Review of the Element Case Liquid for iPhone 3G:
Why:
Ok to start with, let?s go about how I came to the decision to buy this case. I wanted a case that will protect the entire phone including the front screen, but also allows easy access to the front screen.
When I first bought the phone I picked up the "naked case" apart from having naked in its name (yes that?s a selling point that worked for me), but also it was cheap (?20) and could protect my phone straight away.
This case was good but I found dirt got under it very quickly and required cleaning out every 2 days, also after I installed an invis-shield on the screen, the naked case screen protector stuck to this, and made controls less reactive, and marks on the screen where it was sticking (which goes away after you separate them). On its own the naked case is a good case but it does take away the sleek look of the iPhone.
So I wanted a case that looked good, and offered good protection with my invis-shield installed. So I went the usual root of looking through leather ones that flip open, sliding ones etc etc. Now I came across the power pack that has a second lipo battery in the back, which can charge your phone. I thought I had found the case I wanted, it?s a bit different, protects the phone, and also extends its life, win win.
So why don?t I own that case? Well a quick search on eBay and I found you can buy lipo batts for charging the iPhone on the move, and thus I ended up with a solar charging batt. Which has the same life as this case, but I can leave the batt. In my bag and forget about it until an emergency comes along. So the power case was out the window for being to bulky when it didn?t need to be.
Back to square one.
Then I came across the Element Case, its unique, protect the phone, can personalise it, protects the front screen with a removable flip lid, so I can still keep my invis-shield on (and after a painful few hours of trail and error to get it on, it?s staying on!).
So I did my research. Found lots of youtube videos showing the case, looked through the websites, read a review or 5. Now the reviews I could find, 1 or 2 were personal reviews but all the rest seemed to be companies, or websites, which I thought could be biased etc. I wanted a review from Mr Normal, who spent his hard earned money on a case, and after he is ?100+ down, I wanted to know what he really felt. Thus I have come along with a review that if your still reading you must be bored by now since I haven?t even started talking about the case, and just to clarify I am not Mr Normal, but I?m pretty close...kind of close....alright alright a tiny bit abnormal, lets move on.
Order Process:
I emailed Element Case through the sales email on the website, its a few pages deep, but pretty straight forward to find, you can also use the web contact box on the website, which would forward anything onto the email address, but I find it easier to use the email address so I can keep all contact organised through my emails. 2 hours later, bang got a reply. From a Mr Jeff. In my email I asked about costs for custom graphics, which format they have to be in, how complicated they can be, and delivery to the UK. A few quick emails back and forth over the next day (time difference made emailing a bit slower since when I was sorting it out he was asleep and vice a versa)(you know if everyone was on gmt time zone, my life would be a lot easier....just saying).
I sent him my graphic, I also inverted the graphics colours so he could choose, which one would look the best. He then asked if he could edit the graphic to sharpen a few lines, round off a rounded bit, and make it A+ looking. Or so he says, I didn?t think there was anything wrong with my graphic
We agreed on the price with shipping to the UK, and a quick papal payment later the money was gone. All ?130 Inc delivery, just gone, vanished, poof. Now I was starting to have second decisions. I just paid a big chunk of money, on a case, A CASE, seriously, it can?t do anything, doesn't bring me any pleasure, and well, for that much money I could of had a good evening out at the strip club, a few private dances later...ok yea I would of wasted the money, but it doesn't change the point, its a damn lot of money. Here are a few things you could get:
- As above a good night out (strip club, or clubbing etc.)
- A few bad nights out
- A ipod shufflex2
- A ipod nano
- 130 lottery tickets (hell I could be a zillionaire by now)
- Invest it in a high interest 10 year 7% apr account...ermm yea
- Gamble it
- Gamble your winnings from above, loose it all
- 10000 penny sweets! At 1p each, with interest from my day, could only get about 5000 now. With ?30 left over for a bucket to be sick in.
- Spend it on the gf/wife (personally I would go with option 1 here)
- Buy yourself a new item to go with your hobby (fishing rod, airsoft gun, golf club, boxing gloves, running trainers etc)
- A semi decent watch, which will last a good 10 years.
