SigSays - All Things Reviewed

I recently picked up an iPhone 3G (Review coming next, I wanted to review the phone and case seperately), and being horribly abusive on phones, I decided I needed a case for it ASAP.  After doing some research, I decided on the SwitchEasy Rebel. It seemed to offer the best compromise of protection and ease of use.

I didn’t bother documenting the install, because it’s mindlessly simple, and there are a million writeups and youtube vids on it anyway. I also didn’t clean the phone or case first, as I wanted to show that it does attract a little dust on the soft parts. However, you’ll notice it looks a lot cleaner in the first pic. This is because the others were taken close up in Macro mode. It’s really not noticeably dirty, but macro mode + flash will make anything look dusty.

The Rebel comes with three different parts, a soft rubber case, a hard plastic “spine” that goes over it, and a clear screen protector. You basically stick the screen protector on, slide the phone in the rubber case, then pop the spine on the back. Installation took a few seconds at most.

Fit is basically flawless, there’s a very minor gap in one corner on mine, but it’s not a surgical instrument, there has to be a slight bit of tolerance. The gap isn’t anything you would notice, so little I couldn’t really get it in a pic, I just felt I’d mention it, since some people are anal. If you’re a normal human being, you’ll be very impressed with the fit.

The rubber part of the case covers all the buttons on the phone except the silent “Switch”. I haven’t noticed any degradation in operating the buttons, and keeping them protected will definitely increase the life of the phone.

Same goes for the power button

The bottom includes a rubber plug to protect the charge/sync connector, while leaving the speakers for speakerphone exposed.

The spine part seems to pick up scratches very easily. I’m hard on phones in general, but they usually get chipped from being dropped, not scratched up. I always stick my phone in my back pocket, alone, so it’s not bouncing around with my keys. For a comparison, I had my Treo 750 for over a year. I’ve had the switcheasy case for the iphone for about 10 days.

Not a huge deal, and it’s just a case anyway, the idea is to scratch it, and not the phone, but it would be cool if they could alter the material of the spine to keep it from getting to scratched so quickly.

While all cases are going to add some size, this one is pretty good at keeping it to a minimum. You can see it’s still much thinner than the Treo.

Overall, I’m very happy with it, I would, and actually might, buy another.

Pros: Unique design, very easy installation, good fit and finish, comprehensive protection.

Cons: Scratches easily, power port plug is kind of a pain in the ass, they need to find a way to attach it to the case, I know I’m gonna lose it, it’s just a matter of when.

Sig Says: Buy it!

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