Replica LG Nexus 4 bumpers from China might be worth a try
As most Nexus device owners know, Google isn’t exactly the best at releasing accessories for their various devices. It took quite a while with the ASUS Nexus 7 dock, it still hasn’t released the LG Nexus 4 charging orb, and the official Nexus 4 bumper case is still listed as subject to shipping delays on Google Play.
I’ve been wanting to pick up a Nexus 4 bumper case from Google Play for my own personal use, but it has sold out so quickly that I haven’t been able to buy one just yet. Some official versions are on sale on eBay, but they usually go for about $30, which is a bit too much to pay for a bumper case. Fortunately, for those of us that want a lightweight bumper case and don’t want to wait for them to go back in stock through Google (the wait right now is 1-2 weeks, but they could always sell out again), there is now another option: Chinese knockoffs of the bumper case that actually look very close to the original, and are sometimes cheaper as well.
Courtesy of an XDA thread, there are several links to different Chinese knockoff bumpers ranging in price from $10-$25 dollars. While some aren’t exact replicas of the Google case, the variant found here is the same price and looks nearly identical to the stock version. Since it has free shipping, it may even be cheaper than Google Play’s option for many people. While the shipping could take a couple of weeks, it at least allows buyers to pay now and have a definite window for receiving the case, instead of having to wonder when Google will get its act together.
As Andreas has pointed out, it is important to be careful with charging accessories from China. However, since the worst thing that could happen with a defective case is that it doesn’t fit your device, I would suspect that if the official Nexus 4 bumper still isn’t shipping in a week or two, more and more people will begin resorting to these third party options. In fact, if the official case doesn’t go in stock soon, I’ll probably be placing an order for one of these Chinese replicas despite the longer shipping times.
[xda-developers]