- 5 cases for your phone.
So back to where I was, I just spent a lot of money. So first thing I do is tell people so they can laugh at me and make me feel even more guilty, a few people later, starting to regret my decision. Then I remembered why I spent this much money. If you are going to buy a phone that after contract period has cost you ?720ish a ?100 for a nice case to keep it looking good and protected, doesn't seem that bad, hell it seems a bargain. The fact the case looks good after it does the job of protecting is just a bonus.
Now since I live in the UK the delivery time was very long, stupidly long, a whole 9 days from payment to my front door. In that time, it had to be custom made, 2 Sundays went by, and also I paid late in the evening, had to be taken to an airport, loaded on a plane, flown half way around the world, taken off the plane, taken to a sorting office, sorted, driven to depo, sorted onto a van, driven to my house, and all this in 9 days....yea I must admit it was a bit slow. Next time if you could hire superman to hand deliver it I would be happier. (For the idiots out there, I am being ironic, normal delivery time is 20+ days for items from the US and A)
Element Case hands on:
So I open the well protected 2 packages, and take out a black box, with a nice window so I can see my case, flip open this box, and there is my case, in a little plastic sleeve and a FREE flip lid next to it. I have forgotten to mention up to this point, but any cases you buy comes with a second free flip lid, that?s ?14 in value, and it?s FREE. Sorry I like free things, the fact I spent ?130 for a free item is nothing to worry about. So I take out the case, and it?s perfect, not a single mark out of place, the graphic is perfect, the front graphic is perfect, the fact it?s got element case all over it just adds to it. The custom edition 01 of 01 at the top right, just adds to it even more. To my above comment the case has Element Case written on it twice, there E logo on the back once, and on the front 5 times, some of it was done by my choice of graphic and some of it is standard. And it looks great! (Check pictures below to make this chunk of text actually mean something). Putting the phone into the case meant undoing two hex screws (out of the 4) and sliding it in, tighten them back up, job done. This case is the only one out there, will only be the only one out there, its unique, and its mine. I like this fact, so no one copy the graphic and designs I chose!
Why:
Ok to start with, let?s go about how I came to the decision to buy this case. I wanted a case that will protect the entire phone including the front screen, but also allows easy access to the front screen.
When I first bought the phone I picked up the "naked case" apart from having naked in its name (yes that?s a selling point that worked for me), but also it was cheap (?20) and could protect my phone straight away.
This case was good but I found dirt got under it very quickly and required cleaning out every 2 days, also after I installed an invis-shield on the screen, the naked case screen protector stuck to this, and made controls less reactive, and marks on the screen where it was sticking (which goes away after you separate them). On its own the naked case is a good case but it does take away the sleek look of the iPhone.
So I wanted a case that looked good, and offered good protection with my invis-shield installed. So I went the usual root of looking through leather ones that flip open, sliding ones etc etc. Now I came across the power pack that has a second lipo battery in the back, which can charge your phone. I thought I had found the case I wanted, it?s a bit different, protects the phone, and also extends its life, win win.
So why don?t I own that case? Well a quick search on eBay and I found you can buy lipo batts for charging the iPhone on the move, and thus I ended up with a solar charging batt. Which has the same life as this case, but I can leave the batt. In my bag and forget about it until an emergency comes along. So the power case was out the window for being to bulky when it didn?t need to be.
Back to square one.
Then I came across the Element Case, its unique, protect the phone, can personalise it, protects the front screen with a removable flip lid, so I can still keep my invis-shield on (and after a painful few hours of trail and error to get it on, it?s staying on!).
So I did my research. Found lots of youtube videos showing the case, looked through the websites, read a review or 5. Now the reviews I could find, 1 or 2 were personal reviews but all the rest seemed to be companies, or websites, which I thought could be biased etc. I wanted a review from Mr Normal, who spent his hard earned money on a case, and after he is ?100+ down, I wanted to know what he really felt. Thus I have come along with a review that if your still reading you must be bored by now since I haven?t even started talking about the case, and just to clarify I am not Mr Normal, but I?m pretty close...kind of close....alright alright a tiny bit abnormal, lets move on.
