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Ringke Steel Bumper Case, Looks Awesome!
- Thread starter TheiPhoneChick
- Start date
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I honestly haven't noticed any issues so far. My connection has remained the same.
Naturally, there can be different factors involved.
iPhone 4 Compatibility
I had purchased the Ringke Steel bumper intending to install it on my friend's iPhone 4S for Christmas so as to recover my Vapor Pro White Edition onto my GSM (AT&T unlocked to T-Mobile) iPhone 4.
I thought I'd test the Ringke Steel bumper out on my GSM iPhone 4 knowing the bumper was manufactured to iPhone 4S specifications. Surprisingly, the Ringke Steel bumper fits around my GSM iPhone quite well. The vibrate switch cutout is not centered around the vibrate switch, but I do not really mind this cosmetic issue.
The bumper is super light and matches the look of my iPhone. I just may continue to use this $30 case and have my friend continue to use my $150 case.... I like the Ringke Steel bumper.
I had purchased the Ringke Steel bumper intending to install it on my friend's iPhone 4S for Christmas so as to recover my Vapor Pro White Edition onto my GSM (AT&T unlocked to T-Mobile) iPhone 4.
I thought I'd test the Ringke Steel bumper out on my GSM iPhone 4 knowing the bumper was manufactured to iPhone 4S specifications. Surprisingly, the Ringke Steel bumper fits around my GSM iPhone quite well. The vibrate switch cutout is not centered around the vibrate switch, but I do not really mind this cosmetic issue.
The bumper is super light and matches the look of my iPhone. I just may continue to use this $30 case and have my friend continue to use my $150 case.... I like the Ringke Steel bumper.
The iPhone 4 and 4s are identical in terms of dimensions. The only differences are the vibrate switch which is only an issue for gsm iphones. I think the verizon iphone 4 has the same vibrate switch location as the 4s so it should be compatible with this case as well.
Can you post photos? It's nice to see these products under different lighting conditions, environments, and cameras. We all know how deceiving company photos can be.
Just ordered a red wine one for my white iPhone 4S. Can't wait to get it
Ooh please take pics of that when you get it. It looks so good in the pics but would love to see actual pics.
I will, it says it just got shipped so hopefully I'll get it by mid next week.
They are coming out with another version that has a full back. The back is silicone. Looks pretty cook but don't know if I'd want a full back made from silicone. It won't be available till January but it's nice looking. i think I like the bumper better though.
I ordered a black one earlier this week through the site and it arrived today. I was impressed by the packaging and loved the stupid little "guitar pick" for fixing the silicon edges. As a bumper user since the iPhone 4 was released, I wish I'd thought of something like that earlier.
The bumper is gorgeous. It was easy to install and I couldn't have been happier with the look and feel of it. I was concerned about the effect it could have on the signal however.
Tests with Wifi were great. I used Speedtest with and without the steel bumper and got almost exactly the same average (25 down / 5 up). My test on 3G (Verizon) wasn't as successful. I did not notice any drop in bars. I am usually 3-4 in my living room and that was unchanged. The speedtest results showed some significant changes however.
4 tests with no case
1.53 down / 0.80 up
2.03 down / 0.79 up
1.81 down / 0.75 up
1.33 down / 0.72 up
4 tests with steel bumper
1.31 down / 0.13 up
1.18 down / 0.14 up
0.95 down / 0.04 up
1.36 down / 0.17 up
All tests were done within 5 minutes with the phone resting in the same spot on my coffee table. I then ran 2 back to back tests 1 with the full bumper on and 1 with just the bottom piece removed and got 0.61 down / 0.01 up with it on and 1.24 down / 0.79 up with just the bottom piece removed.
I'm definitely going to keep it on tonight and see if things improve. I expected some small level of signal loss but the upload speeds I am seeing are troubling. I hope there is something else causing it because I love this thing! I'll report back after a full day of real world use.
The bumper is gorgeous. It was easy to install and I couldn't have been happier with the look and feel of it. I was concerned about the effect it could have on the signal however.
Tests with Wifi were great. I used Speedtest with and without the steel bumper and got almost exactly the same average (25 down / 5 up). My test on 3G (Verizon) wasn't as successful. I did not notice any drop in bars. I am usually 3-4 in my living room and that was unchanged. The speedtest results showed some significant changes however.
