Review: OtterBox Video iPod Case

This is my second OtterBox iPod case. My first, the oPod, I used for my 20Gb 4G.

I must say, the idea of ruggedized cases turns my crank. I’m not quite spastic, but do not over-estimate my dexterity. I drop things, I bump into things, I pack things and move around with them. The average mushroom-skin, thin housings that most electronic gadgets are built with just do not cut it for me. Palms, cellphones, GPSs, and all their associated accessories, travel with me ARMORED. I’ve bought more Pelicans and Otters in the past years than the San Diego Zoo. Heck, I even bought a ruggedized, water-proof humidor for my wife’s cousin as a host gift when we went to visit him and his family in Brooklyn this Spring. He loves it!

When I took a job in Afghanistan a couple years ago, all the pre-deployment briefings stressed the harshness of the environment so much I decided to kit up appropriately. An oPod (now discontinued and upgraded) for the iPod, a Pelican laptop case (wish they had desert tan as an option then) for my iBook G4, the OtterBox 3600 Armor for my Tungsten 3, and a mess of miscellaneous other cases for my peripherals and such. Twelve months in a desert with daily sandstorms, everything survived and I’m truly hooked.

When I bought my Video iPod 60Gb, the very day my local big box electronic store got them in stock, I wanted a good case too. Unfortunately, there’s a lag time for good peripherals to come out for every new popular gadget, and though OtterBox had upgraded its case design from the truly okay oPod, they didn’t come out with a case for the Video iPod until some time after its release.

I needed a case. The thought of a naked iPod travelling with me scared me.

First, I used one of my son’s socks. It worked okay. Then my daughter sewed me a little sleeve out of cranberry polar fleece that I used for a while. Very cute, but not ruggedized by any means. I Kept the iPod from getting scratched, and that was about it. And that’s what most of the initial Video iPod cases seemed to do, protect from scratches and not a whole lot more.

Almost as soon as OtterBox had announced the Video iPod case, I was on its homepage placing my order. Otterbox’s shipping is always lightning fast, even to The Great White North.

At first pass, it was different than the older oPod: Clear plastic now, not white, and the little removable gasket Otterbox initially used for the headphone jack, which I was always deathly afraid of losing—definitely the weakest link in that design—had been replaced by an integral built-in pass-through adapter. The case itself was sealed, and another jack on the outside of the case was presented for plugging in your headphones. A very strong improvement on the original design.

The case itself closes with a simple latch at the end that seals the whole thing against a pretty substantial o-ring. Hey, maybe I’m a fetishist, but it’s tres slick. Click! I love the overall design. Obviously well thought out. Obviously a piece of equipment meant to last.

And it’s waterproof to maybe 3m. Not a lot—H20 has one case for the iRiver that’s good to 200m—but good enough for swimming I guess, for which I’ll need waterproof headphones before I can test. H2O has its own line of waterproof cases and headphones that I haven’t tried yet. H2O Audio Headphones seem to be just the ticket! Have to see if I can get a set to review here as well. Back to OtterBox, though.

Waterproof means dustproof. And dirtproof. The oPod was definitely all of the above, and though I’m not in a desert any more, Victoria Day gardening, traditionally the start of home landscaping season in Canada, was a good initial test. A lot of dirty digging and rooting around my urban lot kicked up a muddy mess. I took perverse pleasure when I was done in rinsing my iPod case off under the kitchen tap. Concept passed. It worked well.

And as I was writing this, my iPod slipped out of my pocket and landed on the wooden patio floor. In my socks-as-iPod-case days, I’d have been up and running diagnostics on it in a second. Now, I shrugged at my klutziness and clipped it to my pocket.

No, it’s not designed to be dropped, but all that tight rubber holding the iPod in place, and the plastic of the case itself, provide an impressive amount of protection. Now, I won’t be using it for a hockey puck say, but I feel a lot better with it encased than not.

The wheel is the most delicate point of the whole design, a thick flexible plastic film covers that, but otherwise it’s all high impact.

So, negatives? In order to be so sturdy, the case is BIG. Not huge, but it certainly kicks the iPod up a size or two. The iPods have been getting smaller and smaller, but my Video iPod in its case is almost, but not quite, massive. Almost, but not quite too big to put on my belt. You can get an optional armband for the iPod cases and it works, but I think that case plus pod is just at that upper threshold of cool portability. Something to consider. I’ve run with it on the armband. It’s my favorite way to carry it while excercising. But I am aware of it. A smarter man might just clue in and just buy a Nano and smaller matching Nano OtterBox case, or the Nike+iPod thing. Oh well.

The cases are not cheap, but they’re not exactly expensive either. At $49.95, the Video iPod case is more expensive than the other OtterBox cases, which clock in at $29.95. Given the choice between a $200 surplus flak vest and the $1200 Interceptor Body Armor, I think you know what I’d spend the money on.

My recommendation right now, if you’re at all agility disadvantaged, or prone to put your tech toys to extreme use, buy the extended iPod AppleCare coverage AND the OtterBox case sized to your iPod. Bulky, but worth it. Really. Go. Now. Go buy one.