Review: OtterBox For BlackBerry Bold 1937-20

Review: OtterBox 1937-20 for BlackBerry Bold

[rating:9.5]

Link: BlackBerry Bold

Price: $49.95 (+postage)

Colors: Black or Yellow

I know I’m running late with the review on this case but life has been quite hectic lately. I received one of these cases for my new BlackBerry Bold a couple of days after the official release. My Bold has been wrapped up in the aforementioned ‘3 Layers’ of protection ever since.

For those of you who haven’t seen or read my previous articles on OtterBox products for Blackberry here’s the low-down- OtterBox offer 3 layers of physical protection for your device. The first (inner) layer is a clear, heat form fitted membrane that keeps out the fine dust and moisture. The second layer is a high impact polycarbonate shell and last of all is an outer silicon skin for that one final protection factor. I suppose the Irish saying of “To be sure, to be sure, to be sure” might come into play here somewhere but I think that saying was from a joke involving 3 condoms so I wont go there… (NB; The Defender series is NOT waterproof so if you submerge your nice new Bold into liquid to test this bad boy out then, well, all I can say is you’ll be upgrading handsets sooner rather than later 🙂 )

From the Box:

Ok, so what do you get for your $50 bucks…

• Heat formed membrane.
• Hight Impact polycarbonate shell.
• Silicon outer skin.
• Holster cover that the whole lot clicks into.
• Fitting instructions. (If you haven’t fitted an OtterBox before then this is recommended reading)
• Screen fitting card. (For getting rid of those annoying bubbles when fitting the membrane)
• Sticker and other advertising paraphernalia.

Their new case for the Bold is much along the same lines as their case for the Curve… Great ergonomic design, durable, snug fit and rugged protection.

I have made it no secret that my BlackBerry Bold is not my favorite device that has ever come out of the RIM factory. (I’ve had a bit of flak from this point of view on the forums). Mix that in with a ‘little bit of a temper tantrum’ sometimes and there is a good point of putting an OtterBox Defender on my Bold. I tend to get the sh##s with it quite often and it usually gets thrown across the room. If it was not for the OtterBox then I would be back on my trusty old Curve a fair while ago. Although I would never recommend a full blooded, wind-up, pitch strength throw, it will take a fair beating. RIM should probably include one of these cases as standard equipment for the Bold if they don’t start fixing some of the devices larring issues … it would save a lot of warranty claims. (Now I’m just getting downright nasty…Sorry… 🙂 )

Overall:

OtterBox have again done a fantastic job with this case for the BlackBerry Bold.

They have made a couple of changes from the Curve case. One of which is the hard plastic cover across the camera and flash on the back of the device. Granted this is a better option than the same soft plastic membrane OtterBox uses for the keyboard (as used on their Defender case for the Curve) but does have one distinctive draw-back. If you take a picture using the LED flash, the light refracts back into the camera lens hence making the picture blurred. If you take a fair few pictures on your Bold at night time then this could really get on your nerves.

The case has speaker ports so you can still here your ringtone/music/videos playing. The status LED also has a port so you can tell if you have a received message, etc. Just about all of the external openings have a small particle filter covering the actual hole so dust ingress is kept to a minimum. Actually instead of me going through everything OtterBox has remembered to include, I will just tell you what they haven’t; a port for the Micro-SD card slot in the side. Now this didn’t really worry me too much. The card is hard enough to get out of the Bold when it’s not in a case anyway and I’m not really one for changing SD cards every day anyway, but I thought I would mention it for those of you who do swap out your media card frequently.

The holster is very durable and the spring clip is very strong. (A little too strong straight out of the box, but that will change in time). A magnet is in-built into the holster so your ‘in-case’ settings will act the same as if you had the device in the factory sleeve.

Pros:

• Looks Great.
• Ridged Plastic Camera/Flash Protection.
• Same Bullet Proof feel as the previous OtterBox Defender cases for Blackberry.
• Snug fit plug over the charge/headphone ports.
• Belt clip seems even sturdier than previous models (which was great to start with).
• Filter over ear piece.
• Magnet for sensor in the holster to keep the ‘factory’ type behavior happening.

Cons:

• Makes the Bold feel larger than it already is.
• The flash reflection conflicts with the camera operation.
• No SD card port opening.