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| layout | title | created | categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| post | Treo 650 cases: Silicone vs Crystal case | 1147644526 | [review accessories] |
Today, I bought a new treo case, ie, SPE Crystal case. It made from acrylic unlike my old one, silicone. Surely, it looks more beautiful, attractive than my old one. Though it has a disadvantage either. It's slightly point that someone never think about it. I think I have to show both cases' detail. After that, go on to compare pros & cons each case.
Silicone case,
I chose a color that tends to be dark to avoid changing color of silicone. For instance, white color of silicone will changes to yellow because of dirty and time. Anyway, its thickness is around 1-2 mm. When treo wore it, it makes treo safer from scratch, softer due to silicone characteristic, and surely bigger than the original. I don't think it's too big to use though. This case is designed to cover all controlling button but it's still work properly and great, I think. It provides soft feeling while using than pushing it directly. The worse of this kind of design is when your friends or someone who never used treo before want to use your treo, they will confuse what the heck button is. However, it seem not to be our problem, right?
A part where it covers side and vol +, - button is another part that impressed me in the same way that it does on controlling buttons. At first, you will feel like it's pretty hard to push the button you want but when you used to push it, you will like it because it's really soft.
One thing that I think is not a good designed is LED hole!, I don't know why they have to drill hole here because LED, light, can be seen though silicone. It's really beyond designer's expectation perhaps. I think there are several disadvantages of this kind of case,
for example, because of its thickness that as same as height of keyboard button, edge of silicon below qwerty keyboard is too near to button, so it feel uncomfortable to push all this button, next it's hard to reach reset hole due to taking this case out very very hard., silicone case also keeps much more dust. esp, when you usually keep your treo in your jean pocket.
disassembly procedure:-
Pros
- feel soft and tight while holding
- silicone cover button including controlling button and side button
Cons
- silicone edge at the bottom of keyboard make you push some button uncomfortably
- hard to take treo in/out
- keep a lot of dust
- heat spreading out hardly -- treo gets warm easily.
SPE Crystal Case,
This is the most attractive case I've ever seen, actually it's not the first one but it's the first that I spend my money with. I think I really spend a lot of money on treo accesories. I don't know why either, my former palm, T2. I bought it w/o spending any penny on accessories for one first year. After that, I bought only old brand case, it's only around $2 for that and another $4 for 3 spare styli that I never used . ;P Perhaps, I consider treo as a phone, that's why it has been like this. Because I think I spend more on phone accessories, esp, case. Come back to our topic, this case, crystal case, is the newest one w/a pretty good design. It made for treo 650. That's why its shape look really cool. Acrylic-type case before this case like SPE ClearCase, according to my opinion, it makes treo bigger that it should be. So, when I found that SPE Crystal Case released! I bought it. (Anyway, I have a 30-day money back guarantee ;-P) First I saw this case, -_-' honestly it looks like a cheap acrylic case. besides it can be bended easily, that mean it can not break easily (try to think optimistic). Nonetheless, when it's on treo, it looks really cool. It's suitable with treo650 not even move while I am trying to sway.
Anyway, after I used for a while I found 2 parts that's worse than my ex-case. First, all side button, its design was good, but it can be better if they did a slope of the case edge. It's too deep I think. I feel hard to push side button, maybe because my thumb is too big. I think I will buy a sandpaper to make its slope; it should be better.
Second, the bar that cross in front of treo, between screen and controlling button. I have no idea how to fix this, I deem that this bar is for strength and balance of this case w/o it, it should be movable. Anyway, it's too thick. it's block my thumb to push up (5-way navigator) easily, and I feel uncomfortable to push at a bottom edge of screen in many programs. The way to fix this should be only one way, ie, scrub this bar thinner but I'm not sure that I'm brave enough to do this!! It's $19.95!! and I don't wanna lose it. that's all its disadvantages that I found so far.
After I used treo to be a bluetooth modem I found one thing that better than silicone, ie, heat. When I used silicone case, treo always got much heat that is enough for treo to turn its backlight off. However, I never found that happened when I used acrylic case.
disassembly procedure:-
Pros
- pretty good looking
- really easily to take it off
- not keep heat as much as silicone does
Cons
- the bar between screen and controlling button is too thick and block to push button and bottom edge of screen easily
- should do slope at the edge near side button
- easy to scratch, but luckily it's hard to see.
Conclusion.
Case is something to protect your device from scratchs or alleviate any damage that could happened. It's not need but you should have one if you think device is valuable and worth to protect. I hope this review will help you guys to make a decision about case easier. It really depends on each individual feeling, taste. The best thing I can do is to show you more view that you can't find from a shop. Good luck and happy with your treo whether using any kind of case or not.