[hozay09]

Decided to stop by the Apple store in the mall I was shopping in today & noticed they had the Contour Showcase available for the iPhone 3G. I had the case for the 1st iPhone & I loved it so I had to go for this one.

Noticeable improvements such as thinner (not as bulky as original), the clip is nice & solid and the stand by/power button is concealed rather than exposed yet still accessable. It has a soft spot to access it. So far I'm pretty impressed with it since it's a pretty solid case. I'm very clumsy with my iPhone and couldn't stand dropping this one as I dropped my last one w/out a case and destroyed the screen.

Some pics for the curious.... Price was $35 btw.






Product pics & info from their website.

contourcase.com | Showcase for iPhone 3G

[mrknowitall]

I saw this one the other day as well. It looked great. And felt nice. It is sort of rubbery...but not really. Certainly not like Silicone. More like a slightly rubberized plastic. So it wouldn't be too hard to slip in and out of pockets...but it gives a bit of grip for your hand. I liked that. Also, it comes with a belt clip, which is nice. You can mount the phone in the clip with the screen facing in or out. With the screen facing in, the screen is completely covered and I'd image you couldn't damage the phone if you wanted to.

But, there were a few things that I did not like about the case. First, the two halves of the case don't snap together all that securely. With the iSee, you KNOW when the two halves are snapped together. With the Showcase, I was always wondering if I had all the snap-points engaged. Also, there are some tiny little plastic bits which hold the two halves of the case together, and I can really see them snapping off / wearing down after opening the case up a few times. The thing that bugged me the most was that every time you snap on the belt clip / cover a small tension loaded clip pops over the centerline of the case and seperates the two halves just at iny bit for a second. Over time I could see this creating an even larger gap between the two halves of the case and loosening the snap-action between the two halves.

In the end, I loved the features, but didn't like the build quality (I'd say it was mostly a design flaw, though). If they took a case that snapped together like the iSee but added every other feature and the styling from the Showcase, it would have been GREAT. But I just hated how this case snapped together so insecurely.

So I left the store with an iSee. It's not as cool looking as the Showcase. And it doesn't have the belt clip / screen protector. But it sure snaps together securely.

[hozay09]

I thought the same thing at first about the case not securing properly but so far it's holding on like a champ. I had the prior version for the 1st iPhone & never ran into a fitment problem so I went with my gut on this one.

I personallylove the solid feel of the case ( it does feel cheap without the phone in place) and the "window" in the back is always cool.

The isee was nice & also a cool choice but I figured there would people curious about this one.

Also btw, those plastic clips hang out pretty damn tight! I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but when I attempted to pry it apart to see just how tight it was I was impressed just how difficult it was to pull open. Not to mention the iSee doesn't include a clip which sucked.

[JayR_The_DJ]

I agree with the above statements. The center would get caught in the holster clip. For $35, this is unnaceptable. The only thing holding it together is the top clip.

Also, the clear portion scratches very easily.

For a similiar size case and style, I'd rather get the Otterbox Case for the money.

[NightFall]

But even if the top clip would latch off, it would not slide out of the case, you need to angle it out by pushing off the phone in order to have it slide out and still, it would not be as easy. I constantly take mines out to clean it and it is always not the easiest task.

However, I do have some reservations for this phone as I too am a previous owner of the 1st gen. and the clear part is easily scratched up when compared to the older version. However, it could just be my experience.

The people with the iSee's, you fail to realize that if you were to drop the phone at a certain angle, the clips that hold the phone together might snap off and the phone might slide right out once that happens effectively scratching and/or breaking your phone. So there is some drawbacks on having the design of being two piece whereas if you were to have a weak hinge, the phone will still remain in its position because of its design on securing the phone to its base.

[ustahir_1]

dont like the exposed back though,,,

my idea of a case is to protect it all when the back gets scratched it defeats the object of having it