Recently, I was given the opportunity to send my phone off to a little company some of you may have heard of – AnoStyle LLC. I remember hearing about this when it first started, and always wishing (while almost giving in at time) that I could go ahead and have my iPhone 5 recolored to one of the many offered by the service.
Currently there are 14 colors available for the iPhone 5, and they all look beautiful. As you can tell from the pictures, I chose red, as I’ve always been a red/black fan (just read my other reviews). When I was given the opportunity last month to have my iPhone done, I said yes without hesitation.
After receiving my iPhone back exactly 8 days after I parted ways with it, my first impression was that everyone should immediately go out and do this. It’s been a little over a week now since I received my phone back, and I still hold with what I said upon first inspection. I recommend everyone do this. It’s awesome.
Here is how it went down for me. On a Thursday, I went to my local UPS store and sent my phone to AnoStyle via 1-day delivery, and sure enough it was in their hands later the next day, Friday.
I knew at that point all I could do is sit and wait, as patiently as possible without my phone. In the mean time, I used my old Droid BIONIC, as it was the only LTE enabled backup phone I have, and after getting LTE, you just can’t go back.
That next Monday I received a tweet with the last picture of my iPhone with slate metal. That picture was quite scary to say the least, as you can slightly see that my iPhone was in fact opened up as the process of taking the metal off the phone was just beginning.
By scary I mean that it was crazy to see my iPhone opened up, as I am one that takes great care of my devices. I was comfortable with the fact that it was in good hands though.
As I waited out the long (and painful, as I was using the BIONIC) week with my iPhone, I would find myself constantly checking my email waiting for confirmation that it had left.
I was always on Twitter, and oft found myself interacting with one of the co-owners of AnoStyle, Rob Carter (@ModiNinja), who actually does a lot of the taking apart of the iPhones himself. A few days later (and a few Motorola-skinned Android induced headaches) I received a new tweet, giving me a sneak peak at what I would soon be receiving, and I was beyond excited.
Finally, I went to check the mail, and there it was, a package had arrived from AnoStyle (well, PodDrop, AnoStyle’s parent company). I grabbed it, forgetting the rest of the mail as that was unimportant from my point of view at the moment, and rushed inside to immediately open it.
I say I rushed, but actually, once I got inside I was so careful opening the box that it probably took me about 10 minutes. That was in part due to my dramatic revealing of it to myself and girlfriend (who watched on via a Skype call) though, as I slowly removed it from the red bubble wrap to reveal the red anodized aluminum.
That’s when I got my first reaction to the phone, which was me holding it in all sorts of lighting that I could imagine to make sure that I had seen every last nanometer of the newly coated aluminum back and sides.
I didn’t want to put a case on it and hide that absolutely beautiful red color, but decided to invest in a cheaper case that was completely clear, that way I could get the best of both worlds. Receiving my phone on a Friday afternoon, I had a weekend before my phone would be seen by anyone outside of my house.
Upon returning to school Monday morning, however, the questions began. “Is that case?!”, “Where can I get that?!”, and “Can I hold it?!” were among the most popular choice of questions received. After answering all the questions asked, it was always followed by one final question, “How much does it cost?” This was the turning point in the conversation.
It would either go to “That’s well worth it” or “That’s too much.” I found one thing interesting though, usually those who bought the phones themselves are the ones that would say it’s well worth it, while those that had the phone provided to them said that’s too much.
In my opinion, because of the service that is being provided, it is more than worth it. AnoStyle is completely re-anodizing the metal of your iPhone (I should probably mention, they also do iPad minis) to another color.
For those of you that have been skimming the article ever since you saw the final question, the price is $249 for iPhone 5 and $299 for iPad mini (not including shipping). While I was awaiting my iPhone 5, the service was also opened up to international orders.
Shipping, from what I’ve heard, is not ideal, but AnoStyle has done its best with what it can, as it can control the shipping prices, that is all up to the actual shipping companies themselves.
Overall, I was more than pleased with the experience, especially the company/customer interaction, and am completely astounded at the end product. Like I said at the beginning, I highly recommend that if you want this, you go for it. You will not be at all disappointed. Head on over to www.anostyle.com.
Last, but certainly not least, what would a review of AnoStyle be without some “before” and “after” pictures? You can check those out below. Enjoy.
