The lovely – I cringe at the word “cute”, but that’s what it is – Lara Side Pouch is hand stitched (so says the manufacturer) of soft pink leather. An attached, soft, satiny pink lanyard sports a pink (!) plastic adjustment button. Even the company’s logo, emblazoned on the flap, sports a pink background, instead of their usual Swiss red.
The light-weight case, less than two ounces, also comes in a more sedate model made of back leather with pink accents - nylon decoration and stitching that whisper, rather than shout, their presence. I’m glad to report that my review unit is the full-on, mega-scale, loud pink model with the pink button and the pink-background logo tab. If you’re going to flaunt it, and I am, why not go all the way.
While inside the Lara pouch, the Centro isn’t all that useful. A (pink!) flap lops over to hold the Centro in, secured by a magnetic button catch. The result is an almost entirely covered, and almost entirely protected smartphone. Although the pouch’s ends remain open, only one connector stays accessible – your choice of the phone’s power port or earphone jack. So, you could use a wired headset (my favorite), or hook the Centro up to your computer or to an AC power supply and keep it charged. HotSync is out of the question, as the opening isn’t wide enough. The tradeoff of course is protection. It’s super-easy to remove the Centro from the case for a HotSync.
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