even fathom, it looks like the way the multidapt adapter was designed is flawed. If you look at the first picture in Alli’s review and take note of the U-shaped area where the multidapt “female” part attaches to a clip, there is a “lip”, for lack of a better term, that extends slightly or hangs over into the U-shaped area. This creates the space (a groove, really) for the clip to slide into and is what holds the clip in place. However, the “lip” is not part of the same plastic mold as the rest of the clip — it appears to be added on, or glued on to the rest of the multidapt adapter.
Now, I admit I am not a case design engineer or anything like that, but from my perspective, that seems like a HORRIBLE design approach, as this basically means Krussel has taken the part of the case that will be subjected to the MOST physical stress (since this is basically what holds the clip and case together) and manufactured it using the process most likely to cause the multidapt to break.
In both my case and my wife’s case, this is exactly what happened. After about 3 months, the constant stress of pulling on the overhanging lip by the “male” clip part of the multidapt caused the lip to start to come unglued and detach. Once this started, it quickly caused the entire lip to break off, at which point the case was WORTHLESS as far as using the multidapt, since the female portion was no longer able to hold a clip at all.
I eventually ended up just cutting the multidapt off of the rest of my case and just leaving the leather shell as protection, because of course when I tried to contact Treocentral (where I bought the case) to see about getting it replaced, they referred me to the manufacturer, saying it wasn’t their problem. For those of you who don’t know, Krussel is located in SWEDEN, and almost all of their business using cases is done with other companies acting as re-sellers. Ultimately, I looked for a while to find a way to return the case to them directly and gave up in frustration. They don’t return emails. There’s something to be said for dealing with an American-based company, at least in terms of easily getting customer service help.
Hope this helps people looking at the Krussel case and trying to make a decision. If they fix the multidapt design flaw, the system would be excellent; otherwise, it’s not worth the money.
I just want to comment to Chris Jones. After reading your remarks about lack of Krussell support, I was leery of purchasing their product. I decided to check them out. Maybe you were using an incorrect address or else they’ve changed their style, but they have been terrific. I’ve written numerous times and each time they have responded thoroughly and well within 24 hours. I hope there is follow through on their part if I run into problems since I have just ordered the case!
I’m getting ready to buy my second Krusell case. The workmanship is nice, it’s a quality product. My only real complaint was the first Krusell case for my Palm Zire 31 had a female Multidapt on it for maybe 30 seconds. I was attaching the swivel clip to the Multidapt case and it popped right off. It was attached to that case with only contact adhesive. The clip system seemed interesting, but useless for me.
I contated Krusell hoping they would send me a new Multidapt, but they sent me back to the seller who sent me an incomprehensible e-mail in broken english. I gave up in disgust. I thought that paying a premium price would command premium service. Silly me. It’s still a very nice case without the stupid clip. The other minor issue I had was that the cutouts were slightly off, but not enough to interfere with operation. The next Krusell case will be for a Palm Tungsten C, maybe that will work out better.
I bought the same case as Chris and experienced the same damage after about 4 months. Good leather but the “lip” on the female multidapt, on the case is crap. I will not recommend it.