Order Process:
I emailed Element Case through the sales email on the website, its a few pages deep, but pretty straight forward to find, you can also use the web contact box on the website, which would forward anything onto the email address, but I find it easier to use the email address so I can keep all contact organised through my emails. 2 hours later, bang got a reply. From a Mr Jeff. In my email I asked about costs for custom graphics, which format they have to be in, how complicated they can be, and delivery to the UK. A few quick emails back and forth over the next day (time difference made emailing a bit slower since when I was sorting it out he was asleep and vice a versa)(you know if everyone was on gmt time zone, my life would be a lot easier....just saying).
I sent him my graphic, I also inverted the graphics colours so he could choose, which one would look the best. He then asked if he could edit the graphic to sharpen a few lines, round off a rounded bit, and make it A+ looking. Or so he says, I didn?t think there was anything wrong with my graphic
We agreed on the price with shipping to the UK, and a quick papal payment later the money was gone. All ?130 Inc delivery, just gone, vanished, poof. Now I was starting to have second decisions. I just paid a big chunk of money, on a case, A CASE, seriously, it can?t do anything, doesn't bring me any pleasure, and well, for that much money I could of had a good evening out at the strip club, a few private dances later...ok yea I would of wasted the money, but it doesn't change the point, its a damn lot of money. Here are a few things you could get:
- As above a good night out (strip club, or clubbing etc.)
- A few bad nights out
- A ipod shufflex2
- A ipod nano
- 130 lottery tickets (hell I could be a zillionaire by now)
- Invest it in a high interest 10 year 7% apr account...ermm yea
- Gamble it
- Gamble your winnings from above, loose it all
- 10000 penny sweets! At 1p each, with interest from my day, could only get about 5000 now. With ?30 left over for a bucket to be sick in.
- Spend it on the gf/wife (personally I would go with option 1 here)
- Buy yourself a new item to go with your hobby (fishing rod, airsoft gun, golf club, boxing gloves, running trainers etc)
- A semi decent watch, which will last a good 10 years.
- 5 cases for your phone.
So back to where I was, I just spent a lot of money. So first thing I do is tell people so they can laugh at me and make me feel even more guilty, a few people later, starting to regret my decision. Then I remembered why I spent this much money. If you are going to buy a phone that after contract period has cost you ?720ish a ?100 for a nice case to keep it looking good and protected, doesn't seem that bad, hell it seems a bargain. The fact the case looks good after it does the job of protecting is just a bonus.
Now since I live in the UK the delivery time was very long, stupidly long, a whole 9 days from payment to my front door. In that time, it had to be custom made, 2 Sundays went by, and also I paid late in the evening, had to be taken to an airport, loaded on a plane, flown half way around the world, taken off the plane, taken to a sorting office, sorted, driven to depo, sorted onto a van, driven to my house, and all this in 9 days....yea I must admit it was a bit slow. Next time if you could hire superman to hand deliver it I would be happier. (For the idiots out there, I am being ironic, normal delivery time is 20+ days for items from the US and A)
Element Case hands on:
So I open the well protected 2 packages, and take out a black box, with a nice window so I can see my case, flip open this box, and there is my case, in a little plastic sleeve and a FREE flip lid next to it. I have forgotten to mention up to this point, but any cases you buy comes with a second free flip lid, that?s ?14 in value, and it?s FREE. Sorry I like free things, the fact I spent ?130 for a free item is nothing to worry about. So I take out the case, and it?s perfect, not a single mark out of place, the graphic is perfect, the front graphic is perfect, the fact it?s got element case all over it just adds to it. The custom edition 01 of 01 at the top right, just adds to it even more. To my above comment the case has Element Case written on it twice, there E logo on the back once, and on the front 5 times, some of it was done by my choice of graphic and some of it is standard. And it looks great! (Check pictures below to make this chunk of text actually mean something). Putting the phone into the case meant undoing two hex screws (out of the 4) and sliding it in, tighten them back up, job done. This case is the only one out there, will only be the only one out there, its unique, and its mine. I like this fact, so no one copy the graphic and designs I chose!
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