Waterfield Designs iPhone 5 Suede Jacket

Today i'm going to take a quick look at the iPhone 5 Suede Jacket by Waterfield Designs.  The Suede jacket is exactly what it sounds like, it is a thin suede sleeve that you slip your iPhone 5 in.

Waterfield Designs offers both the plain sleeve and the sleeve with a built in exterior pocket.  I have the version with the pocket for review and found that the fit is perfect.  It is not overly tight which would make removal difficult but it's not overly loose where it can fall out.  The suede material has a nice smooth feel and the build quality is perfect.  The exterior pocket is "stretchy" enough to store your lightning cable and/or your headphones but will lay flat when nothing is stored in it. 

The Suede Jacket comes in traditional black but also cheetah print and zebra print.  The version I have sells for $14 and is available directly through the Waterfield Designs (SFBags) website. 

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Clear-Coat Full Body Protection for the iPhone 5

Clear coat makes screen protectors and other products, such as their iPhone 5 skins.  Today i'm going to give you guys a brief review of their iPhone 5 wrap.  I am an iPhone user who does not like to use cases so I am always looking for quality products that I can apply to the back and sides of my iPhone to keep it protected while retaining the "naked" iPhone look.  Clear-coat certainly nailed it with this product release.

Clear-coat films are made of urethane and are almost crystal clear (there is a tiny bit of orange peel effect).  I installed the back and side pieces on my device and found that the cutouts and size of the pieces are spot on.  The back piece is sized slightly smaller so that installation is a breeze (even a rookie could do this!).  The material has a rubberized feeling to it which I prefer because it gives the device a grippy feeling while keeping it from sliding around while on a table.  While this is great for the back and sides of the phone, I personally do not like the feel this type of material gives to the touch screen (think zagg, phantomskinz etc).  For users who are rough on devices, this is perfect as the urethane is very resilient to abuse.  Check out the videos on the Clear-coat website to see what i'm talking about!

Installation was easy and i'm confident almost anybody could do it with ease.  Installing the narrow side pieces was a little time consuming as the pieces are very small and they move around a lot when placed on the device.  This comes with the territory as is with all side skins from various companies.  Once dry, the side and back pieces remain solid and have not moved at all.  The cutouts for the back skin are accurate as seen below.

Overall, I really like the product that Clear-coat offers and I highly recommend it.  You can choose from screen only protection for $14.99 or opt for full body protection for $24.99.  Clear-coat offers a lifetime warranty which covers the product regardless of whether you botched the install or if it ever peels, tears etc.  All you have to do is pay $3.95 for shipping and they will send you a replacement. 

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Spigen SGP Steinheil Ultra Crystal Screen Shield for the iPhone 5

 Today i'm going to take a look at the Ultra Crystal screen shield by Spigen SGP.  I recently reviewed the Ultra Oleophobic screen shield by Spigen SGP and I want to do a little comparison between the two; check out the full review below. 

Spigen SGP has been the top dog in the screen shield market and they are certainly proving this again with this product.  I am a big fan of the oleophobic version and I have to say that the Ultra Crystal is an outstanding product as well.  The product is absolutely crystal clear and does not degrade screen quality at all.  I was surprised to find that the feel of the Ultra Crystal is not that much different than the bare glass.  I've used a few different screen shields in the past and none have felt as smooth and glass-like as this one (the Ultra Oleophobic also had the same feel).  The only complain I have about this product is the fact that fingerprints accumulate very quickly (unlike the Ultra Oleophobic version and of course nothing like the bare glass).  I was surprised to find how easy the fingerprints were to wipe away with a microfiber cloth though. 

Installation is typical of static cling style protectors and the cutouts are 100% spot on.  With that being said, your install must be near perfect.  I found that using the "taco-method" install worked perfectly and I was able to get mine installed perfectly in less than 30 seconds. The product is thicker than I expected and I tried to portray that below.

I've been using this product for almost a week now and it is totally scratch free despite my phone being laid screen side down and being taken in/out of my pocket a lot.  Spigen SGP has once again released a winner of a product and is available for only $13.99.  It is more expensive than cheap eBay screen shields of course but I guarantee you that the additional money is worth every penny. 

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Mophie Juice Pack Reserve Micro

Power meets portability.  That's what the new Reserve Micro from Mophie is all about.  This small battery pack is compact enough to hook onto your keychain for those moments when you need a small power boost.  The Reserve Micro packs 1,000mAh and is enough to keep you going in those situations where you need a boost to make the phone call home to let your wife know you're on your way home.

