The rest of my Magpul goodies arrived yesterday, including that which I was most excited about: the iPhone case.

And… I’m disappointed.

I’m not really sure how much protection the case can give the phone, and no I wasn’t going to fling my phone around just to find out.

I’ve had one case that I can’t remember who made, a Speck ToughSkin, an xGear Nitrous Oxide, and now the Magpul case. Wife uses an OtterBox Defender. There’s no question the Defender is the toughest case giving an amazing amount of protection; my only gripes are the fact the screen protector is slightly above the screen so sometimes taps don’t take or you have to tap harder, and the little plastic part for the earpiece is uncomfortable to hold against my ear, but those are the tradeoffs for that high level of protection. The first case I had? I don’t remember who made it and that’s fine… it didn’t last long. The ToughSkin was certainly that; good protection, good grip, a little too rubbery so it was hard to slip in and out of a pocket, and eventually the little plastic frame cracked. The xGear has been alright… rather slippery and I’ve dropped my phone because of that more times that I care to count, but certainly it lands just fine and is protected. So far it’s really been the best case for the way I use and carry my phone.

And that’s the problem I’m feeling with the Magpul case. It’s just like a thin layer of their semi-flexible polymer that’s tightly stuck to the phone case. Sure, it’s going to protect from scratches and so on, but dropping on a hard surface? How much impact will it absorb? Furthermore, there’s no ridge around the frame of the phone’s screen to protect that in case it lands screen-down. Furthermore, I use those “film” screen protectors, and without any sort of case-lip over the edge of the screen, the protector’s edges are exposed and more likely to get pulled up. I do like the feel of the case: slick enough to slide in and out of a pocket, but still grippy enough to hold onto. The form factor is also extremely slim, barely changing the phone’s profile. And of course, it looks damn cool. 🙂

I guess I had it in my head that, being a Magpul, it was going to be a tough case. Maybe I like PMAG’s too much and figured it might be as tough as one of those. Maybe I slipped into fan-boi mode and went more for the cool factor than truly ensuring it was a solid case. Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m not upset I spent the money on it, and I am going to try it out for a bit to see how it works out. But I’m not getting rid of my xGear case yet.