- PopSockets unveils its thinnest iPhone MagSafe grip to date
- It is 2.6 mm thick
- Comes in 12 colors and is available exclusively at the Apple Store – for now
Every gadget has an origin story, but PopSocket’s Low-Pro iPhone Grip may be special. Unveiled today at the Apple Store, it’s an idea as old as the PopSockets brand, but one that waited nearly a decade for the original grip to become a smartphone industry icon gracing the backs of hundreds of millions of phones.
PopSockets makes a wide variety of grip styles, and some, like the Kick-Out & Grip, are pretty low-profile, but nothing quite like the 2.6mm-thick Low-Pro, which PopSockets’ VP of Marketing Lisa Li calls “a labor of love.”
The idea for the Low Pro can be traced back to the first few months of PopSockets, when founder and CEO David Barnett was already brainstorming ideas for an ultra-thin grip. But to understand that notion, you need to know why and how Barnett developed the PopSocket grip in the first place.
Blame it on the wired headphones
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A former professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Barnett had headphones that he often used with his iPhone, which became tangled in his pocket. As a solution, he bought a few large coat buttons and glued them to the back of his iPhone 3G (I saw it, it’s real). Then he wrapped the headphone cord around them.
Problem solved. That spark of ingenuity ignited a small flame of innovation: Barnett realized he could do more with his phone cable holder and envisioned a pair of grips that could be attached and folded. He even taught himself CAD and made a 3D print of a 2.1mm thick disk. The print was a bit of a failure in that it didn’t expand and was basically a rigid disk that he now sometimes carried around with him.
Even as Barnett began handing out early grip prototypes to his students and they started using them as grips, Barnett couldn’t shake the idea that it could be thinner. He told a friend about his idea:
“He was visibly upset and he scolded me. I still remember him basically yelling at me in this coffee shop. He said, ‘You’d be a complete idiot to turn your attention and start developing a new product when you’re sitting on something that could be a big hit here’.”
The child took his advice, shelved the ultra-thin idea and developed PopSockets into a popular brand and, for some, an indispensable smartphone accessory.
The damn skinny jeans
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He never let go of the idea either, and in talking to customers over the years, he noticed a strange trend with potential male users saying that even though the product looked cool, they wouldn’t use it because it would get stuck in their pockets.
“It’s funny… what are they talking about? I put it in my pocket. I just put my hand over it like this [and] I throw it in my pocket,” said Barnett, who added that he’s never gotten one of his PopSocket grips stuck in his pockets.
Still, Barnett and company quickly realized there might be a market opportunity if they returned to the ultra-thin idea, a grip so low-profile it has almost no edges—and would never get stuck in a pocket.
However, getting there would not be easy. Taking a few millimeters off their current thinnest design, arguably the PopSockets Kick-Out & Grip stand (6mm), would require re-engineering an OG component: the two-stage expansion accordion section between the base of the button: that’s where you slide your fingers to grab the…er…grip.
The result is a PopSocket grip that feels unlike anything that has come before it. Instead of a satisfying two-step pop-up that clicks into place, the Low-Pro grip is single-action, and when open, the button sort of floats or wiggles on top of what frankly looks like a very flimsy rubber platform. It’s not even a single piece of material attached to the thin base that sits inside an equally thin steel ring. Like the PopSocket grip before it, the ring and base are attached with a hinge. Instead of the knob swinging out like a tripod, the metal ring does the work and opens pretty much all degrees.
By the way, Barnett assured me that the $39.99 PopSocket Low-Pro is stronger than it looks.
To perform a pull test, the PopSockets team glued the base to a phone and then pulled the button. It held up to 30 lbs of pressure. In the real world, the magnet would yield from a MagSafe iPhone back before the Low-Pro snapped in half.
They also opened and closed the Low-Pro 100,000 times without issue.
The new grip is so thin that MagSafe charges can still work through it, although charging speeds may be reduced. The magnetized face is strong enough to stick to other magnetic surfaces, meaning you can mount your iPhone to a metal cabinet or your metal refrigerator.
Everything about the iPhone – for now
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Unlike the classic PopSockets, which are platform-agnostic and used to attach to phones and phone cases with a sticky base, the Low-Pro is designed for MagSafe and therefore the iPhone. In fact, the PopSockets Low-Pro Grip launches exclusively at the Apple Store today in six colors, arriving at Best Buy and Target on July 12th and at all other retailers on July 29th. Before then, it should be available in 12 colors.
It’s a relatively big swing for PopSockets to take a well-known and beloved design and basically throw it out (at least for the Low-Pro) to bring in new customers who demand thinness at all costs, but Barnett has faced tough critics in the past, and it looks like he’s finally won them over.
When Barnett shared the prototype for his very first grip with his wife, she told him, “It was the dumbest thing she’d ever seen and that no one would ever buy one,” he recalled.
A decade later, he gave her a preview of the Low-Pro. “Her reaction,” Barnett said, “was that it’s the best invention since the credit card. She said everybody’s going to buy this thing.”
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