Today I am going to talk about my favorite iPhone accessory: the Zagg full body coverage InvisibleSHIELD. I've played with a lot of cases for a lot of different gadgets. I've elsewhere confessed to being a case-aholic (despite my wife's assertion that I'm a headphone-aholic), and I don't think I have ever been as satisfied as I am with the InvisibleSHIELD.
When Beth and I first bought our iPhones, we purchased cases to go with them. The sales associate at the Apple store suggested one - a fairly slim, slightly rubberized, black model where the bottom slid off. I believe it was this one, the InCase Slider. I think we also bought some cheapy screen protectors at the time - or I tried to use the WriteRight protectors, or we went without. But shortly after our friend Tony bought his iPhone, he showed us the brand of screen protector he used - Power Support's Crystal Film, and we went and got that.
I had some abrasions on the back of the iPhone, having eschewed a case and stuck it in my pocket for the better part of a year. The InvisbleSHIELD almost perfectly hides those scratches, and now my iPhone feels almost just new. No shock absorption (and just how much real "shock absorption" do one of those cases give you?), but it adds no additional bulk to the iPhone. You can't even tell it's there! And again - this stuff was designed to protect military helicopter blades - thus the helicopter on the packaging. From past experience, this stuff is tough and just does not scratch.
And that's when I (at least) started to have a problem.
The combo of the screen protector - which, btw, was excellent - with the case tended to curl up the screen protector at the edges unless you got it perfectly on the iPhone. Which I couldn't do. And I couldn't stand the bubbles along the edges where the case pushed up the screen protector. I reckoned that the screen protector was more important than the "shock absorption" the case was supposed to provide. And besides - despite claiming to be 1mm thick, it really felt like it added bulk to the iPhone.
So I abandoned the case.
Beth stuck with hers. In part because - well, she sometimes gets a case of the dropsies. In fact, her iPhone is not only ensconced en case, it is also swaddled in a quilted, Etsy-bought wallet ... thing. But after the better part of a year, the slightly rubberized surface started to peel away from the case, and she had lost the slider portion. So I gave her my unused one. That went well for a little while - but then the complaints started. Chiefly, she really came to hate the slider. She had lost it in the first place, and it was a real pain to slide the thing off and stick it in a charger. And I'm not making light of this. In order to pull the rather secure slider off the bottom, you had to grip the iPhone in a death grip and pull - which half the time led to sliding the part that wasn't supposed to slide off. I mean, it's good and all that it's secure and won't fall off - even in a tornado. But I cringed every time I tried to pull the thing off.
Also - it was black. Now, while a basic black suited my tastes just fine, it did not suit Beth's.
And then, lo, a co-worker came in with this case one day. iFrogz: Colorful, whimsical, same slightly rubberized feel. You can slide it off, but the bottom is designed to fit into most chargers, so you don't need to. I was intrigued. And then, when Beth and I were walking through the mall, we saw that one of the kiosks had them. She was intrigued, too.
But - in actuality - there was something else that caught my eye....
Back when I used my N800 for my PDA, I had experimented with several different screen protectors, but was never really satisfied with any of them. I liked the Zagg InvisibleSHIELD, but it really was hard to use a stylus with, and eventually removed it. Problem was, nothing else really grabbed my attention, and I think I went back to the WriteRights before I ended up getting an iPhone and putting the N800 (sadly) in a drawer.
So, guess what I found at that little kiosk? Yes, my old friend the Zagg InvisibleSHIELD. So, I bought Beth a pink iFrogz case, and myself the full bodied Zagg InvisibleSHIELD for iPhone.
Again - the application process is somewhat laborious. Peel it off the backing, douse front and back with lubricating mist, slap it on there, position it, squeegee the water off, and wait. But doing it the second time. Not too bad. I did have a bit of a time with stray particles once I got the thing on, and at that point it's a bear to pull the thing off, remove an offending particle, and then put it back down. Let's just say my trigger finger got a good work-out with all the spritzing of lubricating mist, and my forearms feel a lot stronger now from trying to peel this stuff back; let me tell you, it really holds on. And, to be completely truthful, I now have a couple of barely noticeable but somewhat disappointing "creases" in the front screen and there are a couple of nicks and blemishes here and there because I couldn't leave well enough alone. (But they are better than the offending hair or little piece of whatever.)
But let me tell you - I love this "case." All the things that I had trouble with on the N800 are plusses here. The iPhone has no stylus - so there's no problem with the SHIELD's improved grip grabbing the stylus. A finger glides smoothly across the surface. The pebbled surface - actually it's the only thing that let's you know it's there. Crystal clear and
somewhat glossy at the wrong angle, but I haven't had a problem with it in actual use. And let me tell you, the grip on the iPhone is vastly improved and ... warm. I guess it's because I'm grabbing rubberized surface and not cold plastic and aluminum. The screen also stays incredibly clean - despite oily fingers - much better than Power Support's Crystal. (Though the Anti-Glare was fine.)
Outside of a less-than-easy application procedure, Zagg's InvisibleSHIELD is simply the best case/screen protector for the iPhone.