How can you distinguish between a real leather from a phony leather?  

there are several ways.

if you smell the leather it will have a unique, rich smell. some companies spray fake leather with an artificial scent but real leather smells much more subtle.

another way is to check a seam, if you can pull the material back there will be a "pile" on the back of real leather, like suede.

another way is to touch it. fake leather feels much colder, real leather will feel cold at first but will warm to your hand almost instantly.

Since I don't buy leather, I have to know how to distinguish it. You can often tell by the smell. But sometimes that isn't possible. Usually there is a tag somewhere on the product that says what it is made of. If it says "all man made materials" then that is not leather. If it says "leather" "PU" or something like that, that's real leather. I don't usually trust the sales staff because they won't likely know unless it says on the tag or something, in which case you can read it yourself.

Its soft, very soft. And its light, its unbelievably light(really unbelievably). I don't know about the smell and all. But even if you slightly bend it, it gets wrinkles. Not hideous looking wrinkles, but wrinkles that tell you how soft it really is...
Even if you feel its a bit rough, then its not leather at all...