Spend a few days at CES, and you will quickly see how big the cell phone case market has become. There were literally dozens of case manufacturers at CES showcasing their latest. One company in particular seemed to stand out from the rest. I had only recently heard of their product, so I was happy to see they had a booth at CES. I walked up to the booth and met with Dan Koziol VP of sales and Marketing for LifeProof.
Lifeproof had a 4 tier glass case setup at their booth to simulate the 4 elements their case protects the phone from. Water Proof | Dirt Proof | Snow Proof | Shock Proof. The bottom tier of the case was full of water, simulating the case being water proof and the other 3 tiers were desert sand and simulated snow. They had a mechanism setup that was constantly dropping the phone and reeling it back in again, which went on constantly, shock proof.
Now, getting to the case itself. There are a few things I noticed right off the bat that were interesting to me. The case itself is made out of hard and rubberized plastic. The back is full plastic, this thing is thinner than an Otterbox Defender, and I feel it’s stronger. The charging port is a flip down, plastic door and the head phone port has a threaded plug that allows you to slave in a waterproof headphone jack lanyard, which comes with the case.
Something I noticed right out of the box was, only the factory Apple 30 pin connector fits the case to charge the phone. This may be a downfall for some. I, in fact have a factory Apple charging cord that an old Apple Bluetooth headset plugs into, and this would not fit. The only other Apple 30 pin that I have, I keep at work. So the case needs to come completely off for me, every time I need to plug the phone in. Now the waterproof ports, from what I understand, are one way check valves. Air can be pushed out, but nothing can go back into the case. It’s pretty interesting how that works. One thing I noticed about these ports, which are in all of the places where volume either comes in, or goes out of the phone. So the speaker mic ports at the bottom of the phone, have the check valves, as does the ear speaker.
Making a phone call, you can tell, has a little muffle to it. It’s not that big of a deal, but it sounds like someone is talking with their hand in front of their mouth. I also noticed something very interesting while playing music. Sitting the case down flat on the table, muffles the music. When you pick up the phone and put your hand on the back of the phone, you can feel the music resonating through the back, and pressing on the back of the phone case changes the music tone. To me, it doesn’t sound like anything is coming out of the speaker check valves at the bottom of the phone.
I will say, this is a very solid case and I see myself saving it, more or less for a time that I would really need it. If you love how responsive the iPhones capacative touch screen is, it will take you some getting used to with the LifeProof case on as you need to push a little harder when texting. The front of the screen is shiny plastic, so you get the same finger prints you get on the phone screen. It collects oil the same way the phone would naked. I have a little biased opinion of full cover cases like this, because I love my phone with just a bumper on it. I like to be able to feel the screen taps and the fact that with the bumper, it won’t slide across the table like it would with the Lifeproof case. The case being hard plastic on the back, if it starts to slide on a surface, it will just keep going. The vibrate switch also takes on a mind of its own, and for some reason, in the case functionality is reversed. Up is mute and down is ringer, strange. The home button on the case is a little raised and Ive also activated Siri a few times climbing out of my car with my phone in my pocket.
For the category this case it in, I feel it’s the best case out there right now, because there simply isn’t a case that can do everything this case sets out to do. If you are comparing it to the Otterbox Defender, it’s quite a bit thinner, and like I said earlier, I think it’s stronger. Its also waterproof up to 3 meters or 9 feet, which no other case claims. So if you are so connected to your iPhone so much that you need to take it in the shower with you, this is the case for you.
Lifeproof also manufactures and sells an Arm Band, a Bike handle bar mount, a belt clip and a mount that you can snap to your bike helmet for video. All of the accessories come at an extra cost. With the phone, you get the case and the waterproof headphone lanyard. Retail price is $79 and the case can currently be found on the shelf at your local Best Buy Retail Store, in 4 Colors. White, Black, Pink and Purple.
If you have any questions that you need answered or you feel I didn’t cover, feel free to email me and I will try to answer it in the best way possible.
