Review: iSkin Fuze case + revo clip for iPhone

Posted by: Ragart on Oct 08 2008

 

I go through all sorts of phases with cases. Sometimes I want to keep the phone on my belt, sometimes I want to keep it on my pocket, and other times I want it dangling from my earlobe (this solution was the most painful). One thing I’ve really been missing is what I call the “Blackberry holster”. My mom’s old Blackberry had this really awesome ratcheted holster that you could just dock the whole BB in with a satisfying little click. So imagine my delight when I saw iSkin offering their fuze iPhone case and compatibility with their BB-like revo clip. The case covers all of the iPhone in a rubberized plastic, but you can still keep the device on your belt by sliding it right into the revo clip’s tray. Dream setup?! I hope so!

The fuze

The fuze case is composed of a front and back panel, as well as a cool, kinda matted screen protector. According to the iSkin manual, you put the screen protector on, then the back panel, then the front. Then you drool (that’s my own additional instruction).

Pictures make it seem like there are bits of rubber or silicone outside. There aren’t. The case is plastic all around (there is a soft inner lining) except for the rubber port protector. I found the phone a lot easier to hold within the case, and I didn’t feel that usual nail-biting fear of dropping my device since it’s so hard to hold.

 

The case covers every button on the case in rubber. This is alright for protection, but it makes each of them a good deal more difficult to actually press. The home button is easy enough to get used to, but the power and volume buttons don’t show any give, so it’s hard to know if you’ve pressed them without looking at the screen to see the effect.

There is a trade-off for all of this extra protection, though. The flush screen you once enjoyed on the naked iPhone is now gone, and you’re using something more akin to an HTC TyTN. What this means is that on-screen buttons in the corner (like the number switch on the keyboard) or along the side (like the checkboxes in ToDo) are going to be more difficult to hit.

Another design trade-off is the headphone jack. The iPhone was criticized for its ridiculous headphone jack that is too deep and slim for many earphones out on the market. This forced people to go out and get new earphones or find adapters so that they could still use their old pairs. I’m one of the latter folk with my Shure headphone and Dynex adapter. The problem here is that the added protection of the fuze actually makes the earphone jack deeper, so neither of my adapters would fit. I was actually really excited to use the case, so I spent about 20 minutes filing the rubber off of the edge of my Shure adapter and it did eventually fit into the hole. However,  I do think there are a lot of iPhone users out there who might use an adapter of some sort, so it’s unfortunate that the case design nullifies everything outside of Apple iPhone sized earphone jacks.

There are a few other miscellaneous features of the case: the screen protector, the earpiece cover, anti-microbial coating, and the port protector.

• screen protector – I love it! It has a great texture that I just love smoothing my finger over, and it’s a lot easier to use the screen with it on. One other massive advantage is that it really blocks fingerprints. They’re about 80% less visible now.
• earpiece cover – no need to worry about your light sensors being blocked: the earpiece cover is transparent and worked just fine.
• anti-microbial coating – I was actually sick for about a week and a half as I reviewed this case, but I was sick before the case even arrived at my house. No hard feelings, iSk— hatchoo!
• port protector - The rubber port protector is something iSkin flaunts as a feature, but I find it more of a hindrance than anything. I’ve never felt like my port was in any real danger. You always have to make sure to put it back in or you won’t be able to dock the case in the revo clip.

 

 

Revo Clip

The clip is almost perfect for me. It’s a good, strong clip that I feel I can trust to stay on my belt. Those two plastic prongs you see along the left and right sides help the case to “click” in so you know your device is safely locked in. There’s also a small camera hole so that you can take pictures even while the iPhone is in the clip, although I think it would always be easier to just take the phone out of the clip than use it while it’s still docked.

The beef I have with this clip is that it didn’t seem to keep the iPhone as a music player in mind. The site says that you can charge the phone and attach earphones while the iPhone is in, but what about when you want to take the iPhone out? You have to un-plug your earphones every single time you want to remove the iPhone from the clip.

I thought I could get over this, since everything about the clip is awesome, but this turned out to be a real deal breaker for me. It was a bit of a hassle to have to un-plug the earphones (which paused any music playing), take the phone out, re-plug the earphones, and then un-pause my music. The clip is beautifully realized, it’s just a shame that it’s so complicated for music setups.

 

A few problems

Unfortunately, the problems I have with the fuze aren’t just differences in opinion. Within a few days of receiving the case I started to see some damage on the case. At first it was just the port protector, which was torn by the camera lens hole when I put the iPhone in the wrong way. Granted, it was my mistake, but this is also the first clip I’ve seen that required a specific orientation for my iPhone — and the first that actually sustained damage for making such a small mistake. The fuze case fits just fine in the clip with the screen facing out or in, or with the home button on the left or right — so it’s really only the camera hole that dictates which way you should put the phone in. Luckily, the rip was just a small one, so I was perfectly willing to live with it.

After a few more days the top also started to show three or four hairline cracks, and this definitely concerned me since the idea of the case was to protect it from scratches and small drops. If I ever dropped the fuze (which I didn’t), these cracks could destroy the seal and send the iPhone flying. The cracks didn’t get any bigger, but the top of the case became considerably more loose (see below).

 

 

Unfortunately I didn’t have a better picture from before the cracks, but you should be able to see that the fit at the top is pretty tight in the first image. The second one is a lot looser, and it’s really only the middle and bottom parts of the case that keep it fastened together.

 

Conclusion

Thankfully, iSkin does have a return policy for their cases, and I e-mailed and sent the case back to them and am hoping to see my refund reflected on my credit card some day soon. They also have a replacement policy (and iPhone forum feedback shows that not all fuze cases are like this), but it wasn’t just the damage that influenced my decision to return the product. The fact that I had to remove the earphones every time I took the iPhone from my belt was something I found more and more difficult to deal with, and I was disappointed that my adapter had to actually be modified to fit the case. To be fair, iSkin does have an adapter of their own that will fit the case, but it’s an extra $13.

The fuze case and revo clip make an amazing combo: a great belt clip, more grip, and shock/scratch protection (and a great screen protector!), but its incompatibility with my common iPhone habits (listening to music with the fuze on my belt) and my adapters defeat the other charms of iSkin’s design. Using the fuze without the belt clip and without adapters will rid you of these drawbacks, but that’s not a step I’m willing to take in this case.

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