Apex Armor Aluminum iPhone Case

[chris975d]

Aren't your going to review these as well? Even though I review a lot of stuff, your usually my go to source for aluminum cases as well.

Nope. Not these. I've had more than enough experience with aluminum cases to be able to look at the general design and attachment method of new cases (aluminum, of course) and know fairly accurately how it's going to perform. This case didn't show me anything initially that made me think it's going to perform well for most people. It's fairly thick aluminum, completely wraps the antenna, and it's attachment/insulation method is the cheap cushiony material only at certain points in the case (not all the way around). That's typically a recipe for anywhere from a 16 to 25dB signal reduction.

 

[SchneiderMan]

......

 

[jbromer]

Actually, it would fall under the "unusable" category if you live in a place where a 22dB signal drop would put you in the "no service" category, which would probably be somewhere around the -90dB mark before putting the case on.

That is pretty much what I meant. I frequent too many places like this...

 

[HeatherSchmidt]

It's not "unusable". It still works fine, everyone frets over it so much. I have yet to find one aluminum case that does not defer the signal at all. Every aluminum case that I own has either lost bars or degraded the signal in decibels, I do not think there is any solution. If you want to style and sexiness, you have to be willing to sacrifice a little bit of signal loss, which is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

do you count the atomic hybrid case (which is mostly composite) an aluminum case? If so did you find signal loss?

 

[Austin M.]

do you count the atomic hybrid case (which is mostly composite) an aluminum case? If so did you find signal loss?

From what I have tried, the Atomic doesn't have as much signal loss as some of the others due to the composite material.

 

[polzii]

I tested the atomic and the vapor4.

The Atomic had the same dB readout as the naked iPhone (-81 vs -82) while the Vapor4 significantly affected the signal (-99 dB).

The Atomic Hybrid does not deteriorate the signal, plain and simple.