Speck manufacture a wide range of cases for phones, tablets and laptops in the US and is now starting to bring these to the U.K. While there is still no official UK site you can pick up many of the products from the Amazon UK site.
We’re looking at a few of these, starting with an iPhone4 case from their “Out of Print” Fitted Case range which features a range of classic books on the back, in a textured cloth style material.
Design
The Fitted Case itself is a two piece design, the bottom encasing the back of the iPhone and the top snapping closed over the front of the iPhone sealing it inside. This is a more expensive design to manufacture, but it leads to a better quality product than cases that you have to bend and flex to squeeze your iPhone inside. It’s also quicker! You can place your iPhone inside and snap the front on in literally 4 seconds!
Front
The case is made of sturdy plastic with a ‘matte, soft-touch coating‘ which feels comfortable in the hand. The iPhone4 is one of the most slippery phones I’ve ever had and when taking it in and out of ‘pouch’ style cases I have nearly dropped it several times! The soft grip finish to this case means I don’t have to worry about that any more.
The top section of the case rises above the level of the screen, so there is protection if you lay your phone face down on a surface. This ‘lip’ is quite pronounced, which offers better screen protection, but can cause your finger to butt up against it when touching toward the very edges of the screen. It never prevented me from accessing anything I was trying to do though.
Rear
The design of the case overall is great, and all the ports and buttons the phone has are left perfectly accessible, particularly the silent/ringer switch which on many cases is hard to switch from one position to another because the recess has been made too small. I had the Catcher in the Rye edition from the ‘Out of Print’ series which also has available To Kill A Mockingbird, Lolita, Moby Dick, Pop Poe, A Clockwork Orange and The Great Gatsby – for great literary fans these really are the cases for you! They also have a series with Tartan and Plaid backgrounds.
About the only drawback to these fitted cases is that they restrict access to some docking accessories such as speaker system, however this is an issue with nearly every case accessory for the iPhone. Popping off the case and removing the iPhone is slightly more work than fitting it but still very easy.
Overall
The case is not too bulky, yet offers good all round protection for your iPhone, and has been my case of preference for the last 2 weeks ahead of several others I have been trying. The Fitted Case range are available in the UK for £19.99 and available from online retailers such as Amazon UK, Apple UK or iWorld.
This post was written by Rob Gordon, an IT geek, gadget lover and blogger. Rob has been using the internets since 1994 when the only streaming video was that coffee pot in Cambridge (rip)….
Follow Rob on Twitter – @robgordon – about.me/robgordonuk
