What will be the first purchase for your new iPhone? A leather case? A Charger? A bluetooth headset? Definitely, a protection of the phone is a must. Just like some carriers will also sell you the phone insurance plan when you buy the phone. There are a lot of cases on the market for the phones now. There are skin case which made with Silicone, crystal case that made with hard plastic. Otterbox has released a new case that combined the Silicone case and the crystal hard case in one. It is called Otterbox Defender Series.
The Otterbox Defender series comes in 3 separate parts.
The most basic piece is the hard case. More like the crystal cases on the market, the Defender series hard case is made with hard plastic and it is separated in 2 pieces. By looking at the hard case, you will see a lot of cutouts on it. There is a cutout for the "HOME" key, Volume keys, power keys. Other than the keys, there are also cutouts for the data port, speaker and microphone. On the screen area, you will find a thin transparent plastic film. This is to protect the screen of the iPhone as well as make it sensitive and usable. On the back of the hard case, there is another big round cutout with another thin transparent plastic film on it as well. This cutout is for people who wants to show of the Apple Logo on the iPhone. This hard case is a hard solid case with 4 clips to secure the top and the bottom piece.
The hard case can be used as a standalone case, however, it is not designed to work like that. A separate Silicone case is included. This silicone case is designed to fit on the hard case in order to cover all the cutouts that mentioned above. For the data and headset ports, there is a flippable cover built on the silicone case. This will prevent dust go into the ports. On the volume keys, HOME and Power buttons, they are all fully covered by the Silicone case with marking on it.
Otterbox actually did a very nice job for this case. They did not forget the light sensor on the top of the iPhone. A special cutout is also made for the sensor too.
Combine the thickness of the hard case and the skin case, the Otterbox gave a new size to your iPhone. The thickness has increased to 20mm. With this kind of bulkyness, Otterbox did not forget to provide the carrying solution for the iPhone.
For this Defender series, it comes with a swivel lock holster. This holster is more like the Blackberry OEM holster. The iPhone is designed to just slide and go. There is no top clip to secure the phone. However, this holster can let you store the iPhone either face-in or face-out. On the back of the holster, you can find a 360 degreen swivel lock belt clip, which looks exactly same as the Blackberry OEM holster.
Overall: This Defender Series is designed for maximum protection on the iPhone as well as usability. You will find this product to be dust and scratch proof. The ideal customers are those who would like to carry their iPhone for outdoor activities, like camping, hiking, bicycling, etc. With the price of $49.95, it is a steal. On the other hand, if you are using the Defender series daily, you will start hating the phone because of the bulkyness. It just like wearing a motor bike helmet on your iPhone.
MyMobile911 scoring:
Protection: A
usability: A
Size and Fitting: B-
Price: A
Overall: A