What the Lumia 650 lacks in guts, it can make up for with beauty. This is especially true when we decide to add Mozo’s vaunted premium back covers to the stylish device.
Design
Mozo describes the light wood back cover as “imitation” wood, and while certainly a discerning individual wouldn’t mistake it for actual wood, as I mentioned in my unboxing, it feels so nice and luxurious that doesn’t really matter.
The surface of the back cover is littered with very subtle indentations representative of real polished wood grain, and it carries the same sort of smoothness properties. It feels great to hold and has a very “cool” touch to it. Whereas the leather covers I’ve reviewed for the Lumia 950 were comfortable, grippy, and warm, touching the light wood back cover would be much like touching the surface of a smooth desk: cool to the the touch, and completely unobtrusive.
It also looks very pretty too, with very convincing texture reminiscent of, you guessed it, actual wood. The cover adds a much more relaxed, but no less premium, ambiance to what was originally a very modern and forward Lumia 650 factory design. Combined with the metal ring surrounding the Lumia 650, it exudes a sense of elegant
Fit
Much like the Lumia 950 covers I reviewed earlier, the fit of the light wood cover on the Lumia 650 is very tight, with no creaks or give. The downside to this unfortunately is that the cover can be a bit of a pain to put on. Not in the sense that it’s difficult, but in the sense that you need to apply extra pressure, and you have to re-examine the backside several times to make sure every hook is latched onto the device.
Not a big deal to you average users, but problematic for unboxing videos like mine, where I laughably might accidentally film the back cover with parts still unhinged.
Ergonomics
The ergonomic game of the Lumia 650 covers is quite different from that of the Lumia 950. The Lumia 950 covers replaced the entire outer shell, including the shallow surface of the device’s depth. The Lumia 650 covers, in contrast, only replace the surface of the back side: it doesn’t tamper with the gorgeous metal ring.
The major upside to this is that the cover adds very little weight to the device, if it’s even noticeable at all.
What is a bit noticeable is that the back cover does add some thickness to the device. Now, to be clear, I haven’t noticed that the back cover actually increases the devices actual thickness, but it does add some meat to the overall back side.
For some, this may actually be a desirable side effect, as the net result is that it levels the backside with the camera’s housing, reducing the bulge. It also makes the phone slightly easier to grip, though the phone is already so thin the difference is marginal.
Conclusion
All of the above information may be well and fine, but perhaps the most telling piece of data of the value of these premium back covers is when people compliment your phone.
Like my Lumia 950 equipped with the Mozo covers, I’ve received a number of compliments about my Mozo-backed Lumia 650. I feel particularly smug when I reveal the phone itself only cost me $200 USD, and I got the case for free as a result of work, and they invariably respond with something along the lines of “it looks much more expensive than it is” or “it looks better than my iPhone.”
Followed immediately by a silent, hollow sigh, unable to relay the fact that the phone is as gutless as Zac says it is.
This, of course, has no bearing on the back cover itself, which is a wonderful piece of kit and an excellent, well-designed complement to an already beautiful phone.
You can buy the light wood cover on Mozo’s website here.