Case By Case: Protecting Your Device

by Eric March on March 27, 2008 at 1:45 am

Let’s face it: You paid a lot of money for your iPod or iPhone. The best thing you can do for it is to protect it against smacks, drops, scratches, and other pitfalls of every day life. For that, you need a case. Maybe even a skin. But which one? How do you choose? Obviously it has to look good and compliment your device, and maybe even offer a handy feature or two, but it has to offer solid protection, too. In this article, I’m going to go over the various types of protection available and talk about their good and bad points so that by the end, you will hopefully be able to make an informed decision about the sort of protection you feel will best suit you.

Skins
I’m going to start off with skins because I feel that this should be the first stop on the road to making sure your device is well protected from top to bottom. For the sake of brevity, and because they are not very robust solutions, I will not be discussing ordinary screen protectors here.

Before I start though, there is a common argument among users as to whether or not a skin (or even a screen protector) is really even necessary when the iPod Touch and iPhone have glass screens. The answer is yes, it is still necessary, for two good reasons:

1. Glass can still be scratched, chipped and cracked. While it is more proof against scratching than plastic, it is far more brittle and prone to cracks and chips.
2. It isn’t just glass. It’s a capacitive touchscreen. Capacitive touchscreens are coated with a micro-thin layer of indium tin oxide, a transparent, conductive metal oxide that serves as the primary mechanism by which the whole touchscreen works. This layer is prone to wear, and over time and with enough use, you can wear patches of it out, which will result in little or no response from that area of the screen. Skins and screen protectors will protect against such wear.

Now that we’ve established the necessity of skins, let’s talk about them.

There are several brands of total body skins out there, and for the most part they’re pretty similar. The most common and well-known skin is, of course, the invisibleSHIELD from ZAGG Inc (formerly ShieldZone), the folks who originated these skins in the first place. The invisibleSHIELD is fabricated from a special polyurethane film, which is slightly rubbery yet exceptionally resilient, capable of stretching to a remarkable degree while remaining highly puncture and scratch-resistant. The film was originally developed by the US military to protect the leading edges of helicopter rotor blades from nicks and scratches caused by debris kicked up by the aircraft’s downdraft. In ZAGG’s demonstration videos, they show an iPhone, protected with an invisibleSHIELD, being shaken around in a bag of nuts and bolts, and emerging unscathed.

Pleasantly, this was not staged, nor is it hyperbole; this film really does protect that well — in fact, it could withstand far greater punishment than they dished out. Without doubt, your device could spend the day in the same pocket as your keys while you engage in high-impact aerobics and still come out looking good as new. I’ve even taken an Xacto knife to it, and while it can be cut, it takes a surprising amount of pressure — you really have to want to cut through, so incidental scratches and scuffs — don’t even worry about it. As a bonus, fingerprints and other dirt is very easy to clean off. The only complaint some have is that the skins do give your device a bit of a mottled “orange peel” texture. This is a product the manufacturing process due to what ZAGG refers to as NanoMemory technology, which is the term used to describe its resiliency and its ability to withstand scratches, punctures and stretching so well.

The invisibleSHIELD is a bit spendy at $25 for one full-body skin. This isn’t something you’re just going to run out and buy a dozen of. Fortunately, you really only ever need one, and ZAGG offer a lifetime replacement warranty so that if your shield should fail for any reason (unlikely as that may be), they’ll replace it free of charge. The skin does come very nicely packaged and features a bottle of applicator spray, which moistens the adhesive side of the film and lets you position it easily during the application process. You also get a little squeegee card to squeeze out air bubbles that are introduced during application. (If you miss some or can’t get some out, don’t worry; the material is semi-porous, so any leftover air or liquid pockets will dissipate in a day or so.)

