I know, I know. You’re either A) seething with jealousy because you’re one of those sad iPhone 4 people who won’t get their order until July 14th OR B) you came here bound and determined to get some solid iPad bags and accessories news in today’s post and found nothing but an iPhone accessory review! Life can be impossible can’t it?
Like it or not, today we’re turning our attention to the iPad’s ubiquitous new baby brother, the jaw and bar dropping iPhone 4. The company is Fusion of Ideas who you’ll remember from a few months ago when we covered their iPad version of the StealthArmor. Well, they’ve put their shrink ray on full blast and designed an impressive line of eye pleasing Armors for the iPhone 4.
What Is StealthArmor? The main component is a thin, but sturdy, sticker-like sheet you apply to the back of your phone that comes in a variety of finishes. It does three things really well; protects the phone from everyday scratch and dent, protects your phone’s resale value for 2011 when iPhone 5 inevitably rolls around, but it’s best work is done on your eyes, making your iPhone blaze out from the pack looking red hot.
Included in the StealthArmor packet is a clear screen protector, cleansing spray, a rubber squeegee for smoothing out air bubbles on the screen protector, and the very cool side rail strips to run along the edges of the phone. The armor adheres securely to the back of the phone without any residue, so you can apply, remove, re-apply if you didn’t line it up perfectly. The back, quite obviously, the easiest part to apply, just line up the armor with the camera lens hole and you’re good to go in under a minute. If you’re wondering which finish my iPhone is using, it’s the Brushed Aluminum. It looks really gorgeous, especially up close, giving it a nice textured brushed look as if the phone was made of it. Obviously no one wants to compromise the looks of the most strikingly attractive phone ever designed, but the Stealth Armor doesn’t compromise it’s looks like, say, an Apple Bumper does, it purely compliments it. When the StealthArmor is on, there’s still no doubt in anyone’s mind that you’re holding an iPhone. They’ll just wonder why yours looks so damn good.
Applying the front screen protector was the only difficult part of the installation. It’s very thin, crystal clear, and the optics are great in regards to light reflection, but the guy in the install tutorial must have had a lot of practice to smooth it on that quickly, because it took me 20 minutes to make it look good. I would smooth out an air bubble and another one would appear, I would peel it up and start over only to see I got a bit of a fingerprint mark on the plastic or screen, so I had to re-clean. Maybe I didn’t use enough spray initially? Bottom line is it was tough to get right, but the results are worth it, especially if you’re like me and accidentally throw your keys and iPhone in the same pocket all the time.
At a quick glance, you may not even notice that there’s side rail (side bezel) armor applied on my phone. When ordering, you can choose from Brushed Aluminum or Clear for the sides. I would recommend the Brushed Aluminum every time since it’s a stiffer material than the Clear, and thus easier to apply. Plus Aluminum looks close enough to the natural look of the iPhone bezel where I may as well just have the thicker protection. Also, by having the brushed Aluminum side bezel armor on you’re also getting a much better grip on the phone due to the textured finish. It comes in pieces custom cut to edge out the entire perimeter of the phone.
I see a lot of talk online about whether or not adding the side bezel StealthArmor does anything to fix the iPhone 4′s infamous reception woes, and from my experience it seems to help a bit. What I gather from all this is these people so eloquently ranting about the iPhone 4 reception issue are simply the sort of people who love to get uppity at a big successful company about something that’s not TRULY an issue. Is it almost like a high tech version of the lady who sued McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on herself? The coffee still worked. And the phone still works incredibly well. No one is dropping 5 calls a day, everyone’s email is still arriving, Google Maps still rocks. In my opinion, the issue is beyond overblown. I’m not saying the iPhone doesn’t lose bars in all these tests, it sure does, I’m still in the “it really is a non-issue” camp. The lion’s share of people having the reception problem are geeks and tech bloggers who are actively trying to have it. Most of us are having an awesome experience. Like anyone else, I’ve held that evil spot on the phone super tight and had my bars dip, but I never lost quality or connection. Yes, the issue exists, bars drop when you touch that spot. No, it’s not debilitating to the phone to the point of unusability. The end.
Regardless, that’s just my opinion and experience, and I know reception quality changes with your region, so I still decided to briefly test the difference, if any, I could notice with death grip + StealthArmor in regards to bars. The answer is, it does help preserve bars a little bit. The Brushed Aluminum side bezel armor seems to be thick enough to absorb a little bit of finger heat, thus preserving reception longer. Without the armor I had to death grip the phone for 2 minutes before I started seeing bar droppage, from 5 to 2. With the Armor applied it took me 5 minutes of gripping before I got a single bar drop. There was nothing scientific about the test, but the results definitely gave a slight nod to the StealthArmor. Hurrah!!
The Bottom Line I love the StealthArmor, and to paraphrase from my iPad version review, It’s like an Armani suit for your iPhone. To me, the scratch and dent protection is the secondary reason for purchasing, I’m all about the style. On a recent trip to the Apple Store an employee and a customer each asked me what kind of “case” I had, and I told them about StealthArmor. It comes in a variety of awesome looking finishes like Tungsten, Carbon Fiber, Brushed Aluminum (pictured), Woodgrain, and more including a Racing Series. They’re textured, grabbable, touchable, and give you a good grip on an otherwise slippery phone. They’re available from $25-$45, depending on the finish, through Fusion Of Ideas.
HOLD UP! Would you like to WIN a StealthArmor for iPhone 4!? We’ve got three to giveaway in Woodgrain, Carbon Fiber, and Tungsten! To Enter just send an email to iPadBags@gmail.com with the subject “ARMOR!!” We’ll choose the winners on Friday June 16th! Don’t brutalize our email box, just one entry per person! Good Luck!
