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impactband COLORS
- Thread starter mgeyster
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i tried over and over to get a review model from these guys but i guess im not a good enough reviewer, oh well.
I'm sorry about this. We try to send out as many review sample as we can. As of right now we aren't sending any out but when we do I'll keep you in mind.
I ordered one to do a review for MacRumors here. I've already got the black one (as you know, mgeyster), and find it a little too thick with no beveled edge to help make it easier to use the touchscreen close to the edges (the black, original one makes it very hard to type/use screen elements that are close to the edge). You had mentioned a future design tweak that would further address this, so I picked up a color model to see if this had been implemented yet. I'll have the review up (and comparison to the black) a day or so after I get it.
No problem! As you probably already know, I'm about totally stupid in the amount I spend on this "hobby"! The only way I can justify it is that at least by doing informative reviews, I might can help some of you all out!
Received my yellow Impactband Colors today, and my initial observations are as follows:
this is the exact same design as the earlier all black Impactband, and as such, the reviews/opinions for it would be exactly the same, other than the new option of colors, of course. I had gotten word from BaseOneLabs that there'd be a future design revision to address most of the complaints of the all black model, and I had hoped that these would be incorporated into this Colors model.
As far as fit goes, again, it's just like the all black model. The fit is nice and tight around the antenna band, and doesn't feel like the case would ever be in danger of coming off. The phone is certainly protected with the Impactband installed, and with both this new Colors, and my original all black models, it's always a cool demonstration of the protection ablilities of the case to just toss your phone (Impactband installed, of course) across the room/into a wall, and know that there's no damage done to the phone. I've done this many times showing friends with both my original Impactband, and this Colors is no different.
That being said, the Colors still suffers from my biggest complaint of the original design...the case itself can and does interfere with the normal interaction with the touchscreen at the edges of the screen itself. As you can see in the last photo below, the band comes right up to the edge of the touchscreen itself (covers all the bezel on the sides of the screen), and with it's much added thickness (compared to most cases), makes finger/touchscreen interaction at the very edges of the screen VERY hard. Things like typing (using the Q, A, P, L, backspace, key), hitting the "Send" button in text messaging, dragging icons between homescreens, hitting "Back" in Safari, etc, are very hard to do even with my average sized fingers (no "fat fingering" here). There's just too much material right up next to the outer edges of the screen. This could probably be eliminated by either tapering the material's thickness as it approached the edge of the screen, or reducing the width (from outer edge to inner edge) of the "lip" of the case surrounding the screen.
All in all, the Impactband is a VERY protective "bumper-style" case that will allow you to have no worries about damaging your phone. I can't think of a drop/bump (short of falling directly on a very pointed, very hard surface that contacted the screen or back glass directly) that the phone can't survive in this case. But that protection comes at the cost of reduced usability, especially if you're an avid texter/emailer, gamer (for example, in Angry Birds, you can't pull the bird down and back at an angle without bumping into the case and stopping how far you can stretch the slingshot), or any other activity in which you repeatedly interact with screen elements very close to the outer edges of the screen. If you can live with that, it's a great protective case option that will still allow you to show off the front/back of your phone (in my case, the yellow back glass replacement that I have installed on my phone). If you need maximum usability however, I'd wait until the screen interference issue has been addressed in a future design. As this case stands now, even though I really like the looks (compliments my yellow back glass very well) and protection, I just can't use it and won't have it installed on my phone on a daily basis. I do far too much texting/replying to emails daily for my job, and it just becomes a nuisance very quickly. Otterbox nailed the "right up close to the screen but still not interfering at all with usability" design of a protective case, and if I'm going anywhere that I need maximum protection, I'm breaking out one of my Otterboxes instead.
(click any picture to enlarge):
