Every time I trade in my phone, which is every year I go through the same ritual of searching for the best case for it. Right up front I want to say I would rather not use a case at all but one drop on a hard surface for any of today’s smartphones is going to damage it. And besides, the nicer I keep it looking the more they will give me for my trade.FIRST IMPRESSIONSI respect this brand and I own a lot of their products. For me this one was not a winner. I mentioned my search for the perfect case. That usually entails buying at least a half dozen of them. And I mean buying with my own money. My immediate reaction was of disappointment. This looks and feels no different from those many no name brands, several of which I bought to compare them. It is not as crystal clear at the T brand which I have very divided opinions on. By the way I feel it is respectful if I just use the initial, most people shopping for cases know what that means. By comparison to the second most expensive one I’ve bought, at thirty-five bucks, this is more down in the price range of those unknown brands. But they, and the Z brand, lead the industry so I’m here to compare all three plus some of the ones that cost under then bucks. The Spigen just doesn’t feel special in any way, it is almost exactly like the sub-ten buck brands. It seems slightly cloudy, not crystal clear like the T brand. On the other hand this one feels grippy while the T brand is a slippery as a greased flounder.WHAT I LIKEThat’s a difficult question, so I have to be straight with you, I can’t think of anything that stands out as a major positive.NOW THE BAD NEWSThe button covers are terrible. How can they talk about the tactile feeling? The so-called button covers are just molded nubs on the sides of the case. They are almost flush with the case making them difficult to find by touch, especially that brand new Action button on my new iphone pro max, they didn’t even make a half-hearted effort to give it more of a cap or textured or some color, they actually made it worse than what so many are saying about the location and feel of that button. To me it is an important feature and Spigen did not get it right. By the way the winner so far for button covers is the T brand – if they only weren’t so slippery they would probably rank as the best of the crowd. A few other things I am not fond of with this case, one is it shouldn’t be called a slim case, it is among the thickest of the clear cases out there. Also in the negative column is the raised lip around the screen, the edge of it is sharp and unfinished and if I rub my finger against the edge of my screen, a common Apple swipe, I can feel that sharp edge against my finger. I saved the worst for last, having their logo emblazoned on the side and even worse if that’s possible is a tacky advertising slogan that says air cushion technology with an ARROW pointing at my phone’s corner. Bad decision Spigen, I know what I bought, I don’t need to advertise it for you for free.YES NO MAYBEYou may notice I didn’t say much about the Z brand. That’s because at a whopping fifty bucks it is ridiculous for a piece of plastic that cost pennies to make. I did buy it to compare it and they definitely win on anti-slip compared to anybody but their button covers are no better that anyone else. So I put them out of the running for being overpriced. But that reminds me of one thing I do like about the Spigen and that is the magsafe ring is very strong as they promised it would be and the dark gray version makes the ring invisible on my titanium phone. Most of the others use a white ring. And the are the only one of the many I tried that has raised feet at three of the corners opposite the camera module. It makes a big difference when I set my phone down not to wobble like the other cases. For that and the strong magnet I’ll go an extra star above average and call this a four star case. It could be a lot better, but it’s not that bad.