CaseCrown Chameleon Glider for iPhone 4 [Review]

Have you ever liked a product, but found somewhat of an issue with it? That’s the case with the Chameleon Glider by CaseCrown. This 2-piece slider case for the iPhone 4 comes in 3 different color-changing variations: green/brown (the one being reviewed), purple/brown, and blue/purple. Each case retails for $32.95 from CaseCrown’s website. Is this case worth it? Well, you’ll find out shortly.

Note: This case was sent out free for review by CaseCrown.

Upon first using the case, I was blown away by how nice it looks once an iPhone 4 is installed into it. The case itself is very simple and easy to install. Simply slide your phone into the larger portion of the two halves, then slide the bottom piece onto your iPhone 4. You’ll notice that the inside of the case has a felt liner so that the back of your phone won’t get damaged by any debris that may get between the case and your phone. This case also comes with a screen protector and a microfiber cleaning cloth.

The case itself comes with the usual set of features, such as a large cutout for the camera and flash (I experienced NO issues with the flash), headphone jack + noise cancellation microphone, the power button, and the silent switch + volume buttons. At the bottom of the case, you’ll find a moderately sized cutout for the microphone, 30-pin dock connector, and speaker. The portion for the dock connector isn’t quite large enough in my opinion, so if you rely on third-party USB cables or docking stations, you’ll most likely be out of luck with this case.

In terms of design, this thing is a real eye catcher. Within a week, I’ve had at least a dozen people ask me what case this was. It’s called the Chameleon Glider because of its color changing abilities, so, depending on the lighting conditions and angles at which you hold the case, it can change colors. For my review, I chose the green/brown version. Despite them calling it the green/brown, I’d consider it more of a green/blue variation, as I’ve yet to see any shade of brown on this case. In brighter situations, such as being outdoors, it’ll be a nice metallic green. When you’re indoors or are in poorly lit environments, it’ll be more of a metallic blue. Both of these colors look very slick. Unfortunately, this case attracts fingerprints quite easily (as you can see in the photographs).

Sounds good, right? Yes, that is, until we get into protection. For every case that I receive, I do a simple drop test. The test consists of dropping the case (with an iPhone 4 installed) from a height of 3 feet onto both carpet and concrete. I tend to start with the carpet first. After doing the first carpet test (again, from a height of 3 feet), I immediately noticed that my screen was cracked in a number of places. Because of this, I didn’t even think to drop the phone onto concrete. Fortunately for me, I have a few spare front panels. But, for a screen to crack this easily from just 3 feet onto carpet just doesn’t seem right.

I’ve dropped my phone in a number of different cases, and I’ve never had the front or back of an iPhone crack this easily. While this may not happen to everybody, it was very disappointing.

While I’m not going to tell people NOT to buy this case, I can only tell people to be EXTRA CAREFUL with this particular slider case. It looks great in every aspect, but when it comes to drops, it’s a bit of a disappointment (it’s not like you should be dropping your phone on purpose anyway).

CaseCrown Chameleon Glider for iPhone 4, $32.95: https://www.casecrown.com/iphone-4/chameleon/iphone-4-chameleon-glider-case-grbr

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