Resistance is not futile

Otterbox’s armor casing provides drop, dust, crush and water resistance, all in one chunky package.

There are some cases that will guard our phones against normal bumps and drops, and then there are cases that really protect them against everything, including water.

Making a case that’s good enough to allow for complete immersion of your precious smartphone is always a tricky affair because the seals have to be designed to keep out water for a certain amount of time.

As you can imagine, there aren’t many manufacturers out there which will attempt to make a waterproof case — there are only a handful that I can think of, with the LifeProof brand being one of the best we’ve tested so far.

Manufacturer Otterbox has bought over LifeProof, bringing the company’s excellent waterproof case into Otterbox’s already extensive list of ruggedised casings.

however, Otterbox itself has a line of waterproof casings for various devices and its called the Armor series.

The Armor for the iPhone 5 is made to handle not just dunking in water but also quite a fair amount of drop and crush resistance. Otterbox claims that the Armor can withstand a 10ft drop and up to a whopping two tons of weight on the casing.

While I certainly won’t risk my iPhone by running a car over the case but I don’t doubt that it will at least be able to take every day bumps and drops.

What I’m not too confident about is the water resistance — while the casing is a twopiece affair with two very solid metal locks on one side, the two pieces never seemed to come together as tightly as I would have liked. Nevertheless, while I didn’t try to immerse into water for an extended period, it certainly could withstand rain and a quick dunk in the sink.

In use

If you like your casings large and chunky, then this is the casing for you.

Conversely, if you like to keep your iPhone as thin and small as possible, then you’re better off going for the LifeProof, which offers water resistance but perhaps not as much crush resistance.

For me, the design takes a bit of getting used to, but for those of us with chronic butterfingers syndrome, then the Armor will do the job — everything is well padded and feels solid while the ports are all properly covered with a rubber door.

Like most water-resistant casings, the Armor comes with a built in work-through screen protector.

Inevitably, with a work-through casing like this, the tiny bit of space between the screen protector and the iPhone’s screen means that you have to press a little harder on the screen to properly register a tap.

Conclusion

As I said before, the Otterbox Armor is for those people who put their phone through a lot of abuse — with this kind of protection, you can rest easy even if you drop your phone into a pond.

heck, I think it could be used as a weapon to throw at a robber if he’s making off with your girlfriend’s handbag.

Nevertheless, I personally wouldn’t take it, say, for swimming or snorkelling, as the Armor is only guaranteed to be waterproof for up to 30 minutes and only as deep as 6.6ft.

Good allround protection.

Built-in screen protector makes screen a little less sensitive; chunky design is not for everybody.

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