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Speck SkinTight Case w/ Holster vs. Smartphone Experts Skin & Seidio Shield Holster for Treo 650
Title Speck SkinTight Case w/ Holster vs. Smartphone Experts Skin & Seidio Shield Holster for Treo 650
Description Battle of the combo skin case with holster
Manufacturer Website Smartphone Experts
Sent by alex_mathews

Contributed by Andy Leviss.

For lack of a better way to put it, I am pretty much an expert at beating the heck out of cellphones. It's not that I mean to, but in my job as a sound engineer for theatre and live concerts, it just comes naturally. Be it climbing around truss in an arena or theatre, or just shuffling speakers and racks full of heavy gear around a warehouse, I take part in all sorts of physical activity on a daily basis that just begs to smack, twist, drop, and otherwise molest my phone. That being the case, I'm always on the lookout for a case that will protect my Treo from the abuse I dish out on a regular basis, while also keeping it readily accesible.

For a while, I was using a nice beefy leather case from Nutshell that did a pretty good job of protecting the phone while in the case, and kept it very accessible thanks to the steel beltclip, but once the phone was out of the case and naked, well, all bets were off. So, after one close call drop too many, I decided it was time to try a skin case. For ease of access, though, I couldn't just carry a skin case in my pocket (not to mention all the lint it'd pick up!), so I looked for solutions that would work with a beltclip holster.

First, I tried the Speck SkinTight case, which comes with its own holster. I was a bit leery coming into it, because I'd read a number of earlier reviews mentioning a cheap looking holster that felt quite fragile and that the silver paint typically flaked off of. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the included holster was now made of a durable clear material (I'm not sure if it's clear plastic or hard rubber) that, while I'm sure if I realllllllly wanted to I could break, I wasn't able to break under either normal usage or doing a bit of a stress test on the retaining clip at the top of the holster.

Pleased to see that complaints had seemingly been listened to, and that I wouldn't have a beat up looking or broken holster in short time, I put the holster aside to check out the skin itself. I was sent the black skin to check out, and while initially I didn't think I'd like it, once I put it on the phone, I grew to appreciate the cool high tech look it gave the phone, especially with the ridged grips on the back edges. It definitely attracts attention and screams, "GEEK (albeit one with a slight sense of style)", which is either a good thing or a bad one depending on your perspective.

The key difference between the SkinTight and every other skin case I've seen is that the SkinTight uses a polymer called Kraton instead of silicone. Kraton has a nice matte finish, feels great in the hands, is quite grippy, but—here's the beautiful thing—doesn't feel gummy or attract dust and dirt. I love how this stuff feels and holds up!

The top of the SkinTight features cutouts for the antenna, stylus, and speaker switch, but, in an inexplicably odd design choice (or oversight?) it covers the SD slot and IR port. Oops. If you don't ever beam anything and don't use an SD card, this isn't a problem, but if you do use either you'll need to break out the Exacto knife and do some careful arts and crafts work. (One would think you could keep an SD card in the case if you only use one card and don't need to frequently remove/insert it, but we'll get back to this later….)

The screen is open, but the case comes with a removable clear plastic cover to protect the screen. The cover has pegs on either side of the top of it that insert into tabs on the case, allowing it to swing up and down. To keep it closed, you press a slot at the bottom of the window onto a small tab of the case. This takes a bit of practice to get the knack of, since the tab is made of the same soft Kraton as the rest of the case. Even then, though, sometimes it'll take a few attempts to get it to hold.

Sadly, this shield is not scratch proof, and in no time flat becomes so marred that it's distracting to read through. My suggestion, if you buy the SkinTight, is to ditch the screen shield and put a regular screen protector on your screen instead.

The navigation and application buttons are all covered, but their outlines are molded into the case making it easy to find them and press them. The only trouble I had was with the navigation buttons, which have a very thick molded impression and small dots to allow you to locate the four directions by feel. I found myself often accidentally pressing the center button instead of down until I got used to using the phone in the SkinTight. What I found works best is to almost pull down/press up on those dots parallel to the phone, rather than trying to press down on them perpendicularly. It feels weird at first, but seems (at least for me) to be more reliable.

The bottom of the case features a cutout for the sync/charge cable and headset jack; you won't likely be able to charge the Treo in a cradle with this case, although I don't own any cradles to verify this. To access the reset port, you'll need to remove the phone from the skin.

Now, back to that pesky holster, which has both upsides and downsides. The upsides are that it has fixed swivel points, allowing you to click the phone into a position that you like (I find it easiest to access the phone when tilted forwards, but more comfortable to wear vertically, and I know some people love their phones to be in a horizontal case; you get all three choices and then some with this holster), and that the retaining clip is so secure that there is no way you can knock the phone out of the holster accidentally. I tried, and if I couldn't, I can pretty much guarantee you can't (see my comments on the Seidio below for more on this subject). In addition, the clip is placed off-center, allowing ready access to the speaker switch, a great idea for the most part (see two paragraphs below for the caveat on this).

But, alas, those pesky downsides. First, the spring clip that holds the holster to your belt. It's fairly narrow, and a little on the short side. While it held securely to my 1.5" wide belt, and it's bottom lip did catch the belt enough to stay on while bumped, the clip wasn't able to fully close around the belt, which makes me nervous that it could come off if really beaned against. Second, that darn retaining clip. While it is uber secure, it's also hard to get the phone in and out of. You need to actively bend the clip up to get the phone in and out; getting it out isn't too bad, but you need to pull it so far to get the phone in that it just feels awkward. You'll also be afraid you're going to snap the clip, but again, I tried to bend it back quite severely (more so than you'll ever have to putting the phone in) and it didn't break.

