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Alumacase

beedish said:
Yah, gps never got better. Also, the electrical tape will leave residue on the case, but it is easily wiped off.

Also, Dyspareunia, the problem with the signal in this case isn't attenuation; it's the fact that we're blocking our antenna with a chunk of aluminum.

The only aluminum case that I see helping this is the Fusionwerkz raw. I'm going to wait for reviews on that case though!
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Unfortunately, I would bet anything the Fusionwerkz Raw would have the similar signal degradation problem... by now everyone should accept the fact that any alum. covering the edge of the ip4 will negatively affect the signal regardless of the "design" or padding !

I know because I have the KarasKustom Case (which is the "open" design)...
the signal does goes down by 1-3 db... GPS is also insignificantly affected at time.. Neither is significant for my daily usage eventhough i only have 1-2 signal bars at my house. :D
 
Time will tell but I really don't think the raw will have the same problems. It covers virtually none of the antenna, it sits on the phone completely different than any other case out there. He said that we should have them in our hands by the end of this week. Guess we will just have to wait and see.
damant said:
Unfortunately, I would bet anything the Fusionwerkz Raw would have the similar signal degradation problem... by now everyone should accept the fact that any alum. covering the edge of the ip4 will negatively affect the signal regardless of the "design" or padding !

I know because I have the KarasKustom Case (which is the "open" design)...
the signal does goes down by 1-3 db... GPS is also insignificantly affected at time.. Neither is significant for my daily usage eventhough i only have 1-2 signal bars at my house. :D
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Man, This is getting absurd! Company makes case, sells case. Gets complaints about reception and BAM! Guess what folks, version 2 and 3 that actually work are coming soon. I am a big fan of these designs but don't any of these guy's have a responsibility to test a effing product before they release it? Making promises of how well their products work and showing us pretty pics isn't enough. After hearing that Alumacase is already coming out with another version it makes my blood boil! How about all the people who just last week forked out good money for version 1. I don't care if the new version is made out of unicorn tears and angel farts I wouldn't give these guys another cent.
This seems to be the operations model for all these companies. Our product sucks so here is another one that sucks just a little less than the last one, now pay up! I didn't buy one of these cases but if I did it would be in the mail after hearing about version 2.
Alumacase, test you products on your employees, not your customers!!!!!
 
White/Rhino said:
Man, This is getting absurd! Company makes case, sells case. Gets complaints about reception and BAM! Guess what folks, version 2 and 3 that actually work are coming soon. I am a big fan of these designs but don't any of these guy's have a responsibility to test a effing product before they release it? Making promises of how well their products work and showing us pretty pics isn't enough. After hearing that Alumacase is already coming out with another version it makes my blood boil! How about all the people who just last week forked out good money for version 1. I don't care if the new version is made out of unicorn tears and angel farts I wouldn't give these guys another cent.
This seems to be the operations model for all these companies. Our product sucks so here is another one that sucks just a little less than the last one, now pay up! I didn't buy one of these cases but if I did it would be in the mail after hearing about version 2.
Alumacase, test you products on your employees, not your customers!!!!!
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Ha ha! I feel the same way, although my Alumacase is actually working pretty well. I'm sending it back though based off of this news of a new version however. And you say this about Alumacase, but hasn't Element said they are coming out with a new and improved version soon? And yet you keep buying them? Ha! :D:D
 
chris975d said:
Ha ha! I feel the same way, although my Alumacase is actually working pretty well. I'm sending it back though based off of this news of a new version however. And you say this about Alumacase, but hasn't Element said they are coming out with a new and improved version soon? And yet you keep buying them? Ha! :D:D
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I have 4-5 bars with my Vapor. My point was Alumacase just opened their doors last week, If I had bought one I would feel really ripped right now.
Put your Vault back on and shut up!:D Mine should be here this week.
 