On the cheaper side, you have Best Skins Ever skins. These are very similar to the invisibleSHIELD, though the material is of lower grade, and they are offered up at 1/3rd the cost for a full-body skin. Of course, you do get a bit of a slimmed down package: There is no applicator spray. Instead, you make your own application solution by mixing a drop or two of ordinary dish soap in a bowl of water and letting it sit for 10 minutes or so. You also do not get the little corner dots for covering up the small corner areas that are left exposed after application, and your skins are mailed to you in a plain ol’ envelope with a page of instructions. Unsurprisingly, there is no lifetime warranty on offer here, however, for the drastically reduced price, it is definitely still a viable option for the more budget-conscious or someone who just wants a temporary and disposable fix.

Finally, I would like to cover a more recent product, called BodyGuardz. Once again, these are made of a similar material to the invisibleSHIELD and BSE skins, but they have a smoother appearance, really toning down the “orange peel” texture, which may appeal to the more aesthetically sensitive, but also seems to indicate a different material or manufacturing process. BodyGuardz do not come with the corner dots, but their corner tabs are such that they don’t really need them, as it does a better job of protecting the corners without the need for additional stick-on dots. It isn’t quite as good as the invisibleSHIELD, but it is a happy medium between that and the BSE. BodyGuardz weighs in at the same price as the invisibleSHIELD, but for your $25 you get two full-body skins, plus a generous portion of applicator spray, an applicator squeegee, and a nice box.

invisibleSHIELD
Pros: Exceptional total-body protection; extremely scratch and puncture-resistant; excellent clarity; lifetime replacement warranty
Cons: Expensive

Best Skins Ever
Pros: Extremely scratch and puncture resistant; excellent clarity; inexpensive
Cons: Slightly weak (but still good) full-body protection; no applicator fluid; no warranty

BodyGuardz
Pros: Excellent total-body protection; extremely scratch and puncture-resistant; exceptional clarity; smooth texture; large applicator fluid bottle
Cons: Somewhat expensive; “satisfaction guarantee” good for 30 days but incurs a $5 restocking fee if you return it.

Conclusion
I am tempted to hand BodyGuards the “best bang for the buck,” but the 30 day guarantee and the restocking fee bug me. Still, you do get a pretty good package for the money. On the other hand, invisibleSHIELD is the original and uses higher quality materials. You only get one skin, but then there’s that tasty lifetime replacement guarantee. Given the choice, I’d probably end up going with ZAGG on this one. They’re known, they’re proven, and you’ll never need another one so long as there’s still life in the device.

Cases
Skins are great, of course, but if you’re like me and want to give your device all the protection it deserves, they are only half of the equation. Now we need something to protect it from more than just your car keys. We want to protect it against drops, bumps, and general daily mayhem.

There are five types of cases, each falling into one of two categories: Hard cases and soft cases. Hard cases consist of metal, hardened leather, and plastic, while soft cases are leather and silicone. You can also get “sport” cases, which are typically soft cases made of neoprene or similar, but since they provide virtually no protection from impact, I won’t cover those here.

Metal
If there’s one thing to recommend metal cases, it’s that they’re sturdy as hell. Accidentally drop a table, leg-first, on your precious iPhone? Psh. Metal cases will laugh at your clumsiness. Metal cases are usually available in two types: Aluminum, which is the most common and cheapest metal case to go with. These are sturdy and fairly lightweight. There are also magnesium cases. Magnesium is even lighter than aluminum and, remarkably, even stronger. Magnesium cases don’t have nearly as much give as aluminum; whereas the aforementioned table leg could conceivably cause the aluminum case to buckle and potentially damage the device within, magnesium would simply sneer and tell the leg it to go fetch it a beer.

Metal cases do have their drawbacks though. With most aluminum cases, you may find the edges of the button and switch cutouts rough and a bit uncomfortable to work with. Magnesium cases tend to soften the edges, but they tend to do so at the expense of putting a bit more distance between the cutouts and the physical buttons or switches beyond, which may make them hard to access. The magnesium case I once owned for an old Treo phone also had a raised grille over the earpiece, which put far too much space between the phone’s earpiece and my ear, what with the case’s grille in the way, and that made it impossible to hear the person on the other end.

