Xelion might sound like an alien emperor from a sci-fi paperback, but it’s actually an innovative rubber compound that promises to revolutionise phone case design.
Pronounced ‘zellion’, it’s made by Italian company MOLS, which’ll be launching its products in the UK and across Europe imminently.
MOLS’s Xelion-based cases solve the problem of owning a case that confers a solid level of protection without having to wrap your beautiful, slender £700-phone in an ugly, bomb disposal squad-looking jacket. They’re very thin, adding only an extra 1.5 millimetres to the dimensions of your phone.
The insides of the case also feature ribbed edges, which allow the case to grip the body of the phone, making for an extra-snug fit, no cornstarch required.
If you doubt the levels of protection Xelion will afford you, take a look at the video below. We’ll delve into the science behind this after the break; until then, enjoy watching a series of balls dropping.
While MOLS is being cagey about the exact makeup of Xelion and how it works, for fear of copycat competitors getting wise, the company admits that its wunder-material is partly made up of so-called concave particles.
Concave or ‘bowl-shaped’ particles have got the scientific community hot under the collar due to their ability to store and release energy, something which has the potential to revolutionise medicine and optics as well as slightly more mundane things like phone cases.
MOLS claims that Xelion works by converting 96 per centof the kinetic energy of shocks and impact damage into heat, which is then harmlessly dissipated into the air.
Duncan Scoular is the CEO of Modern Technology Services Ltd, a company which is working closely with launching MOLS in the UK in tandem with Glassguard – another phone-proofing product which we’re covering in detail here.
Scoular told us that “Other cases will successfully insulate your phone from superficial damage to the body and the screen. That’s all well and good, but shocks that are not dissipated can cause internal damage to circuitry and components.
“That might not manifest itself as a problem until weeks or even months later and by then you won’t remember that you’d dropped it and you won’t know why things aren’t working.”
We asked Scoular if there’s plans to make cases for tablets and while those are indeed in the pipeline, MOLS is looking at a slightly different take on the design, to help prevent tablets from being bent and twisted. Due to their smaller size, phones are generally less susceptible to being warped by fall damage or being sat on absent-minded users, although that’s not unheard of.
While there will eventually be cases made for all shapes and sizes, MOLS will launch with Xelion cases for all Apple iPhones from the 4 to the 6 Plus as well as a number of Samsung phones including the Galaxy S4, S5, Note 4 and Alpha.
Cases will be priced at £21.99 for the standard black case and £29.99 for some limited edition designs, which come in fetching metallic teal and burnished gold flavours.
You’ll also be able to buy a MOLS case as part of a £30 bundle with a Glassguard screen protector when those go on sale, giving you stylish protection from all angles.
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