White/Rhino said:
I have 4-5 bars with my Vapor. My point was Alumacase just opened their doors last week, If I had bought one I would feel really ripped right now.
Put your Vault back on and shut up!:D Mine should be here this week.
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Lol. All these aluminum case companies are using us to beta test their products. I've been talking to Daniel more at Exovault, and when the owners get back in country in November (they are also the case designers), they will be working on new designs for cases to be released later this year. All these companies are changing designs constantly. Atomic has 2 designs they are testing as we speak, Element is going to bring out a new design, and apparently Alumacase is too. Even though mine works perfectly fine, as does your Element.
 
chris975d said:
Lol. All these aluminum case companies are using us to beta test their products. I've been talking to Daniel more at Exovault, and when the owners get back in country in November (they are also the case designers), they will be working on new designs for cases to be released later this year. All these companies are changing designs constantly. Atomic has 2 designs they are testing as we speak, Element is going to bring out a new design, and apparently Alumacase is too. Even though mine works perfectly fine, as does your Element.
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I can see guys putting out a product, having success and then working on a new version to keep things fresh but a week after release??? This is the problem with us jumping at the chance to be early adopters. The guys who order 2 weeks after us get a better product. I only have 1 type of metal case so far and I love my Vapor. Like I said I put it on and that was it. I'm looking forward to the Fusion when they release it. At least they haven't released a product with a known problem into the market yet. ie, felt die problem.
 
White/Rhino said:
I can see guys putting out a product, having success and then working on a new version to keep things fresh but a week after release??? This is the problem with us jumping at the chance to be early adopters. The guys who order 2 weeks after us get a better product. I only have 1 type of metal case so far and I love my Vapor. Like I said I put it on and that was it. I'm looking forward to the Fusion when they release it. At least they haven't released a product with a known problem into the market yet. ie, felt die problem.
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You have to keep in mind that you're in a very small minority of people who the Vapor actually works acceptably for. For the vast majority, it kills reception and/or GPS too much. Just how I'm in the minority of people my Alumacase has worked for. Heck, it works far better than even my Exovault, but that's certainly not everyone's experience. The Vapor has needed a redesign since it was released, but they don't care about the customers enough to actually do what's best for them. I'm pissed at Alumacase for all the initial lying they've done about the performance of their case, but at least they are somewhat realizing they screwed up, and redesigning the case quickly for hopefully better performance. All Element has done is pump out a pretty, but generally poor performing product just to make money, with no concern for the customers whatsoever. Almost all major reviews show it's performance sucks, and short of the customer heavily insulating it or switching to a stronger signaled carrier(what you did), something none of us in the States can do, the Vapor is pretty much worthless unless you live at the base of a cell tower. The best company so far has been Fusion. They've gone through different revisions of both of their cases (Sabre and Raw), apparently made modifications to improve performance, all BEFORE ever releasing a product. I respect that. Makes it seem like they aren't concerned with just making a quick buck and taking advantage of customers like Element and Alumacase, and are actually more interested in making a good product that works as well as it can.
 
Stunning!!!!!!!!

Just got the alumacase this morning, it looks so goooooooooooooood.
However, we ran into some problems. BTW, it was my brother's birthday gift(which already passed). Back to the problems, it works fine when it is lying on the table, however we had problems to get a stable signal when holding it in hand. And one more problem is my brother is 330 pounds, his fingers are toooooo big to fit in the sleep button hole. I am very sad to see this case go, but we decided to wait for a better version.
I was thinking about keeping this case for myself, but I am too cheap to use these expensive cases.:D
 
Alumacase's customer service is top notch, case returned to them at 5 ish PM this afternoon, and within an hour got my Paypal refund. :cool:
 
der-kaiser said:
troll.jpg
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riiiiight so when people post things like

Another update:

Reception and GPS are completely unusable in my area. Back to my incase snap smoke for now.
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along with dozens and dozens of people with aluminum cases

I guess that means I'm trolling :rolleyes:

Must suck to try to defend something that clearly defeats the primary purpose of a product

I got a cool aluminum knife sharpener that completely dulls the blade if you want to buy that too

anyways I'll drop it since White/Rhino was pretty level headed in the exovault thread
 
mrwinky said:
I got the email last sunday it shipped, but i've heard nothing else. Mines coming to Canada.
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Has anyone outside of the US received theirs yet? In canada as well and got shipping notice on monday oct 18. nothing yet.
 
