Functionality
The biggest thing that sets the Impact Series apart from your average skin are membranes around the inside of each corner which help to better dissipate force; while that might provide extra protection, it feels much lighter than using the fully-covered case. I would still cringe if dropping my phone from waist height onto a hard surface, but would expect glancing impacts to not be a problem. Protection aside, the OtterBox 1938 provides outstanding grip, opens the side sound ports so sound is unaffected, and allows you to use the mute, volume and convenience keys without any trouble at all. The camera is fully open and doesn’t have any flash issues like the Defender series.
One slight transition I had to make between the two was from holstering to pocketing my BlackBerry, which was actually a bigger deal than I thought it would be. Holstering the device made for consistent access, while pocketing involved figuring out where your phone was when it was needed. Since the OtterBox is entirely rubber, your phone would also be prone to being lint-covered if stuffed in a pocket. It’s largely a personal choice, but after extended use, I wanted to ditch the skin in favour of the holster, protection be damned.
Final thoughts on page 4!