REVIEW – Pitaka has made the leap from single layer cases to a multi-material protective case in the new MagCase Pro for the iPhone X. Does the military spec testing grade matter? How bulky is it? Does it come in black? All these questions and more are answered below.

What is it?

MagCase Pro is a protective case for iPhone X built to take drops and still be relatively thin without affecting the daily use of your phone.

Hardware specs

• 5 layers of defense to provide the ultimate protection.
• Protective yet not bulky. Only 0.1 inch profile.
• Specially-designed bumper corners provide excellent shock-absorption.
• Shock-resistant back protects the phone against shock.
• Anti-slip grip ensures a firmer hold when carrying the phone.
• No interference to WIFI, GPS, Apple Pay, Wireless charging or your signals.

What’s in the box?

• MagCase Pro for iPhone X
• Thank You & social media contest card

Design and features

The design of this case has really come to intrigue me. It’s not that I was particularly drawn to the way it looked. I purchased Pitaka’s MagCase for my previous iPhone 6 Plus and it was the first case I ordered for my iPhone X. Interestingly enough I’m not terribly fond of carbon fiber either and the Aramid fiber they use definitely has that look to it. What originally struck me about their MagCase was how thin it was, how sturdy it was, that it always had a slightly warm feel and that it wasn’t slippery, nor too grippy. The opportunity to review their MagCase Pro came up recently and I wanted to see how they designed a case for increased protection.

From a design perspective, let’s look at what you can see and feel. The website images show a protective case that adds some bulk and isn’t too dissimilar from the many protective cases out there, other than their distinctive Aramid material on the back. The box that showed up had me concerned as it felt pretty heavy. 180g on the scale. Opening the box however immediately assuaged my fears as the box is very overbuilt for a case and weighs 143g. If you’re doing the math that means the case is 37g.

I threw a few other protective cases on the scale and they’re all between 40 and 50g. That may not seem like a big difference, but it’s noticeable when the iPhone X is already 174g (an iPhone 6 plus is 172g btw).

From the back, there are some interesting details. The back plate is their Aramid material which I’ll detail out in a bit.

The camera hole has a raised edge offering increased protection of the lens. The other three corners have small arcs raised to the same height so the phone sits totally flat on a table.

Just beyond that rounded rectangle is a scalloped relief that absolutely aids in making the case feel thinner than it is. The last thing visible from this back view is the four corners which clearly protrude (~ 1mm) and add protection for those unexpected drops which happen to all of us.

Looking at the sides, you’ll notice the slanted ridges on the long sides look very pronounced at first. The spacing of them however provides comfortable traction and even something to play with. I find myself frequently dragging my thumbnail along it washer board style.

The power and volume buttons all have great button actuation where you don’t have to press very hard, and you can feel that it pressed and registered. The cut-out for the ringer switch is a good size without being too deep. The bottom has cutouts for the speakers/mic and a charging port large enough for most cables while the top is nice and smooth. Those same four protruding corners come in handy while handling the phone.

Inside the case is a soft microfiber to protect the glass back of your phone while the inner sides have a dimpled texture in the TPU. Those dimples make contact with your phone and compress on impact offering a bit of an air cushion.

The amount of ‘travel’ is pretty minimal compared to the four corners. What was protrusions on the outside is a void on the inside and this provides a good bit more travel should your phone take a direct corner hit in a drop.

That leaves us with the front of the case. There’s a slight ramp up from the sides towards the screen and then a noticeable lip to the screen edge.

This raised lip means you can set your phone face down without any worries, even if you want to add screen protection as well. This is an underrated and definitely something that was missing from their MagCase product.

Setup

This step is really easy. The TPU material that Pitaka uses is rigid while still being very pliable. You can literally put the phone in any side first, or even flat and just push down. The phone pops right in and all the sides bounce back.

Performance

I’ll get this right out of the way. The MagCase Pro is my new favorite case. I’m a switcher. I swap my case a lot, or I should say I did. This has been on my phone solidly since I got it, the exception being a cycling specific case that mounts to my bike. I can honestly say that I’ve dropped my phone less, and when it has dropped it’s never made one of those sounds where you think ‘Uh oh’. The corner hits absorb well enough that had you not seen it you’d think there was rug down there.