So my Yellow alumcase came in today.... I live in Canada... So here's my mini review on the case.


Package... Well done looks very professional, only issue I had was no wrench in the package, but I did have a small Allen key in my garage.

Finish.... I echo what other people have said where the metal in a different finish between top and bottom, and it does not line up perfectly.

Ok with that out of the way let’s get to the results. And all I can say is I’m disappointed to say the least.

I get poor coverage with Rogers in my small town... I get between 2-3 bars average here.

So I conducted a few tests with mine and my wife’s Iphone.

Mine with Alumacase on

Speed Test over Wifi

Ping 111ms (took for ever to ping though)

DL 0

UL 0

Wife’s results on Wifi

Ping 132ms (very quick)

DL 1.4Mbps
UL 0.9Mbps

I then removed the case from mine and here is the results (over wifi)

121ms .45Mbps DL and .9Mbps UL

I checked my router for Signal strength with both phones, With Case on 60% and Wife’s was 92%

Reception

With Case 1-2 bars (did have the phone say no signal in the house)

Wife’s phone 3 bars

Took the phone out for a drive to my Mother in laws with case on GPS was not an issue, picked it up no problem.

Got home and slapped on some Electrical tape (didn’t take to much time to cut it out perfect, basically just shield metal from metal on it.

wifi speed test were much better

Ping 114ms

DL 1.47 Mbps

UP .9Mbps


Made a couple of calls in the house seemed ok, except for last one, but was complaining of only hearing every other word and my voice was digitized.


Conclusion.

I really want to overlook the flaws on this case; I want to love this case. One it looks good, it makes my phone stand out and be unique. Two I've already tied up $15 us to ship it here, and it’s going to cost me $15 cdn to ship it back. Three I ordered a SGP carbon Fibre backing for it. So all in all I feel that this case was a rush to market, and little went into testing, it was more a hey I got good results lets rush and get some money. Hopefully my return will be smooth on it.


Some other notes,

Battery did drop quicker (I guess it was hunting harder for signal) playing Bejewelled it would sputter on gems (playing online bejewelled blitz) Email would take awhile to download images from emails etc.


So the search goes on, I really hope I can find a unique case like this that does not render the phone useless........



Winky
 
Got my order today. I'm in Toronto. First off, the case is slick (i have the shadow grey) and looks great with carbon back (lucky labs) Almost couldn't get it on after losing one of the hex screws in the sofa!

I consistently have 5 bars in Toronto and obviously good coverage makes a difference with this case as many of you have pointed out. On 3G I am getting 5Mbps down, 3 up.

Wifi and GPS are quite strong as well. i should note that i have a lucky labs wrap on the antenna. Happy so far....but very concerned about travel into areas with spotty service. There are a few spots on the way to work that i consistently have low bars, so will check that and see.
 
Ordered the case last Oct. 11, 2010 with International Shipping to Manila but I still don't have my case. At this point I have mixed feelings with this case already. I really want this case to work but 95% of the people that got their Alumacase are disappointed. Not keeping my hopes up so this may end up being sold! :(
 