The other problem with the clip comes into play if you use an SD card. See, the SD card protrudes from the phone ever so slightly, and the clip is located directly over the SD slot. With the case covering the card, it's very easy for the clip to accidentally push the card in and cause it to eject from the phone. I constantly had trouble with the card popping in and out of the phone and the resulting power cycles, loss of ringtones on my card, and the occasional crash from rapid removal/re-insertion. If you were to cut a window for the SD card, I suspect this problem would be alleviated.

So, in the end, while the SkinTight case is super durable and the holster pretty good, I decided (after a month or so of daily use) that it wasn't the case for me. On to the SmartPhone Experts skin paired with the Seidio Shield Holster (the only separately available holster I know of that is designed to fit a skinned Treo).

First, the skin. It follows the same basic design as the SkinTight, with the exception of a sleeker body (no molded grips), cutouts for the SD card and IR port as well as the antenna, stylus, and speaker switch, and no screen protection option. In addition, while it does have molded outlines for the buttons, it doesn't have the protruding dots on the nav pad that the SkinTight does.

The silicone feels softer than the SkinTight's Kraton, but also seems a bit thicker and more cushiony. Despite this, the nav buttons are much easier to press through the softer silicone. The only issue I've had with using the Treo through the skin is that I occasionally don't press the "P" button hard enough, because the pad of my thumb is catching on the thick corner of the skin surrounding it instead of the button itself. (For some reason, I haven't noticed this at all with the Q in the opposite corner, perhaps because I use that key less often.)

This smooth finish silicone, however, tends to feel a bit gummy, and attracts dust, dirt, and hair like a magnet. It's easy to clean with a damp cloth or paper towel, but in between cleanings, particularly depending on the color skin you choose, it can potentially look and feel pretty grimy. I actually don't mind it a little dusty, since this improves the texture of the case (some people like that gummy feel, though).

I had the chance to try two different colors of the case, the executive gray and the frosted clear. The executive gray looked nice on it's own, but on my Verizon Treo, it took on a musty, almost golden haze that just looked ugly. I can't say how it would look on other colored Treos. I didn't think I'd like the clear model, but once I put it on the phone, it actually looked pretty cool, and has gotten a number of positive comments from people I've met over the last few weeks. It has a whitish tint to it from the frost, and looks pretty slick. The button logos are visible through the clear case, albeit slightly fuzzy.

The holster is a model of durability. Made of a thick, strong, unbendable black plastic, I had no fears of breaking it accidnetally. The swivel clip is much longer and has a wider gap than that of the SkinTight holster, so it fits pretty much any belt securely, as well as clipping well to a jeans pocket. The back of the clip is curved in, which makes it really easy to insert into a tight belt or pocket, too. Very nicely done, Seidio!

Instead of using a rigid but bendable retainer clip, the Seidio uses a spring hinged clip. This spring is firm enough to hold the phone in, but makes it much easier to insert and remove the Treo from the holster. It's even possible to insert the Treo one-handed without having to lift the clip with your thumb (this is a very, very awkward juggling trick to do with the SkinTight, although it is technically possible; even if you do have to lift the clip on the Seidio, it's much easier thanks to the hinge), although once in a rare while I'll find the edge of the case around the screen has snagged on one side of the holster, causing the phone to not seat fully.

Now, the big question…the spring clip seems like it'd be less secure than the one-piece clip of the SkinTight, how does it hold up in the real world. Well, that depends on how you use the case. If you use the case horizontally, it's very, very easy to knock the Treo out. A simple bump in the wrong spot will send the phone flying. Found that out the hard way, more than once.

If you wear the case in a verticle or angled orientation, the phone is more secure, but given enough running around and, say, up and down stairs, the phone may once in a rare while pop out. Of course, this will be when it's least convenient, such as (in my case) when running around a theatre trying to troubleshoot a problem with the clock counting down until showtime.

This could have been solved easily by making the clip curve around the top of the Treo slightly further, which would make it have to open up wider to release the Treo, but still allow easy removal and insertion thanks to the spring hinge. Maybe Seidio will read this and consider making a version 2.0?

So, what's the verdict? Well, the ideal solution would be a combination, with a slightly improved retainer clip on the Seidio holster holding the Smartphone Experts skin, but made out of the SkinTight's Kraton. A compromise is possible without design changes, which would be to use the SkinTight with the Seidio holster, but to do this, you'll need to cut off the tabs that hold the screen protector (break out that Exacto) so that the Treo seats properly into the holster. Then, if you use an SD card or the IR port, you'll need to cut out part of the top of the case to allow access to those/keep the card from popping out. If you're willing to go through the time and expense of going that route, you may be as close as currently possible to the perfect case and holster combination. (Note: I do not make any guarantee that the SkinTight skin will fit in the Seidio holster even with the tabs cut off; I did not have an oppurtunity to try this, as I was testing the cases at separate times and couldn't compare both simultaneously in this regard.)

As for me? Right now, I'm sticking with the Smartphone Experts and Seidio combination. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close, and so far it's saved my phone from quite a few bumps and scratches, not to mention a couple pesky drops.

The Speck SkinTight Case w/ Holster is available for $34.95. The Smartphone Experts S650 Skin Case is available for $19.95. The Seidio Skinned Shield Holster is available for $29.95.
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