Pitaka claims that this case passes 3x the military specification standard. I don’t doubt the veracity of that claim at all. Does it matter? Or is mil-spec a relevant standard? That’s a little harder to quantify as it’s really hard to repeatably drop a device the exact same way. I’ve had cases before that have protected a device flipping off the roof of a car, yet shattering the screen when falling 3 feet from a table at a car dealer. What you can take away is that they’ve done a lot of drop testing and it’s done well.

One of the other reasons this is now my case of choice is their daily use compatibility. If you’re like me, you’ve got some kind of mount in your car and probably a wireless charger at home, at work or both. Pitaka made sure that wireless charging was not affected by their design. That’s one thing when creating a protective case. When you also include magnets to work with your car mounts, that’s pretty cool.

Pitaka has two car mounts; MagMount ($14) and MagMount Qi ($25). Both are available in your choice of vent, suction or CD mount solutions. I’m partial to magnetic mounts and the annoying thing has been the requirement to put a metal plate on the back of your case, or inside if you like to live dangerously. They sent the standard MagMount with vent clip along with this case for review.

It’s a pretty simple ball joint connected to a larger vent clip that grabs the vent fins well. If you mount it closer to the bottom of your vent, the weight of your phone keeps things from bouncing around.

Having metal plates embedded and manufacturing both the case and the mount has allowed Pitaka to create a very sturdy and reliable solution. I’ve yet to have it slide off in the car on this mount, or their MagMount Qi which I had purchased to use with the MagCase I own.

I’m going to steal a graphic from their site now because I really don’t want to cut this case up to show you the layers. There’s 5!

From inside out it’s; microfiber, shock-absorber foam, Aramid layer, Aramid with magnets, and Aramid again. That’s all surrounded by the TPU perimeter.

So what’s Aramid? And how did we get this far down without talking about it? Let’s just answer the first of those two. Aramid is short for aromatic polyamide. They’re man-made synthetic fibers originally made for aerospace. There’s a lot more detail on their website, including a detailed article but what you should take away is how durable it is. It will show some scratches, but it also seems to have some self-healing properties as you can ‘rub-them-away’ in most cases. Funnily enough, I have an extreme example I can show you. This is Doolittle, our beagle.

He’s a chewer and got ahold of my previously mentioned MagCase a while back. Here are some photos of it now after trimming off the seriously damaged corner and using a sanding wheel to smooth out and flatten a couple spots.

Still fits and works other than not protecting the camera corner anymore.

So, can it be possible that there’s nothing I’d change? Almost, but it’s not on the case itself. I want to see is more colors and more devices supported. Right now you can get a MagCase Pro for any device, in any color as long as it’s black for iPhone X. If there were versions for iPhone 7, I’d require my kids to use this case. It’s that good. Luckily for me, I do have the right phone and Black/Grey is fine by me.

What I like

• Fit, feel and finish
• Non-slippery in hand, non-grabby in pocket
• Protection from drops
• Magnetic mount and Qi compatibility

What needs to be improved

• Options. 1 device, 1 color

Final thoughts

So let’s recap. This is my new favorite case and I think my phone is safer for it. If you have the right phone, you like black and want to protect your phone investment, please consider this case. If you have a different device and/or want some color in your life, let’s hope Pitaka expands their collection as this case is great.

Price: $49.99
Where to buy: Pitaka and Amazon.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Pitaka

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: iPhone Case, iPhone X

Pitaka Magcase Pro iPhone X case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 20, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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What is it?

A very protective case offering full, rugged protection with a smooth sport visual instead of harsh angles.

What’s in the box?

Presidio Sport Case for iPhone X

Design and features

Speck isn’t new to the case business. They’ve been creating protective products for devices since 2001, and I want to disclose that I worked for them around 8 years ago. They’ve learned a lot in the past 17 years and the Presidio Sport Case showcases a lot of that knowledge.

There’s a number of features so I’m just going to lay them out here and we’ll take a closer look at the key ones in the review.