Received my Alumacase this morning

I got my Alumacase this morning from the mail. To be honest I've lost all excitement of receiving this case after all the negative feedbacks from this forum. So I am just going to share my experience with it. The Alumacase looks nice especially when installed on the IP4. As mentioned, the bottom part of the case was machined separately so the finish doesn't really match. Lining up of the two halves takes a bit of effort but is doable. However, since the finish of the top and bottom part doesn't match...it just emphasizes the lining up problem even more. I didn't get a chance to do some speed tests yet but I based reception performance on how many bars I get on the IP4. I have very strong cell site signals on where I live so I always get full bars. With the Alumacase installed I still got Full Bars but from time to time it drops one bar less....Not really drastic IMO. I tested Maps for GPS functionality and it pin pointed my location in a few seconds with the Alumacase installed. So there shouldn't be a problem right? Here's the kicker...although I felt the Alumacase wasn't giving the IP4 Reception issues...my IP4 felt otherwise since it gave me an onscreen warning that said:

"This accessory is not optimized for this iPhone"
You may experience noise caused by cellular interference and a decrease in cellular signal strength.

IMG_0129.PNG


Photo above was lifted from one of our local forums to illustrate the warning I just encountered. Anyone encounter this warning on any Aluminum Case installed? Because I was going to try and make this case work since I thought it really didn't affect the performance of my IP4 because of the strong cellular site signals in my area...but apparently my iPhone 4 doesn't share my opinion. He he! I really feel bad as I really wanted to love this case too :mad:
 
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That is crazy, I have never seen that message before and I have used every metal case available. What software are you using? 4.1 or 4.2? And where did that picture come from?
ultraracingph said:
I got my Alumacase this morning from the mail. To be honest I've lost all excitement of receiving this case after all the negative feedbacks from this forum. So I am just going to share my experience with it. The Alumacase looks nice especially when installed on the IP4. As mentioned, the bottom part of the case was machined separately so the finish doesn't really match. Lining up of the two halves takes a bit of effort but is doable. However, since the finish of the top and bottom part doesn't match...it just emphasizes the lining up problem even more. I didn't get a chance to do some speed tests yet but I based reception performance on how many bars I get on the IP4. I have very strong cell site signals on where I live so I always get full bars. With the Alumacase installed I still got Full Bars but from time to time it drops one bar less....Not really drastic IMO. I tested Maps for GPS functionality and it pin pointed my location in a few seconds with the Alumacase installed. So there shouldn't be a problem right? Here's the kicker...although I felt the Alumacase wasn't giving the IP4 Reception issues...my IP4 felt otherwise since it gave me an onscreen warning that said:

"This accessory is not optimized for this iPhone"
You may experience noise caused by cellular interference and a decrease in cellular signal strength.

IMG_0129.PNG


Photo above was lifted from one of our local forums to illustrate the warning I just encountered. Anyone encounter this warning on any Aluminum Case installed? Because I was going to try and make this case work since I thought it really didn't affect the performance of my IP4 because of the strong cellular site signals in my area...but apparently my iPhone 4 doesn't share my opinion. He he! I really feel bad as I really wanted to love this case too :mad:
Click to expand...
 
I found the photo posted in one of the local forums here in Manila called applei.ph and give credit to the poster. I got the exact same message after installing the Alumacase. I could post my own screen shot here but it would only show the same message. No cables or headphones were installed. The phone wasn't docked nor recently docked and the case was installed properly/carefully. I am using v4.1 Firmware and my IP4 is not JB. I saw this message flashed on my screen just a few minutes after installing the Alumacase. Because of the bad reviews on this thread I was expecting the worst from my Alumacase and just wanted it to work sooo badly. In fact I was going to try and live with it....but it was my IP4 itself that is trying to reject the Alumacase with the Warning. I am somewhat irritated and amused that my IP4 gave the Alumacase the Final Review it needed. Sigh! :(
 
So I sent alumacase an email asking to return it, I was a little takin back by the intial response, he asked me to turn off 3g to improve my signal??? Why should I have to dumb my phone down for case.... anyways they told me to send it back... And it will go back on Friday.

Winky
 
So these Alumacase people turned out worse than ElementCase?
Wow, I am stunned after all what their boss came and posted here.
 
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