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Sent to you by Brent via Google Reader: Appletell reviews the Ballistic
HC Series Case for iPhone 4 via Appletell - iPhone / iPod touch / iPad
by Josh Holat on 7/24/10

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone, iDevice Accessories,
Reviews

Provides: iPhone 4 protection
Colors: Gray/Black
Developer: Ballistic
Minimum Requirements: iPhone 4
Price: $49.99
Availability: Now but frequently out of stock

Before I say anything, I want to mention that the Ballistic HC case
review unit I received is a pre-production model that doesn't have the
plug for the headset jack that the releas models will support. That
being said, it does seem as if this case is otherwise pretty well
baked. In terms of offering complete protection "designed to survive
life," I'd say this case would do the trick.

The first thing you'll notice about the Ballistic HC Series case is
that it is quite large. With four layer protection, the case comes with
three parts. The first part is the main case, and this alone is quite
study and strong. It consists of one piece that covers the sides and
back of the iPhone 4 and another piece to cover the front. To put the
case on your iPhone, you drop the phone into the part of the case that
covers the sides and back. Then, you pop on the front part of the main
case (which fits in nicely) and has a built-in screen protector.
Thankfully, that means no messing around with those annoying sticker
screen protectors that always appear to contain bubbles no matter how
hard you try to prevent them.

Once you have that main case on, there is a larger soft cover case that
you stretch over the entire main case. This soft cover case adds quite
a bit more size to the unit, but is obviously meant to further protect
the phone from being dropped, etc. Lastly, the third part that comes
with the case is a belt clip holster into which you can pop your entire
product—case and phone—to keep at your side. It's a good thing they provide
this, too, because fitting that large case into your pocket definitely
isn't an easy as, say, a bumper.

During most of my use with the case, I left the soft cover off. The
first reason for this is that I felt as if the main case portion would
cover the phone well enough for what I needed. The second reason is
that with the soft case on, it was simply much larger than I would've
wanted to carry around daily; without the soft case, it can still fit
into your pocket quite comfortably. And if you're into using the
holster, it's nice to know the case fits in the holster with or without
the soft case.

Overall, in terms of doing what this case is meant to do—protect your
phone—I'd say it's second to none. With all these layers and types of
protection, there isn't much you could do to dent or scratch your phone
when it's in this system. I can't help but see this case being perfect
for construction workers and people who are often around areas where
relatively delicate phones shouldn't be.

That said, the quality of protection does have some downsides. The most
prominent of these downsides is the bulk. Don't plan on carrying this
entire case around in your pocket all the time unless you don't mind it
bulging out. If you like using holsters, though, you probably won't
have this problem. This bulk also makes it hard to hit areas on the
side of your screen at first. The large ridges on the edges of the
screen make it hard for fingers to tap the areas along the sides. The
most frequently occurring time I noticed this was when typing and
attempting to hit letters such as P, L, Q or A.

On top of that, I did run in to a few other issues with the case. For
one, while the built in screen protector is nice, I did get a few nice
scratches on the protector itself that show up when using the phone.
Better there then on the glass screen, though. Also, while the screen
protector didn't cause any bubbles, there were times when I could tell
it wasn't fully against my screen as some rainbow discoloration from
the way the plastic was shaped occurred.

There are a couple more things worth noting. The case does a nice job
of leaving areas for the parts of the phone. For instance, both of the
cameras as well as the flash are fully capable of functioning normally.
The earphone, ambient sensors above it, and speakers on the bottom are
also fully functional and accounted for. Even the pin connector on the
bottom of the phone is usable. (Although, it is worth mentioning that
when using older USB cables where the pin connector is more square than
on the newer ones, you may have to force it a little bit to get a
connection. To be fair, though, the bumper provided by Apple does an
even worse job of fitting the older USB cables.)

My final thoughts? If you're going to war, building a skyscraper, or
hunting deadly animals, this is the case for you. You won't have to
worry at all about damaging your phone. However, it you want something
that easily slides into your pocket and doesn't add a lot of bulk but
simply protects from minor scratches and drops, you may want to look
elsewhere.

div class="center">Appletell Rating:


Buy the Ballistic iPhone 4 Case



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