Hands-On Review--iSkin Revo Case for the iPhone

Intro

If you carry your iPhone in a pocket or purse and want a case, check out the revo from iSkin because of its usability, protection and style. Our review unit is black (iSkin calls it Nighthawk) but the revo also comes with a variety of other color accent choices: light blue (Rah--shown), medium blue (Blade), hot pink (Zahra), red (Diablo) and yellow (Mohave).

iSkin claims that the revo provides "Premium Protection" for your iPhone and, indeed, it does. The screen is covered with an adhering protective shield that reduces glare and adds privacy preventing viewing the screen from and angle. The case itself is flexible silicone with an anti-microbial agent built in to reduce harmful bacterial growths. The case is thin generally but thicker at the corners and sides to provide some shock protection. There are covers for the headphone port and data port and thicker areas over the switches to assist in using them with the case on. Finally, there is a clear visor that clips over the iPhone's front screen in protection mode and then clips over the back to use the phone.

Our Use

The protective anti-glare film was easy to apply to our iPhone's screen. It doesn't use an adhesive so it was easy to pull up and re-apply to ensure that we did not capture any bubbles beneath it. It was easy to rub a few tiny bubbles to the edge and out to complete the application.

Our iPhone slipped easily into the revo case and the fit is very, very good. The thicker areas fit perfectly over the switches and the headphone, camera lens, ringer, microphone, data and speaker ports aligned perfectly. The data port is covered by a plug and the headphone port by a flap. There's no cover for the camera lens, ringer switch, microphone and speaker ports.

The silicone case feels like a textile material rather than the usual sticky silicone rubber sensation. We think you will like it a lot as we do.

Finally, the clear visor clipped over the front or back easily.

We had no problems using three of the iPhone switches: on/off, volume and home through the case. In fact, all were actually easier to use with the case on. The headphone flap worked fine. Our only difficulty was with the ringer switch, needing an adventurous fingernail to flip it between ring and silent modes. The data port plug is snug but it will be easy for some to misplace it since it is an separate part, i.e. not on a flap. The visor does not cling as tightly to the front or back as we would like but it is probably okay.

Our iPhone's touchscreen seemed to be not affected by the protective anti-glare shield. We tried every function, including typing, and each one worked well. In fact, there may be a very slight desensitization caused by the shield that allowed the touchscreen to work even better, in our opinion.

In Summary

If you carry your iPhone in your pocket or purse instead of on a clip at your waist, you will not be disappointed by the iSkin revo. The $39.99 revo is tops in usability, protection and style. It is probably the best protective case of its kind, certainly the best we have seen. [Bill Fox]