By Jason Nimer
When I finally decided to take the plunge and buy an iPhone 3G, I knew it was going to be an expensive purchase, followed by expensive monthly phone and text charges. So by the time I got to the Apple Store, I was feeling a bit miserly with my remaining cash. The kid who helped me recommended buying an iPhone case, and naturally, I scoffed. Some of the cases would set me back as much as ANOTHER $40, and I didnt really need one, right? Wrong. Within seven days, I found myself back at the Apple Store and willing to pay any price for a case that would protect the phone AND keep the touch screen responsive and without glare. I was $35 lighter when I left the store for the second time, but it was totally worth it.
But not all the iPhone cases are as top-notch as the one I purchased for way too much money. The good news is that there are tons of cases on the market. The bad news is that (Ill wager a guess) about 90% of these cases are terrible, useless products. So when I received two iPhone cases from a company called *speck, I was a bit wary about their quality. Are they part of the 90%? Keep reading.
For this review, I conducted a little experiment I put each case on my iPhone and left it on for 48 hours. I used (or attempted to use) each as I would on a normal day a few text messages, a few calls, a game here and there, some time spent listening to music and a bunch of time watching videos (the new Dragon Ball Z OVA came out last week; I think Ive watched it on the iPhone a billion times by now).
The See-Thru case got to go first. Lets just say I was counting the seconds to the 48-hour mark. This case was pink and made of solid plastic, with a thinner plastic sheet that fit over the iPhones screen. Disregarding the cases appearance (a pink iPhone? I might as well just buy a white Astro Van and a pack of Virginia Slims, which would make me the worlds ugliest soccer mom), the outside shell seemed durable enough. The problem was the screen protector. The plastic was too thick and that led me to having to press much harder on it to get the iPhone to do what I wanted. And even if I could make my touches register, it didnt change the fact that the plastic sticks to the screen and produces crazy air bubbles, obstructing my view of the most important part the screen! And forget about using it outside; the screen has an intense glare to it because of the plastic, kind of like the first Game Boy Advance model. This case was just terrible.
The Fitted case was a little better, but not by much. This one had a nice plaid cloth back to it, and it really adds that little extra something. Its really too bad that this case shares its pink brothers problems air bubbles, glare, decreased touch responsiveness, etc. I really would have liked to be seen carrying around a plaid iPhone, but it was not meant to be. Substance always comes before style.
I guess that when it comes to iPhone covers, you get what you pay for. Compared to these two cases, my primary one is like a Blu-Ray to these two cases BetaMAX. On the top of each package, the name of the company, *speck, is written in bright orange letters. Just below that, there is the phrase: best case scenario. Your best case scenario would be avoiding these cases and getting a nice one. That phone of yours is just too damn expensive to put into a sub-par case.
Final Rating:
