iSkin Aura Cases for iPhone 5 - Review

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

This is the best looking case I have ever seen.  The brushed aluminum on the back, with the machined aluminum outline, is eye-catching and unique.  A trim piece around the outside that matches the colored aluminum back is a nice touch.  The general design of this case fits into the “slim” category: the sides hug the case while leaving the top and bottom open.  I couldn’t wait to get it out of the box and on my iPhone 5.

RESILIENT

The phone fits extremely well into this case; a lip on the sides come just slightly around the face to hold it in place.  The sides of the case come just around each corner to provide protection and additional fit.  The open ends provide no interference with your media connections making this case ideal if you like to use docking peripherals, or if you own the Lightning adapter.

The aforementioned trim piece on the left and right edge is actually rubberized and slightly protruding from the edge.  This makes for an excellent grip and feel.  There is a small opening for the toggle switch which required the use of my fingernail to get at it.  This is typical of cases like this, and I personally don’t think it is big deal.

I admit that when I first saw this I was concerned that the aluminum back pieces would end up nicked and scarred from regular use.  Impressively, after several weeks of use and one unintentional drop, the case looks almost brand new with no scoring on the aluminum.

For you camera-philes out there I noticed iSkin’s website statement about the opening around the camera having “anti-glare ring” for flash photography.  I had chalked this up to finish, so I decided to give it a try by shooting a photo without (left) and with (right) the case.  I did notice that without the case the photo looked a little more washed-out.  This is an unscientific attempt from an amateur, but I would say their claim holds up.

Picture taken with no case on iPhone

Picture taken with iSkin Aura on iPhone

Only one minor thing with the case, and it is by no means a deal-breaker.  The volume buttons are integrated with the rubberized trim, but I don’t think they make solid contact with the buttons on the phone; when you press them you have to use an unusual amount of pressure for them to react.  Using the edge of your finger, rather than the flat of your fingerprint, makes this easier.  Upon inspection there are little round protrusions on the underside of the buttons.  These probably could have been a little bigger, or made out of something more rigid to get better responsiveness.

BOTTOM LINE

This is one of many cases that iSkin sells.  With this one you can’t go wrong.  It has to be one of the best looking cases on the market without sacrificing functionality.  I have never had anyone grab my phone away from me to check out the case until I put this one on, and I have two friends who bought them the next day.  Do yourself a favor: go to iSkin.com and pick one.

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Zero Chroma VarioProtect 5 - Review

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

Out of the box this case looks great.  There are subtle ridges on each side to conform to left- or right-handed gripping, and in the design these indentations stop short of the face for a seamless look from the front.  A nickel-sized indentation on the back in the middle seems to be for index finger placement.  The case gets thicker at the bottom to accommodate the stand rather than making the whole thing the same thickness.  The stand collapses flush and is visually unobtrusive.

FORM

Someone knew what they were doing when they designed for grip.  The 4 indentations on each side fit comfortably no matter how you hold your phone.  The indent in the back was well positioned as a natural place to fit your index finger when talking on the phone.  This case covers the volume and power buttons to cover phone almost completely.  The only side openings in the case are at the mute toggle switch, one for each speaker (the left one shares the headphone jack), and one for the Lightning adapter port.  Overall, this case fits well and feels good in your hand.

THE STAND

This is one of the coolest and well-designed features of any case I have ever owned.  The stand rotates 360 degrees and has 11 different “locking” positions for angle adjustment.  The latter provides the ability to view the phone from any position on nearly any surface at just the right angle.  As one would expect, when the phone is in the “vertical/upright” position it can get a little tippy so you can’t use all 11 positions.  Since this is really designed for viewing in the widescreen position that isn’t critical.  Just a great stand.

THE (FATAL) FLAWS

Unfortunately, there are two flaws that made me give up on this case after a few days.  The less serious of the two is the sensitivity of the lock button.  It seemed like every time I picked up the case it would lock the screen.  I tend to grab my phone the long way, and if I applied even the smallest amount of pressure it would close up on me.  This was especially annoying when watching a movie as it stops playback.