4 tests with no case
1.53 down / 0.80 up
2.03 down / 0.79 up
1.81 down / 0.75 up
1.33 down / 0.72 up
4 tests with steel bumper
1.31 down / 0.13 up
1.18 down / 0.14 up
0.95 down / 0.04 up
1.36 down / 0.17 up
All tests were done within 5 minutes with the phone resting in the same spot on my coffee table. I then ran 2 back to back tests 1 with the full bumper on and 1 with just the bottom piece removed and got 0.61 down / 0.01 up with it on and 1.24 down / 0.79 up with just the bottom piece removed.
I'm definitely going to keep it on tonight and see if things improve. I expected some small level of signal loss but the upload speeds I am seeing are troubling. I hope there is something else causing it because I love this thing! I'll report back after a full day of real world use.
Last edited:
I will try to take and post some pics tomorrow.
I docked the iPhone in my bedroom and uploaded 2 photos to DropBox that were both approximately 800KB.
With steel bumper: 3min 25sec
Without steel bumper: 11 seconds
I'm bummed out. I was really excited about this case but I won't sacrifice upload speed like this. Strangely download is so close that I can't tell a difference. I loaded various pages and downloaded 2 podcasts that were roughly similar in size (15MB) and the difference was negligible. It seems to only be a problem with Upload speed over 3G.
If anyone else has one, can you please do a speedtest or other test and report 3G upload speed?
I docked the iPhone in my bedroom and uploaded 2 photos to DropBox that were both approximately 800KB.
With steel bumper: 3min 25sec
Without steel bumper: 11 seconds
I'm bummed out. I was really excited about this case but I won't sacrifice upload speed like this. Strangely download is so close that I can't tell a difference. I loaded various pages and downloaded 2 podcasts that were roughly similar in size (15MB) and the difference was negligible. It seems to only be a problem with Upload speed over 3G.
If anyone else has one, can you please do a speedtest or other test and report 3G upload speed?
Here is my little review of the case. I am no tech geek so please take what I post as my personal experience with it.
Initial impressions: When I first got the package I was pleasantly surprised by the box it was shipped in, it was very well protected. Many companies just use a plastic shipping bag so some cool points for that! The packaging is slightly different from what is pictured but the contents is all inside.
You get a front and back screen protector which is said to be comparable to SGP Steinheil Crystal Clear. I have not used them yet because I already have a set of screen protectors on that I am happy with. You also get a squeegee, lanyard,
install tool which looks like a guitar pick, and a microfiber cloth.
The stainless steel band is very thin but not in a cheap kind of way. It appears to be slightly brushed to resemble the band on the iPhone 4/4S and while it looks pretty close it doesn't match exactly. That's not a problem for me because it still looks pretty snazzy!
Assembly: Putting this bumper on seemed pretty to the point but I soon found out that it required a little work. The silicone band was easy to put on the phone and you have to make sure that it is lined up properly or you will have a tough time getting the steel band to lay right. So just make sure the silicone is lined up right and you should have no problems.
The steel band attaches with 2 hooks on the bottom of each side of the band. These hooks attach to the bottom piece quite easily, as long as the silicone is lined up right. You may have to do some extra pushing to to get the hooks to meet up but not a problem. Once the steel bumper is attached it is a tight snug fit and doesn't move around on the phone at all. After installation you will have to use the install tool (guitar pick) to fix the silicone band because it may have rolled up or got stuck under the steel band during installation, but it works well to get the job done.
Performance: It has excellent lay on the table design because the silicone gives a high ridge of the front and back of the phone and with the screen protectors given you should be protected from small drops. bumps and scratches. I did a drop test accidentally, my 5 year old son dropped my phone from about 3 feet onto carpet and everything was good. I'm not going to do a test of a harder surface but I feel pretty confident that it should give some defense against minor drops once and a while. if you are clumsy or drop your phone often, this may not be the case for you.
Signal Strength: Please keep in mind that I am coming from an area that has excellent coverage, I usually have 5 bars in most places if not all of them, accept in my home. I have Sprint so I have an Airave in my home which again gives me 5 bars of signal strength. I did turn it off to get some accurate numbers and here is what I have found.
With my Airave on without the case I have 4-5 bars normally and it bounces between (-71 to -76), with the case on I drop from 5 bars to 4 bars (-84 to -89). These numbers were the same in my house with the Airave on and outside, in the market, church etc...
Without the case & the Airave off I normally have 3 bars (-93 to -96), and with the case on I have 3 bars most of the time but sometimes drop to 2 bars and I hover around (-101 to -104)
Wifi and GPS were unaffected but I didn't do a speed test to say definitively.
