Review: Otterbox Commuter Series Case for Motorola Droid/Milestone


If you are scared to ruin your precious Motorola Droid/Milestone you should seriously consider an Otterbox case: you won’t regret it.

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Introduction and Installation

This Motorola Droid case is part of the Otterbox Commuter Series, will give your device added protection against bump and shock without an excess bulk (please note it is not protective against water).

Here is the review of its usage during a two weeks summer holiday, on the beach or inside the bag of a woman.

The case itself is made of three part:

  • the frame to protect the sliding screen;
  • the screen protector film;
  • the keyboard case.

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Package content from left to right: sliding screen frame, screen protector, keyboard case

Both the frame and the case are made of silicone skin wrapped in a polycarbonate shell and can be mounted on the device following the easy to follow instructions found in the box and reported below. The frame and case attach to the smartphone thanks to “teeth” which grab the sliding screen and the device body.

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Mounting instructions: clear and easy to follow

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Inserting the Droid into the case is easy

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Examples of the “teeth” holding the case to the smartphone

Overview

The case has cuts on the shell to allow the usage of the camera and flash, as well as the proper functioning of the mic and speaker you find on the back of the device.

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Details of the rear part of the case with the holes for the camera lens and audio

The case allows easy and full access to all the buttons and ports of the device: buttons are pressed thanks to the soft rubber surrounding the case, and the ports are protected against dust via the same rubber, which covers and elongates inside them for higher protection.

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Camera (left) and volume (right) buttons are under a soft protective rubber

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Charging port (left) and power button and headphone jack (right) find their place under safe rubber

To change the battery you will have to remove the keyboard case, which turned to be an easy to do operation.

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Front view

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Rear view

As you may expect, the case will not allow you to use the Droid’s docking solution. When tried with a compatible Droid’s desktop dock removing the keyboard case was enough to charge and sync the Droid, while it was also needed to leave the phone flip open to properly use the Motorola car mounter dock.

Conclusions

In the end, the Otterbox Commuter Series Motorola Droid case proved to be easy to install and well designed, with no dust found after two weeks summer holidays. The case feels well made and engineered, and guarantees full access to buttons and ports.

Docks compatibility can be regained simply removing the keyboard protection part of the case.

Finally, even if this is more about personal taste, I like the look and feel of the Droid, and the case is following its style thus I found the case nice looking, too!

Thus, if you are not “docks obsessed” at $34.95 this case surely deserves your attention.

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The case protects without adding much weight or bulk

Pros

  • well made and engineered
  • all buttons and ports accessible
  • rubber prevents dust
  • in line with the Droid design

Cons

  • must be partly removed to be used with docks (this is something you should expect, though)

Link: Otterbox

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