After seeing Gizmodo's post way back in November about a wood back panel replacement offering by Material 6, I finally decided to make the jump and splurge a bit on a South American Rosewood panel ($89USD).
It also helped that I had a contact in the US that was visiting to Toronto, so the timing couldn't have been better for me to save the hefty $20 USD international shipping
charge (as opposed to the $6 USD domestic), and who knows how much for customs I would have to pony up.
The packaging was a bit excessive for the small panel, but I liked the minimalist design element to it.
Once opening the box, you're presented with the product, a mini screwdriver head, and a friendly "voluntary assumption of risk" statement liberating 2point5 from responsibility of damages caused by installation at the top of the box. Nice.
Turning my phone off, I quickly got to work.
Here's where it gets a bit hairy; the screwdriver head that is included is very obviously too large for the job of fitting into the screws that keep the back panel in place. Luckily I had a set of precision screwdrivers on hand to get the job done.
I went with a #00 x 20mm Philips-head which worked quite nicely. You can tell the obvious difference in the head size with the provided driver head on the left and the #00 precision head on the right. Once the screws were out, following the directions on the card, the panel came off with ease and the new panel slid on like a glove.
The first thing I noticed was the slight weight change in the phone; being a tad bit lighter. The wood feel is great and it definitely adds a bit of uniqueness to the phone. I appreciate the work that Material 6 has done in researching and manufacturing this product with OEM parts so that lens and flash of the camera isn't compromised.
All in all, quite happy with the final product (minus the screwdriver bit).