What ended my love-affair with this case was the serious design flaw with the Lightning connector; the case opening is not wide enough to fit 30-pin-Lightning adapter.  I use my old 30-pins extensively and move my adapter as necessary.  This includes my USB connections in the car and my charger at work.  The only way to use the adapter is to remove the phone from the case.  This should never have to happen, and it is disappointing that after all the thought that seemed to go into designing the case this little detail was over-looked.

BOTTOM LINE

If you are an Apple product user who only owns or uses the Lightning cable made for the iPhone 5/iPad mini then get this case.  If you use the Lightning adapter this case is to be avoided.  No case should have to be removed as a part of normal use.  Add to that the lock button sensitivity and you have a case that falls short.  After experiencing all the positives this case has to offer I could not have been more disappointed.

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LifeProof Case gets an upgrade for iPhone5

Once again we call upon our man Drew to give us his perspective from the demanding world of the construction trades.  Want to kill a phone fast, work with concrete all day.  Dust, water and dropping your device off of the scaffolding to a cement floor; that's about as bad as it gets.  Here are his thoughts... 

I am in the cement industry, I am very rough on my phones and this one holds up to everything. I drop it all the time and nothing ever happens; maybe a little dent on the case but the phone is always good. I have dropped it in snow, water (completely submersed in water and sprayed under the faucet), dirt, wet mud and cement. I have gotten cement and concrete dust on it and it always just rinses off with water at the sink and dried with a towel, which is my favorite thing about it.  I love this case for someone that beats up his phone, is clumsy or has a child that wants to play with it and try to eat it and drool all over your phone.

Compared to the iPhone 4 model, it seems more durable and a  slimmer design.  I like that the screw in plug for earphones was more integrated into the design, so it doesn't look so weird and bulky now. It's a slick design.   I like that now there is a cut out around the back for the apple to show, I know it's not functional but it adds a nice touch. The sound and mic are great with no muffling and is loud.  The glass over the camera never is spotty or blurry, you can't even tell there is a screen over it protecting it. 

The belt clip I use all the time.  It bevels away from the screen when locked in so the screen never touches or gets scratched.  It can be plugged in and the camera is accessible when clipped in.   You can clip it face in or out and has two different size clips for different size belts. I had the iPhone4 clip as well and it always broke, this one is not the same.

If I have to find a flaw, it is that the screen is easily scratchable.  Just wiping off mud causes little scratches on the screen protector.  All in all this is the best case I have found.  Trust me, if I can't ruin this thing, I'm pretty sure  no one can.

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Wicked Audio Deuce Ear Buds - Review

Continuing our Portable Audio Showdown series, we turn our attention to the Wicked Audio Deuce ear-buds.  These pint size headphones will break your eardrums before your budget.    Here's our breakdown...

Fit: the headphones come with 3 different earpiece slips to allow the wearer to customize the right fit to their ear.  I tried all three, and it is pretty easy to determine the right one: to large and you can't get them out of your ear fast enough, too small and they fall out.  I am not sure where I fit for ear size relative to the general population, but I found the smaller ones to be the best fit.

Look: in the ear, these headphones are nearly invisible.  I was impressed at the way these disappear in the ear.  This is convenient for Northerners (like me) who need to wear something on your head in the colder months.

Feel: the soft rubber slips make for a soft feel in the ear.  They expand enough that you feel them in place, and after a while you tend not to notice them anymore.

Sound: the range and volume on these is pretty good.  Being that these insert into the ear, you get a better delivery than a standard bud-style headphone.  You aren't going to get real deep base out of these, but then again you shouldn't expect to from a piece this small.  I listened to several guitar-based songs to get a sense of the highs, including jazz, rock and pop, and it met my expectations.  Vocals were a little distorted compared to some of my other options, including the standard iPhone headphones, but they were sufficient.

Voice problems persisted in movies, as well.  The voices were muted and imbalanced against any backtracks or sound effects.  You can't turn the volume up or you'll blow your ears out if a sound effect or some music plays, but turning it down makes it difficult to follow the conversation.