So if you are in an area with good coverage you may see a minor drop in signal but may not see a drop at all. For those with weaker signal strength you will still see the small drop in signal but if you only have 2 bars to begin with, losing another bar could cause you to have dropped called etc... Bottom line is this case doesn't impact my signal much at all because of my coverage.
Final Comments: I like the case very much and love that my signal isn't degraded much at all. It gives me a close look of a naked iPhone while still giving me some protection. The silicone hasn't changed colors and doesn't attract lint and dirt so far so I do think it is a keeper for me.
Initial impressions: When I first got the package I was pleasantly surprised by the box it was shipped in, it was very well protected. Many companies just use a plastic shipping bag so some cool points for that! The packaging is slightly different from what is pictured but the contents is all inside.
You get a front and back screen protector which is said to be comparable to SGP Steinheil Crystal Clear. I have not used them yet because I already have a set of screen protectors on that I am happy with. You also get a squeegee, lanyard,
install tool which looks like a guitar pick, and a microfiber cloth.
The stainless steel band is very thin but not in a cheap kind of way. It appears to be slightly brushed to resemble the band on the iPhone 4/4S and while it looks pretty close it doesn't match exactly. That's not a problem for me because it still looks pretty snazzy!
Assembly: Putting this bumper on seemed pretty to the point but I soon found out that it required a little work. The silicone band was easy to put on the phone and you have to make sure that it is lined up properly or you will have a tough time getting the steel band to lay right. So just make sure the silicone is lined up right and you should have no problems.
The steel band attaches with 2 hooks on the bottom of each side of the band. These hooks attach to the bottom piece quite easily, as long as the silicone is lined up right. You may have to do some extra pushing to to get the hooks to meet up but not a problem. Once the steel bumper is attached it is a tight snug fit and doesn't move around on the phone at all. After installation you will have to use the install tool (guitar pick) to fix the silicone band because it may have rolled up or got stuck under the steel band during installation, but it works well to get the job done.
Performance: It has excellent lay on the table design because the silicone gives a high ridge of the front and back of the phone and with the screen protectors given you should be protected from small drops. bumps and scratches. I did a drop test accidentally, my 5 year old son dropped my phone from about 3 feet onto carpet and everything was good. I'm not going to do a test of a harder surface but I feel pretty confident that it should give some defense against minor drops once and a while. if you are clumsy or drop your phone often, this may not be the case for you.
Signal Strength: Please keep in mind that I am coming from an area that has excellent coverage, I usually have 5 bars in most places if not all of them, accept in my home. I have Sprint so I have an Airave in my home which again gives me 5 bars of signal strength. I did turn it off to get some accurate numbers and here is what I have found.
With my Airave on without the case I have 4-5 bars normally and it bounces between (-71 to -76), with the case on I drop from 5 bars to 4 bars (-84 to -89). These numbers were the same in my house with the Airave on and outside, in the market, church etc...
Without the case & the Airave off I normally have 3 bars (-93 to -96), and with the case on I have 3 bars most of the time but sometimes drop to 2 bars and I hover around (-101 to -104)
Wifi and GPS were unaffected but I didn't do a speed test to say definitively.
So if you are in an area with good coverage you may see a minor drop in signal but may not see a drop at all. For those with weaker signal strength you will still see the small drop in signal but if you only have 2 bars to begin with, losing another bar could cause you to have dropped called etc... Bottom line is this case doesn't impact my signal much at all because of my coverage.
Final Comments: I like the case very much and love that my signal isn't degraded much at all. It gives me a close look of a naked iPhone while still giving me some protection. The silicone hasn't changed colors and doesn't attract lint and dirt so far so I do think it is a keeper for me.
I posted them earlier in the thread. Look on the first page of the thread.
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Me to, but maybe in the next design upgrade.
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I wish the buttons were metal.
Me to, but maybe in the next design upgrade.
Thanks to the OP and anyone else who followed up with a review.
I was intrigued with this bumper/band solution for a few reasons:
Lightweight
Exposed Back
Thin
Power & Volume Buttons
Easy Application
Aesthetics
Price
But the signal loss just kills it for me.
Dang-nab-it!
I was intrigued with this bumper/band solution for a few reasons:
Lightweight
Exposed Back
Thin
Power & Volume Buttons
Easy Application
Aesthetics
Price
But the signal loss just kills it for me.
Dang-nab-it!