iPhone Case Review: CapsuleRebel

As you may or may not know from a previous dealnews podcast, I'm the proud owner of an iPhone 3G. Yes, I stood in line on launch day to obtain it, as did a good 250-300 other people at my "local" Apple store ("local" because it's an hour away). To keep this piece of technology in pristine condition, many people opt for a case to put on it so if it falls it won't scuff or break. Me, on the other hand... I like the feel of the iPhone without anything on it, and I don't want to cover it up. However, I wasn't totally opposed to the idea of a case, and when I saw SwitchEasy's CapsuleRebel, I finally found a case that I thought looked fairly cool and that I could live with. In particular, the "Arctic" color, which was supposed to be mostly transparent so you could see the iPhone inside. As we'll find out, this wasn't really the case.
So anyway I bought it, and while overall I do really like it, it's still not for me.... Here's why...


First of all, when I placed my order, the next day I was refunded my money (via PayPal) and told that this case was not in stock yet in the US and was held up in customs in Canada. They asked me to replace my order 3 days later when it would be in. This seemed odd... can't a company keep track of what orders they have and which haven't been fulfilled yet instead of requiring me to stay abrupt on their availability?

Hmm... anyway, I did as they requested and placed the order again a few days later on a Thursday, albeit very hesitantly because I had been given more time to think twice on the purchase I was unsure about to begin with. When I placed my order, the image to the left is what was depicted on their website as what this color choice looked like on a black iPhone 3G (which is what I have). Over the weekend, however, I noticed that they updated their product page with the image to the right (click to enlarge to see the text at the bottom). This was quite shocking as you can imagine. I've gone from believing I'll have a transparent case to seeing that it'll in fact look more silver in color in reality. Well, that's not what I ordered, now is it... I've heard really good things about them having great customer service, however, so I decided to let it go on and be shipped to me and see what I thought.

I received it the following Monday and noticed right off that it did in fact have a sort of silver tint to it, but not quite as much as in the product shot (but at this point that's clearly a 3D rendering and not to be taken seriously anyway). I opened it up and put it on the phone and found it to be a very solid case. It covers everything except the front screen, silent switch, speaker, and mic. It even has a little plug for the dock connector at the bottom, which I thought was awesome. I've noticed pocket lint and the like getting in there and that concerns me somewhat. It didn't add much bulk to the iPhone, but it did feel a bit slippery in my hand, and suddenly I became consciously afraid of dropping the phone while using it.... I never felt this way with the caseless phone, even though it's pretty slick as well.

I left the case on the phone over the period of maybe 3 or 4 days until I finally decided to remove it. One major drawback for me was that I spent the $29 for a dock when I bought my iPhone because I liked being able to simply dock it instead of fiddling with a cable. With the case on the phone, it simply would no longer fit in the dock. Granted, the case did come with a universal dock adapter so the phone can be docked while in the case, but this requires you to own a universal dock...which would cost me *at least* another $30 or more, more than the case itself. And I'm sure you can't sell these regular docks on eBay for what you paid for them, let alone any profit. It simply wasn't worth the hassle.
With the case off, I've found myself realizing just how slim the iPhone 3G is, and wondering why I ever put a case on it to begin with. Afterall, the glass screen is totally scratch-free after more than a month of use and residing in my pocket, and the back casing only has very tiny scratches that are invisible until you polish the back and allow light to hit it just right to expose them. The only use I could have for a case would be to protect it if it fell to the ground, but I'm not very clumsy with my electronics. Plus, if it does tumble to the ground, I have insurance on the phone... something to be discussed for a later post.

Conclusion? The CapsuleRebel is indeed a fantastic case. The build quality is top notch, and if you like the color you choose, you're in for a real treat. The dual-layer case design works incredibly well and makes the case almost feel like it's part of the phone. It even includes screen protectors to put on the screen if you so desire (I kept mine off). If you're looking for a case I would highly recommend it, as it includes a nice handful of accessories (universal dock adapter, stand, 2 screen protectors, cleaning cloth) and is under $30 shipped- very nice price in comparison to other sub-par cases.
Below are a couple pictures I took of my iPhone inside the case, but the coloring of the case is slightly off due to the flash (although I used a make-shift softbox to avoid direct flash)... in normal use, it does resemble the updated rendering pictured earlier, but it's not *quite* as silvery as that leads you to believe.