11 arguably awesome smartphones with leather (or leather-like) rear covers

Not long ago, Samsung had a little obsession with faux-leather back covers for some of its handsets. And while Samsung may have been the first major smartphone maker to popularize this, other companies have pushed things further, creating handsets that incorporate real leather into their designs. In both cases (real vs. synthetic), most smartphones that use leather have a distinct look compared to other devices on the market.

We wanted to see how many smartphones with leather (or leather-like) backs were out there, and we discovered more than we'd expected. Join us below to take a look at all of them, in chronological order, will you?


Announced in September 2013, the Galaxy Note 3 was the first Samsung handset to use a faux-leather, stitched rear cover. With its 5.7-inch screen, the Note 3 remains the largest (and the only high-end) Samsung smartphone to have that particular stitching on its back.



While earlier Vertu Constellation handsets ran Symbian, the latest model, announced in October 2013, is based on Android. This is a $6,600 luxury smartphone that's built using titanium and real calf leather. As you can see below, the leather covers not just the back, but also a bit of the sides and front of the device. Vertu released the Constellation in five color options, so the leather can come in black, light brown, dark brown, orange, and cherry.



The Galaxy Grand 2 is Samsung's second smartphone to have a faux-leather back. Introduced in November 2013, the Grand 2 is a mid-range device with features that include a 5.2-inch 720p display, a Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of expandable internal memory.



And here's the third Samsung handset that offers a soft, leather-like rear cover: the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. Released in early 2014 as a cheaper and less advanced variant of the original Note 3, the Neo is powered by an Exynos 5 Hexa processor, while featuring a 5.5-inch 720p display, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of expandable storage space.



Obviously inspired by Samsung, in May last year Huawei released its own Android smartphone with a faux-leather back cover: the Honor 3X Pro. Available only in China, the Honor 3X Pro features an octa-core MediaTek processor, a 5.5-inch 720p display, a 13 MP rear camera, 5 MP front-facing camera, and 2 GB of RAM.



Starting with the Galaxy Note 4 (introduced in September 2014), Samsung gave up on using stitched rear covers, but didn't ditch the leather-like texture. Of course, this is a different texture than those used on the Note 3 and Note 3 Neo, but still imitates leather.



Since it's the curved, asymmetric brother of the Note 4, the Galaxy Note Edge has a similar faux-leather texture on the back.

  
While the Moto X doesn't feature leather by default, for $25 you can pick a leather back for the handset while you're customizing it in Moto Maker. This is real leather we're talking about here, and you can choose between the following colors: red, black, navy blue, natural, and cognac.



Here's another handset that comes dressed in real leather: the Tonino Lamborghini 88 Tauri. It's an expensive, limited edition Android smartphone that will set you back $6,000, but at least its tech specs aren't disappointing (as it often happens with luxury smartphones), including: a 5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 801 processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 20 MP rear camera, and an 8 MP front-facing camera. The handset runs Android KitKat, and incorporates a 3400 mAh battery.


 
Once again, we have real leather here: the luxurious Bellperre Touch can be purchased in buffalo leather, or "American alligator skin," starting at $3,000. Interestingly, the strip of leather that covers the smartphone's area below the screen is touch-sensitive, apparently hiding capacitive keys. That aside, the Bellperre Touch offers a 4.9-inch 720p sapphire crystal display, a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, 8 MP rear camera, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal memory.



As we all know, the LG G4 hasn't been announced yet. But LG's teaser images already confirmed that the handset has some kind of leather on the back (though some variants will apparently feature plastic backs). Moreover, recently leaked images showed that we should expect the rear leather to come in various colors, including black, light brown, dark red, and even yellow. The G4 will be officially announced on April 28.