I bought an iPhone in New Zealand last April, for an extortionate price, and have been terrified of dropping or losing it ever since. I did purchase a hard case with it at the time, but this was more for screen protection and looks apparently, that anything else, so when I found out that Otterbox produces a case for the iPhone I sent them an email.

Otterbox, for those of you who don't know, used to manufacture the only indestructible waterproof flybox on the market. The UK distributor would introduce his sales technique, and presence, by entering a tackleshop, promptly dropping the box on the floor and standing on it! I used to do the same thing too, to impress friends, until I managed to break the lanyard attachment during a similar demonstration while fishing with Al and Viking Lars in Scotland - which Lars found particularly amusing.

Anyway, I haven't tried this with the Defender case, although I have tried dropping it a few times. The combination of hard case and rubber overlay means that the phone bounces and the screen doesn't break, Lee and Helen. I mention Lee and my sister Helen, because I've noted that they both have iPhones with broken screens, having dropped them without wearing a Defender case.

The Defender case is not waterproof - Otterbox have a waterproof version which I have yet to try. It is however dust-proof. As many of you know I've been building a combined cellar and snakepit recently at my flycasting school in Hungary, and I can attest to the fact that it is well and truly dust-proof, because Peter and I have been listening to the iPod function as we work, while throwing dust over it. It's concrete proof too as it happens.

That's right boys and girls: a Sexyloops' review, where we take it to the end of the world and try to destroy it. It's splash proof too. Even using wine.

And while it's taken me a month to get around to writing this review - much to Molly their Public Relations Assistant's concern (what she doesn't know is that Sexyloops' reviews normally take several years to write, and not only one month, by which time the product in question has often been superseded and/or become obsolete) - I think this only goes to make the review more impressive; after all if the Defender case can survive me for a month, just think, it can last any normal person several years, even flyfishermen.

So the way it works is that the iPhone - they have one for Blackberries too Rich - sits neatly in a closable heavy duty polycarbonate housing, which in turn slides into a rubber overlay (it may or may not be rubber by the way, their site calls it a silicone skin, which makes me happy too) and you can still operate all the functions including the camera, silence mode, touchable screen (should have bought an iPhone Rich), buttons and jack ports.

Initially I had a problem with the car charger, it didn't fit the socket through the case, but I slimmed it down with a knife and it fits in there just fine now. I also had a bit of a problem with the phone holster, managing to destroy it one evening when leaping into a car. Molly asked me to write to the Customer Service team, no doubt so I could be impressed by their speedy service. I haven't gotten around to that yet; it's only been three weeks since this happened and I've been busy fishing the Drava and the Ribnik. The clip was a handy addition however; in fact it was very smartly designed, because it allows you to angle the phone on a table for SLTV showings.

So if you have an iPhone and live life out on the edge, like the rest of us around here, then you really do need one of these. This review comes a bit late for Lee and Helen of course, but we can all learn from their mistakes.

This is Otter Box: www.otterbox.com
This is their Defender series specs document www.otterbox.com/pdfs/1942-info.pdf

The case costs $49.95 and is a necessary addition to your iPhone. It also looks pretty cool. Apart from the pink one.

Reviewed by Paul Arden
22nd July 2010