Review: My first day with the OtterBox Defender Series

No matter what you’re doing, chances are that your BlackBerry is by your side. You take it to the movies and to the grocery store, and you even take it with you to a romantic dinner for two. While all of these activities don’t post a treat to your BlackBerry — well, the last one might — what if where you want to go is not the safest environment for a phone?

Thankfully the people at OtterBox have put some careful thought into this and have come out with the OtterBox Defender Series of cases. Designed to be protect your BlackBerry in all sorts of tough conditions, the Defender Series will keep your phone safe while you are out doing some not so safe things.

The model tested for the purposes of this review was designed specifically to fit all models of the BlackBerry 8300 Curve series.

Opening the box, I found a clear plastic bag containing all of the components of the case, it’s ratcheted belt clip, and assembly instructions.

Three parts make up the main body of a Defender case for the Curve: a clear plastic membrane to protect the keypad, screen, camera, and speaker ports; a high-impact polycarbonate shell; and a outer silicon casing.

The membrane is applied just like a screen protector, with a little bit of water on the screen helping the static cling. All you need to do is make sure that the indentations for all of the keys on the keypad properly line up and you are ready to install the shell of the case.

The shell is made up of two pieces of high-impact polycarbonate and snap-together very easily. I was quite concerned with how delicate they felt when I first handled them, but as soon as I joined them around my phone I felt slightly more confident. I was pleased to see that it had an opening for my phones camera.

Slightly warily, I placed the case with my phone in it into the protective silicon casing. Ensuring that the four protruding silicon clips were in their holders, I was quite shocked at how sturdy the whole case now felt. Fitting snugly in my hand, the entire package did not feel as big as it looked. In fact, it felt just like your normal BlackBerry of a few years ago. The phone, encapsulated in its defender looked like it could be kicked across my living room.

And that’s exactly what I did! With my best impersonation of Andriy Shevchenko I kicked my beloved 8330 across the room placing my trust (and potentially $500) in the OtterBox Defender.

After hitting a floor board and bouncing off of the floor a few times, I picked up my phone and found absolutely no damage at all. So impressed with how the case could hold up to such a blow, I decided to see if it could keep out debris. I got some ground espresso beans from my kitchen and poured them on the phone. It didn’t look like anything got into the keyboard or anywhere else, but I decided not to take the case apart and check until I had given it a good douse of tap water. Rather anti-climatically I opened the case to find the phone just as it was before I had put it in the case.

I put the case back together and then placed the case the supplied belt clip. Soon after I did that I got my first phone call while I had the case on the phone. The sound quality was not compromised on either the earpiece or the loudspeaker thanks to the thin textile filter built into the protective membrane situated over each speaker. I was told that the sound of my voice was lacking its usual bass quality when talking with the case on, so I can say that despite having a microphone hole through all of this protection, it does affect the quality of the users voice to people on the other end.

I then had a BlackBerry Messenger conversation to try out the keypad. To be completely honest, I do not like the feel of the keypad when it has the protective membrane over it. It feels like I am typing through a two layers of cling-wrap. It took me quite some time to get used to, but I still don’t enjoy it’s overly-rubbery tactile feeling.

Up to this point I have mostly listed the good things about this case. I think it’s now time to list the bad.

A large concern I have for this case is of course the awkwardness of using the keypad through the protective membrane. It feels so strange and rubbery.

But more difficult than typing on the phone in the case is pressing all of the keys around the perimeter of the phone. I found myself pressing so hard on the raised edges on the silicon casing that I thought i would break the sensors under the keys if I managed to press them fully. This made it really difficult to raise the volume of the phone, which I can see being a major problem for using this device on a noisy work site.

Conclusion

After playing with the OtterBox Defender series for a solid 24-hours, I can say without a doubt that it is the most durable case that I have ever tried for the BlackBerry. But all of the protection it offers comes at a price. So unless you work on a construction site or with heavy machinery, are constantly bumping into things or dopping your phone, or like to partake in sports like mountain biking, skiing, or rock climbing then this case isn’t for you. But is that really so bad of a conclusion? It seems like OtterBox knows this and doesn’t mind otherwise they wouldn’t have made such a ridicuously strong case.

The OtterBox Defender Series for BlackBerry can be bought for $49.99 at OtterBox’s online store.

Special Giveaway!

Kristin at OtterBox generously donated a OtterBox Defender series case for the original BlackBerry Pearl 8100. If you would like to win this case, write in the comment box why it is that your Pearl needs this level of protection. The best answer will net you a brand new case!

Entries must be submitted by Wednesday, June 25th 2008.  Just don’t forgot to supply an e-mail address so we can contact the lucky winner to get a shipping address!

Special thanks to Kristin and everyone at OtterBox for the review and giveaway case.
Written by BlackBerryForums.com user MikeyPants (Previous BlackBerryNews Writer)