OtterBox for BlackBerry Bold Review
By Simon Sage on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 4:42 PM PST In Accessories, BlackBerry, Reviews
Functionality
Does the OtterBox protect? If YouTube is any indication, one of the favourite things for mobile bloggers to video record is bashing the crap out of OtterBox-clad cell phones. The cases are marketed to those in construction and medical fields, as well as those who enjoy braving the outdoors, and to that end, the OtterBox provides all the dust and impact protection you could ask for. They don’t vouch for water protection (that would be the Armor line), but in my experience the Defender series has provided fine protection against light rain and snow.
The hard case has had a bit of a revamp for the better. Porous speaker covers, which used to be built into the clear membrane, are now a part of the case, which is great. On the old OtterBoxes they used to get jammed and torn pretty easily when assembling and disassembling. Speaking of which, speaker quality remains awesome thanks to sound port access in the rear, on top, and on the front. Hooks to keep the skin in place are now on the hard case rather than the rubber in previous models; this is a solid improvement, since it used come off way too easily. Some grooves along the side of the hard case also allow the skin to be fitted more tightly.
As mentioned in The Short Version, I have one big gripe, and this is it: when using flash and have an OtterBox on your BlackBerry Bold, you’ll get some crummy pictures. The back of the hard case has a clear plastic cover for the camera which the BlackBerry Bold can certainly use, especially when it’s holstered and facing outward. Admittedly, you’ll only get results like that when using the flash, so make sure you’ve got the option turned off and you’ve always got plenty of light.
One minor problem I had was that the Bold sits a little too tightly in the holster when it has the OtterBox covering it. If pulling straight up, the holster’s clip would often not be strong enough and go along for the ride. Usually you’d have to press the holster against your hip in order to keep it on your belt – a minor inconvenience, but worth noting.
Final observations and wrap-up on page 4!
I have this cover and found that it causes echo back to the calling party. This is due to the audio traveling from the speaker down the sides of the case (the hard shell portion) and playing back to the calling party through the microphone. The echo is extremely bad as told to me by the callers. I have proven it is the case by removing the case during the call and the echo is gone. Only known work-around is to use blue tooth.
OK, I know it is important to protect my phone, but Otterbox cases are utterly useless if I actually want to use my phone. All I get from the case is an instant brick if I need to throw my phone at someone!