Android Central Verdict
Price: $15.99-$17.99Bottom line: This dual-layer case is a twofer that keeps both your phone and your payment methods safe from prying eyes, but it'll slip through your fingers and off your desk if you're not careful with it.
Pros
- +
Wallet has room for two cards plus cash
- +
Durable hard plastic cover keeps what you're carrying a secret
Cons
- -
Feels bulky like a tank
- -
Flat, slick back slides across tables and slips out of pockets
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Good wallet cases are multitaskers, protecting your phone while keeping your cash and cards nearby. With a phone as big as the Samsung Galaxy S9+, a wallet case isn't just a single card slot or squeezing some cash between the case and the back of our phone; you can legitimately use is as an ultra-minimalist wallet.
Now, every wallet case has a decision to make: does it want to keep its slim figure, or does it want to keep its cards securely stashed away from hungry eyes? Spigen thinks that you should be able to have both, and while it comes seriously close with the Slim Armor CS, it can't quite have its cake and eat it, too.
Spigen Slim Armor CS case for Galaxy S9+ What I like
Spigen makes excellent cases, and to its credit, the Slim Armor CS is solid, sturdy, and firm in the hand. It feels a bit like a tank, like it can protect your phone and your cards from anything. The buttons and ports on the Slim Armor CS are as expertly shaped and sculpted, though due to the added bulk of the hard-shell card slot on the back, the fingerprint sensor's slope changes grades between the hard-plastic and the TPU inner sleeve.
The edges of this case are all smooth, and the lip around the front still allows you to use the screen from edge to edge while using the lip on the top and bottom of the screen to keep the glass up off the table when you lay it face down.
The card slot that the CS is named for slides open and shut easily, with room for two cards and some neatly-folded cash or three cards if you're not the cash-carrying sort. The TPU sleeve that functions as a back wall of the card slot is grippy enough that your cards and cash shouldn't slide around and click against each other and the plastic in the card slot.
And since this case completely covers the card slot, it better hides what valuables you're carrying and doesn't offer up the uneven edges and springy bulk wallet pouches perpetually suffer from.
Spigen Slim Armor CS case for Galaxy S9+ What I don't like
Unfortunately, since the Slim Armor CS completely covers its bounty within its hard plastic shell, the Slim Armor CS really doesn't do its first name justice. Yes, it feels slimmer than a wallet pouch or a fold-over wallet case, but it still feels like a tank: big and unwieldy, especially in smaller hands like mine.
Another downside of the hard-shell card slot is that there's no wiggle room on what will or won't fit, so I hope you have digital insurance cards, because you don't have room for them here. The smooth plastic back can and will slide off tabletops and out of your hands if you aren't careful, and the card slot dominating the back of the phone discourages the use of Spigen's new Style Ring Pop or any other phone grip.
My final complaint with the Slim Armor CS's wallet function is that, while it does slide open and shut easily, there's no CLICK when you open or shut it, and there's no bump or readily noticeable tactile feedback when you slide it all the way shut.
The two plastic teeth that the card slot cover grips on are shallow, and while I haven't slid it open by accident that often, I still wonder how quickly that grip will start to weaken when using CS as an everyday wallet.
Spigen Slim Armor CS case for Galaxy S9+
If you're looking for a case to keep your cards safely hidden during a night on the town, the Spigen Slim Armor CS case for Galaxy S9+ is a durable case that can double as a very minimal wallet and look good doing it. I'd just make sure to keep a tight grip on it, because its smooth back and wallet-hiding bulk make it easier to slip or drop.
At $16 dollars, you can do a whole lot worse for a wallet case that is as well assembled as the nearly seamless Slim Armor CS, and while I wish its card slot was a little more clicky, I trust it with my most important cards, and with my Galaxy S9+. The Slim Armor CS comes in 5 shiny shades to match the various colors of the Galaxy S9+, though the Rose Gold is more suited to the Burgundy Red model than the Sunrise Gold.