Volume-wise these were some of the best I've tried.  Again, because of the placement in the ear, these provide much better volume than an over-the-ear set or earbuds.  I used these on a couple of flights, and the first time I turned my music on I had to pull them out to prevent permanent deafness!  I set my volume at just over half, which is a volume I have only ever seen with my Bose QC15s.

Overall: a decent set of ear buds.  If your one that has trouble with earbuds, especially while active, then you can't go wrong with these.  I would use these for working out and feel confident that they will stay where they belong.  I would not use these as an all-around set; music is about the only thing you can use these for so if you are a mixed-use person who intends to do music, gaming and movies there are better options out there.

With an MSRP of about $20, and available all over the web for closer to $10, how can you go wrong?

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Brunton Restore Solar Charger - Review

The 21st century outdoors lover has a wealth of technology to choose from. GPS location devices, cameras and camcorders, fish finders, mapping technologies and MP3 players are commonplace on our gear lists. The problem this creates is that now you are packing in spare batteries to keep that technology up and running. The Brunton Restore is a universal solution to this dilemma.

At roughly the size of a VHS cassette and weighing in at just over 7 ounces the Restore will keep you in juice no matter how far off the grid you wander. Water resistant and encased in a durable rubber shell, this in not a fragile piece of equipment. Fully charged before heading into he woods the Restore refilled my iPhone twice before I needed to open the solar panels to let the sun do it's magic. 6-8 hours of partly cloudy skies and we were fully charged once again. I had 2 devices running throughout the day and I never had to worry about conserving batteries.

As electronic tools continue to improve and enhance our outdoor adventures, products like the Restore will become commonplace. For toy junkies like me, that time is now.

MSRP: $124

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Magellan eXplorist GC - Review

21st century hide-and-go-seek, or information age treasure hunting are both apt descriptions of what geocaching is.  Long story short is that there are roughly 1.25 million locations around the world where other geocachers have stashed a prize and/or marked its location via GPS.  Geocaching.com houses THE database of geocache locations, a basic membership is free with an premium option for only $30 a year.  Each eXplorist GC comes with a free 30-day trial of the premium membership.

Find geocache locations near you for a quick hunt, or preload locations from around the world, either way the eXplorist GC will guide you right to them. Loaded from the factory with ample geocache locations, you can simply power on and head out the door.  The bright screen is easily readable in any lighting conditions and even rookie GPS users will find the navigation of this unit to be no problem.  You can easily; locate, navigate, find, record and share all of your geocaching adventures.

So, if you want to hunt for hidden caches and share the adventure online with your friends, the eXplorist GC is a perfect tool.  Plus, if you find yourself off the beaten path and maybe even a little lost, it will help you find your way home too.

MSRP: $199

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Outdoor Technology's Bluetooth Tags - Review

I am pretty much a music nut and being able to bring it with me everywhere is getting easier and easier.  Bringing tunes into the back-country has always been a challenge though.  Electronics plus dirt and water never mix well. So I encase my iPhone in a weatherproof, bombproof plastic fortress to protect it.  But this does make listening to The Black Keys while I paddle a bit tough, until now.  

The Bluetooth Tags from Outdoor Technology are the solve to my situation.  I can hit play on my iPod, lock the thing up tight, stow it away in my pack and listen "wirelessly" from up to 45 feet from the source.  I say "wirelessly" because even thought the ear buds are not tethered to the iPod with a wire, the two buds themselves are connected to each other by a wire.  That said, they literally change how you think about headphones.  With the wire running around the back of my neck while in use, the odds of getting tangled in it is nearly zero.  With controls for volume and playback as well as a microphone and call answering capabilities, taking the actual iPod outta my pocket is almost never necessary.

Whether you are mowing the grass, shredding a mountain or putting miles on your bike, the benefits of being able to stash your phone/iPod anywhere and still use it just plain rules.  The sound quality is really good.  We are not talking DJ headphone quality, but they will rival just about any buds I have ever tried.  They come with three different pairs of pads for the tips of the buds, so you can tailor them to fit your ear.  They stay in place well, and add in the over-the-ear sport clips and they are going nowhere.

