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    Ya Otter Box That iPhone

    posted @ 7/19/2007 10:26:00 PM by evermore
    I've seen people drop them and try to scratch them. I've even seen a guy put it in an industrial blender and turn it into dust, but I want to make sure my iPhone doesn't meet that sorry fate.

    I don't have my iPhone yet -- it should be just a few more days. But that hasn't kept me from investigating my options for protecting it from myself. I've been very fortunate with my previous cell phones and iPods. I've had a few minor mishaps over the years, but nothing that has ever resulted in real injury.

    When I heard that Otterbox was releasing a case for the iPhone, I was relieved. Their stuff has always been top notch, so I expect their case for the iPhone won't be any different. You can see photos of the cases on this page, but don't expect to see them in the field for "several months," according to the press release that we got here at ElectricSistaHoodquarters.

    Remember what the Sistahs say: Always bring protection.


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    Product Review: Otterbox Treo Case

    posted @ 12/22/2006 11:57:00 PM by Ninjasistah
    Recently I got my hands on a new Palm Treo smartphone case from OtterBox and I have to say, after some testing I'm pretty surprised.

    From the first glance at the case, it's obvious that this ain't no simple sleeve... the Treo 1920 case is ideal for use in outdoorsy settings. The case itself is a
    Polycarbonate/ABS shell with Rubber over-molding for grip and drop protection
    and while I'm not exactly sure I know what that means, I can tell you that in this case I can comfortably drop my Treo 650 and not immediately panic. Coming from me, that's huge. They way I care for my tech gadgets drive anal-retentive people up the wall. It's sad really. Moving on.

    The case shell comes in two pieces... the front which has all of the keys [which line up perfectly with those on the front of my device] and screen protector while the back piece has the latch you use to hold the two pieces tight together in effect creating a Treo cocoon of safety. It works well. The latch is quite heavy duty and in all my test "oops I dropped my Treo" tries it never un-latched itself. Double cool. The case has a see-through hold in the spot where the camera is, a vent over the speaker location, and an opening at the bottom to allow me to charge or sync the device while it's in it's protective encasing. So no functionality is lost at all. It even has a "grip" on the side to put my stylus in so I don't have to take my Treo out of the cocoon in order to use all of it's functionality. Triple cool.

    One thing about this case that I cannot stress enough is that the case itself is water resistant and not water-proof. This should be evident by the fact that you don't make an airtight seal when enclosing your device inside the two pieces of the OtterBox case. You can see easily that the speaker vent as well as the receiver vent are, well, vents... as in open spaces where air and liquid can get in. I guess after releasing the product, a few of the rugged outdoorsy types didn't realize this, and waterlogged their [previously useful and functional] smartphones.

    As far as the water-resistant part, the case delivers. I took it out on one of the more rainy/miserable days that we've had recently in VA and [thought my head told me not to do it] I whipped my protected Treo out in the middle of a downpour to find it very well protected. With no umbrella to my name I proceeded to flip open the outer screen protector to use the stylus to access email, make a phone call and add an event to my calendar. Fearful that at any moment my Treo would be turned into a paperweight, I finished my list of tasks and quickly found cover in order to rip the case off my phone and check it's status. It was dry to the bone. TA-DA! I returned to my apartment feeling very satisfied. Yes, this case was going to get an exceptionally high rating from me. I say was as after my return to the joint, I found the only kink in the cases armor.

    When I made my first calls with the device in the case I had been using my BT headset. You know, the little hands free things you stick in your ear to talk on your cellphone that make you look like "Uhura" from the "Star Trek" TV show. I had to answer a call while the headset was charging and found that the audio quality was rather poor. It was nearly impossible for the person on the other end of the line to make out what it was that I was trying to say to him. I knew it was going to be a big problem when I heard myself say, "...just call me on the land line." I HATE using my damn land line. After getting the details from my friend I took a better look at the case and found my problem. Because the case is so think [it add quite the bit of bulk to your Treo] it basically put too much space between your mouth/ear and the actual receiver/speaker... which adds to the already poor audio quality of sound the Treo has, which is a shame.

    In reality, this case is not intended for me. It's clear that this case is designed for people working outdoors, on constructions sites, camping, hell, anywhere that mother nature might try to put the pimp slap on your smartphone. And while I'm mostly an urban ninja myself, I find myself using this case more and more... as long as my BT headset is charged. In honesty, it has replaced another Treo case in my "nearly everyday usage" category.

    I'm going to give this case a 4/5 because it does every single thing that it says it does which is very rare in products these days, and it's just well made. Anything that makes me so comfortable flinging my smartphone around like it cost 5 bucks [and not $400] is a damned fine product. I'm cutting it short of 5/5 for being a tad pricey [coming it at $129.95] and for lowering the existing poor in-call audio quality of the Treo 650. Two blue candies for being something that the boys [or tomboy's in all of us] want and would enjoy, one purple for being so solid, and one green one for being no-so cheap.

    If you are in need of some quality water-resistant solutions for your portable devices, I recommend that you pop by the OtterBox website... I will be from now on.

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