Even worse however, is that while metal cases are almost always flocked or lined with a soft material within, they do virtually nothing to absorb the shock of an impact, because there simply isn’t enough give to the material (and absolutely no give to the case) to diffuse the shock; just about all of it gets transmitted straight to the device itself. This is bad. Devices do not like to be dropped; the shock from an impact can damage internal components even if it’s protected by a case if the case doesn’t do anything to transmit the shock away from the device. To do that, it needs to have some give — flexibility in the material that can buckle and soften the blow, much like the way crumple zones in a car protect the driver from a crash by helping to slow the vehicle before the passenger cage impacts the solid object you just hit. For this reason, metal (and as you will see below, plastic and hardened leather) cases, while great for protecting against crushing damage, are useless for protecting against impacts.

Plastic
Plastic has two benefits over metal: It’s much lighter, and it can be made transparent. This allows for some nice-looking “crystal” cases. These types of cases are great for protecting your device while still being able to see the screen and access all of its functions. Unfortunately, some plastic cases do this by leaving the screen without any protection at all which, while convenient, isn’t the best protection you can afford your device. Still, esthetically, plastic cases are often a popular choice, and the cutouts are often nice and smooth, making them much nicer to handle.

Unfortunately, plastic cases suffer from the same lack of shock absorption as metal cases. What’s more, plastic is brittle and can crack when dropped, and furthermore can scratch up quite easily. Even worse, plastic cases typically aren’t lined with anything other than maybe some neoprene runners or feet, so there is next to no protection against the shock of an impact. Crushing damage is also an issue; they’re sturdy, but they’ll crack or shatter under a crushing weight, especially if the weight is focused in a small area (like, for example, a table leg.)

Hardened Leather
Not to be confused with reenforced leather, hardened leather works like leather armor from Ye Olde Medieval Days, where leather is boiled and cured into a hardened shell. Leather has a few advantages here. It is hard, but not brittle like plastic, so it doesn’t crack or shatter, and it isn’t metal, so it won’t become permanently deformed if crushed. It can be scratched up though, and it still offers very little in the way of shock absorption. Of the three types of hard cases, this is probably the best compromise between aesthetics and overall protection.

Silicone
Silicone “skins” are a relatively new entry in the field of protection. This is a rubbery material that is exceptionally flexible and highly resistant to heat. Silicone skins offer extremely good protection against nicks and scratches. It’s also better than either metal or plastic at providing some level of shock absorption — but this is somewhat mitigated by an unfortunate but important fact about silicone: It bounces. Bouncing is bad. So don’t drop it. Fortunately, silicone gives you a very good non-slip grip on your device, so it’s far less likely to slip out your hands. Unfortunately, silicone gets dirty, and over time this dirt can become ground in and impossible to remove.

Leather
Rounding out the list is my own personal favourite, leather. Leather cases, in my opinion, offer the most aesthetically pleasing variety of styles to choose from, and they offer the best shock absorption due to their ability to buckle and direct much of the shock of impact around the case and away from the device. Furthermore, they are more durable when it comes to maintaining their integrity (they don’t scratch easily, they can’t shatter, crack or become permanently deformed) and are generally the most comfortable to work with. They do have the disadvantage of offering very little protection against crushing though, but you can also get reenforced leather cases, which generally have a hard material implanted in the flip cover and/or back, and will offer a slightly better solution on that front.

Having said that, the reason I feel that this is the best method of protection is simply because I felt that damage by crushing is the least likely way my device is going to meet its demise. Far more likely are the possibilities of dropping, knocking off a table, or smacking against a door frame when it’s attached to my belt. Your mileage may vary if you’re the type who is more prone to accidentally driving over your toy, but the way iPhones and iPod Touches are typically used, leather cases are the ones best suited for protecting against the most likely causes of damage on your typical day.

Conclusion
Ultimately the decision is yours. Me, I’d go with an invisibleSHIELD and a nice leather case from Sena, Covertec, Seidio, or others, but in the end, what you choose really depends on how you use your device on a daily basis. Hopefully, this article will have given you a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the options you have available.

Posted in Accessories