On the downside, you do kinda look like "Mr. Bluetooth Guy" waiting for the power conference call while you are in line for the chairlift.  But once I got past that, I was back in love with these things. When not in use the tags hang around your neck and resemble a pair of dog tags, thus the name. I have to admit, I wear them like this all the time and I never seem to lose them, which is NOT NORMAL.

 I get about 5 hours of life out of each charge, I just wish I could find more days to actually get to listen to tunes for 5 straight hours.  That'd be nice...

MSRP: $79.95

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House of Marley Zion Earbuds - Review

I am a bit of a music junkie too.  My tastes are varied and maybe even a little odd to some people.  From Bluegrass to Electronica, my iPod is a veritable buffet of tunes.  A life long love of Led Zeppelin and  Jimi Hendrix demonstrate an affinity for ripping guitar, but a thumping base line is not gonna scare me off either.  As summer time rolls around,  having a quality pair of headphones is a minimum requirement.  Enter the House of Marley, one of the legacies of Bob himself and their recently launched line of performance headphones.

I have had the chance to test out the Zion Earphones over the course of the last few months, and these things are just plain sweet in every respect.  What got me from the start was the looks. The rasta colored fabric covered 52" cord feels top quality and is plenty long for whatever activity you may be into.  The natural maple wood and recycled aluminum body of the bud make for an incredibly slick package.  They come with 5 different sized pairs of rubber tips, so you can find the ones that fit your ear perfectly.  When not in use they stow away neatly in the included canvas snap pouch.  Throw in an inline 3 button volume control and mic and I never need to dig my phone outta my pocket, even to answer calls.

Beyond looking sweet, these things pound.  Traditionally, I thought you needed to go with on-ear or over-the-ear headphones to get quality sound.  I was wrong.  I don't claim to understand what a 9 millimeter moving coil driver is, but it works apparently.  Hooked up to my iPhone, these put out plenty of sound, to the point that max volume is bordering on painful....  Ha ha, sweet.   Mowing the lawn is no longer an issue, the good ole snapper mower has nothing on these.

MSRP: $99.99 and worth every penny...

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LifeProof Case - Review

While wondering the halls of the Outdoor Retailer show some months ago, I ran into a display that was nothing short of amazing.  A guy had a brand new iPhone 4 in a slick little black case and he was absolutely abusing it.  Dunking it in water, whacking it with a hammer, dropping it on the floor and covering it in super fine sand, any of which would have rendered a naked phone immediately worthless.  The banner behind him read LifeProof, and that is exactly what this case is.

Now, I was a little skeptical when I got one of these things in my hand.  It didn't seem like it was beefy enough to do all the things it claimed it could do.  It's no thicker than a normal case, unlike the chunky Otter Box case that has been the standard in rugged iPhone protection.  The screen cover seemed uber-thin; and how was water not going to get through the slot over the speaker???

Once I watched the "Installation Video", put the case on and played with it for a few minutes, I was ready to put it through the paces.  I reluctantly went to the driveway and dropped it from about shoulder height to the concrete, no problem, whew.  Next, off to the shower to see how it handles a little water, note that I wasn't ready to submerge this thing just yet.   Not a problem...  So the next big test was to bring this thing with to the BWCA for a few days in the woods.    I walked around with my phone in my pocket the whole time, went for a swim, not a problem at all, but that isn't what impressed me.  What did is this little story.

Dinner time by the campfire, sun was down and it was dark, I mean "can"t see your feet" dark.  I am sitting on a log cutting my steak (yeah we eat pretty well up there).  I had several pieces cut up so as I usually do I went to stab my knife in the log next to me and when I jammed it down I didn't hit wood.  I knew immediately what I had done, I just stabbed my razor sharp camp knife into the face of my iPhone, the screen was going to be toast for sure, right.  To my utter amazement the case saved it.  Not only did it save it but the knife only dented the case, it is STILL waterproof and works as well as the day it came out of the box.  

All in all, I am amazed by this case.  If you play outside and have an iPhone 4, this will be the best $79.99 you've ever spent!

Here is one of LifeProof's videos of the case underwater snorkeling...   Thought it was pretty cool.

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