These features are called out on the packaging…

• 3-Layer construction of a polycarbonate shell, an Impactium Shock Barrier and an Impactium Sport outer layer.
• Military-grade 10 feet drop protection
• 360º port protection
• Raised bezel screen protection
• Soft-touch no slip grip
• Microban® anti-microbial technology

Additionally these two are called out on the website description; the first of which seems rather important to be absent from the packaging.

• Qi wireless charging compatibility
• Lab-tested durability

It’s available in 5 different color combinations. The one shown here is Gunmetal Grey/Cobalt Blue/Slate Grey.

Installation

Installing the case is pretty easy thanks to the flex corners in Speck’s design. Lead with the left side of the phone so that the mute switch and volume keys tuck under the edge of the case, then press down on the right corners of the phone until fully seated.

Performance

It can be hard to think about performance when talking about a case, but that’s what we’re going to do. To start, let me say that I would prefer to run my phone without a case. All the buttons and switches function just the way they should and feel great. As is the case with a lot of us, a phone is too important to my work and personal life to risk an accident. So, a case it wears.

More protective cases like this one add enough dimension that the buttons get recessed too far for easy access. The solution is to cover the buttons and try to maintain functionality. Well, Speck nailed it. All the buttons press beautifully and you know you’ve pressed them. Similarly, the mute-switch dial is a fantastic alternative to a cavity that would be too small for my fingers. A small turn and the haptics of the phone vibrate to let you know you’re muted. When you find yourself idly playing with a feature like this, you know they got something right.

The inner frame has a scalloped design all the way around the inside edges which provide rigidity while reducing weight and serving as an anchor for the softer, shock-absorbing layers. The case weighs about 48g which brings the already hefty iPhone X up to 174g when installed. It doesn’t feel significantly bigger than most normal cases and is definitely smaller than some of the real rugged options out there. The outer layer has a great feel and walks that fine line between avoiding a slippery case and one that’s too grippy. No issues with wireless charging either which I wondered about initially.

Testing drop performance is a tricky thing if you don’t have a budget to replace a phone. I’m happy to report that this case protected mine beautifully when I accidentally fumbled my phone picking up my car from the dealer. It fell from waist height to polished cement and landed on a corner with a sound that didn’t give me that uh-oh feeling. All good.

The hinged door does a great job of protecting the lightning port in between the speaker holes which line up the way they should. The door is large enough for some cables with large connector overmolds, and opens and closes with a nice positive snap. The living hinge design wants to stay in the closed position, but it doesn’t overly fight you when connecting a cable. The back is totally flat including the lens area which is great for tapping out messages with your phone flat on a table, at least until a cable is connected, when the displaced port cover lifts the end of the phone off the table.

So what’s this Microban? They’re a company that’s been around for over three decades fighting damaging microbial growth before it starts. Here’s the thing; it’s not the kind of feature that you can really see or tell is working as a consumer. So maybe think about it this way. How frequently do you hand your phone to someone else to share a photo or a website? Set it down in a taxi, or on a cafe counter? If it works even close to as well as they say it does, it definitely can’t hurt and if it’s on a case that you like, why not?

What I like

• Flat back – the back of the case is perfectly flat counteracting the normally protruding camera lens. Tap away to your heart’s content without your phone rocking around.
• Button feel – The tactility is perfect. You can press and know you’ve pressed.
• Rotary switch – Great solution for a case that would otherwise have a deep finger hole recess for accessing the switch.
• Hand feel – the case has a silky touch without being too tacky or slippery.
• Screen protection – the iPhone screen is recessed into the case even when using an additional glass screen protector.

What needs to be improved

• I would love to see the lightning cover be removable. It’s great protection, but when open with a connected cable the case doesn’t lay flat. It would be great to see this as an optional part that can be removed before installing your phone.
• A mention of Qi compatibility on the packaging.

Final thoughts

There’s a lot to like about this case, and very little to gripe about. If you’re looking for a case with better than average protection against drops and accidents, this is a solid choice.

Price: $44.95
Where to buy: Speck Products and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Speck Products

The post Speck Presidio Sport Case review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: iPhone Case, iPhone X

Speck Presidio Sport Case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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