Mophie did a phenomenal job at packing 1,000mAh into such a small battery.  It's remarkable.  This battery pack gets the same soft touch finish as its bigger battery counterparts and is incredibly light.  Another cool thing is that there is a built in cable with USB on one end and micro USB on the other end.  The only down side to this is that it's not really usable with Apple products.

There is one LED near the sole button on the battery which indicates charge volume as it is charging.  It would have been nice to have a series of LED's to indicate charge but in this case, when the button is depressed, the light will illuminate green when there is power remaining and will not light up when it is totally dead.

Overall, Mophie has created another cool product and I can recommend it to you guys.  It sells for $39.95 and is available in black via mophie.com

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Spigen SGP Steinheil Series Ultra Oleophobic Screen Protector

Up for review today is the Ultra Oleophobic screen protector made by Spigen SGP for the all new iPhone 5.  Big shout out to Spigen SGP for sending me this screen protector and having it in my hands before my iPhone 5 was delivered.  

This screen protector is part of the Steinheil series of screen protectors which are historically great screen shields.  The Ultra Oleophobic is their oil resistant version that is supposed to prevent smudges and clean easily similar to the bare glass.  In my test, I found that smudges didn't clean as easily as the bare glass and also showed fingerprints a lot more.  It was not nearly as bad as other crystal shields i've used in the past so the Oleophobic coating surely works.  I used a clean microfiber cloth to occasionally wipe the phone and found it took a little work to clean it entirely as the cloth seemed to wipe the smudges around more than clean them off which lengthened the cleaning process.  Not a deal breaker at all but worth mentioning.  

The screen protector has zero scratches on it so far and it is absolutely crystal clear.  Unless you look at the screen at an angle in direct light, you cannot tell it is installed.  It is just about as smooth as the bare glass and does not degrade the screen quality whatsoever.  

This screen protector is going to be compared against their Ultra Crystal version in an upcoming review, so look out for that review coming soon.  The Ultra Oleophobic is available for $13.99 and comes with 2 shields, a squeegee and dust removal stickers to ensure you get a perfect installation.  

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Qmadix Xtreme Case with Kickstand for the iPhone 4/4S

Today i'm going to be reviewing a case by Qmadix called the Xtreme Case with Kickstand and Holster.  I've reviewed another case by them in the past and I am a fan of their products and quality.  How does the Xtreme case compare? Check out my full review below.

The Xtreme case is very versatile by design.  The case itself is a double layer construction comprised of a silicone as the first line of defense and a hard duro vest protector as they call it which is a polycarbonate hard shell that installs on top of the silicone.  This duro vest protector has a built in kickstand on the back which doesn't add bulk and is nicely built in.  In addition to all of this, Qmadix even includes a holster which also doubles as a kickstand with the high quality belt clip.

As far as access to the ports and controls while the case is installed, the top has an oversized cutout for the headphone jack and secondary mic while the on/off switch is covered by the soft silicone.  The bottom of the case has a nice oversized cutout for the 30 pin dock connector port and 2 more separate cutouts for the speaker and microphone.  The left hand side has an oversized cutout for the silent/vibrate switch so that it is compatible with all versions of the iPhone 4 - in addition to this, the volume buttons are both covered with soft silicone just like the on/off switch.

This case certainly should stand up to quite a bit of abuse with its rugged design.  Qmadix nailed it again with another great design and great product.  This gem of a case sells for $34.99 and is highly recommended!

Timbuk2 Custom Envelope Sleeve

Today I will be reviewing the Custom Envelope Sleeve by Timbuk2 for you guys.  This company has been around since 1989 and is all about making custom bags to order in San Francisco.  They make a large variety of different styles and I happen to have this Envelope Sleeve for review right now.

The Envelope Sleeve is a very simplistic bag if you want to call it but it does not have a shoulder strap. It is a simple sleeve to protect your laptop when you are out and about.  The interior of the bag is lined with high density foam but does seem like it's a little thin.  I would have preferred to have a thicker foam in the event I dropped my laptop.  On top of this foam, there is a soft scratch resistant liner, red in color, to ensure your laptop does not get scratched.  The exterior of the sleeve is comprised of 3 panels which are up to the user to choose when designing the case (or there are many pre-made choices that you can pick from).  I chose waxed canvas gray for the left and right panels which is a neat material that will break in and wear the more that the bag is used.  The center panel I chose a plain black.  All 3 materials literally feel like they will never ever be compromised.  The material feels nice, thick and resilient.  The stitch work and build construction, which is all done by hand and made to order, is outstanding.  Finally, the flap is firmly secured by velcro.

I am a fan of Timbuk2's products and this is surely not an exception.  This sleeve sells for $49 as seen in my review (the waxed canvas was $10 extra) and is available through the Timbuk2 website where you can create the custom sleeve of your own imagination.