[metllicamilitia]

Overview
What's the point in buying a skin for your phone? Well, a skin will change the look of your phone to a more unique look and add a little extra texture and grip to your phone. This is helpful for the trend of metal and glass body phones that can be difficult to handle without a case. A skin does not offer any protection to your phone, it is purely aesthetic. While a skin does add a small amount of thickness to your phone, there are still cases that won't fit because of it. Not to worry though as there are still plenty of other cases that do still fit just fine with a skin on your phone. There are quite a few companies that make skins for all kinds of devices, in this case, I have a Colorware skin. Colorware used to be really well known for anodizing devices and I'm not sure when they started selling skins, but I'm glad they did. It's a lot cheaper than anodizing.



I prefer back only skins, for the same reason I don't like cases that cover the screen and edge-to-edge screen protectors, they always cut into the screen a little bit. That's one of my biggest pet peeves, and a back only skin doesn't bother me at all. So the question is, are skins hard to install? Not really, as long as you're patient. Patience is the key to a successful skin installation. It starts with lining up the bottom, then the camera, smoothing it all out, applying the other edges followed by the back side of the corners, then the corners themselves. You need to use a heat gun or hair dryer, a lot, more than you think you do. Heat and pressure make for a good skin installation, and the entire process takes between ten and twenty minutes if you're taking your time. I did all right installing my Colorware, and this was only the second skin I ever tried to install. My first was a Dbrand and I failed miserably at it. I didn't apply enough heat, pressure, or take enough time to make sure I got it right. With the Colorware, it's off a little on one corner and around the camera and flash, just a little bit though. You'd have to examine closely to see it.

As far as the skin itself goes, it's quite comfortable to hold as it adds just the slightest bit of grip and I feel comfortable not having my phone in a case because of that. All my ports, buttons, switches, speakers, camera, and flash are unaffected and usable. From the feel alone, there are only a couple giveaways that a skin is installed. The first being around the edges of the front where you can feel a tiny lip there that you don't notice in your every day usage. And second, the Apple logo cutout also has a tiny lip and if that would bother you, Colorware even offers options that cover up the Apple logo. So what I really have is a more unique looking iPhone that is easier to handle and it only cost me $20.



Pros

• Affordable
• Relatively easy to install
• Uniqueness

Cons

• No protection
• Doesn't fit in all cases
• Tiny lips may be irritating

Conclusion
The only real reasons to buy a skin are because you don't like cases but want to add some extra grip to your phone, or you want a more unique look to your phone. You can't really go wrong with any of the big names that make skins and Colorware is no exception. Most skins cost around $20. My particular skin is Rust, and I like it a lot. You can find it at Colorware websites along all their other offerings here.

[TwitchyPuppy]

Thanks for that!

Do you know which cases would fit? Like what to look for or is it pretty much trial and error?

[metllicamilitia]

Thanks for that!

Do you know which cases would fit? Like what to look for or is it pretty much trial and error?

Yeah, pretty much trial and error, Tech21 fits slightly off on the buttons, my Supcase fits, UAG Monarch, and even my Rhinoshield CrashGuard though it's a pain to get the last corner on and first corner off.