Ballistic HC for iPhone 4 Made for Ruffians Who Like Pink [Review]

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The Ballistic HC iPhone 4 case is made for ruffians. Even if pink is their favorite color. Personally I’ll stick to black and that’s the color of the case I tested for this review.

The Ballistic HC case is the most heavy-duty iPhone case I’ve ever used or more accurately ever had on any cell phone. The case wraps your iPhone 4 in four layers of protection. The beautiful iPhone 4 disappears and becomes a rugged, rough and tumble cell phone suitable for, but not limited to very active people, a rodeo bull rider, Ninjas, or public safety professionals.

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iPhone 4 Case

The first layer of protection is a tightly fitting hard plastic case with a built-in screen protector and a second inside padded layer. It consists of two pieces a top and a bottom. Your iPhone 4 slips inside between these halves of the case which snap shut around it.

Finally you add-on the third layer — a rubber outer covering that adds considerable bulk to the case overall, but it provides caps for the iPhone 4 ports. It’s optional if you decide you don’t want to use it. I would like to point out that absolutely no portion of this case offers 100% waterproof protection. Note that the screen protection is the fourth layer of protection according to the manufacturers web site.

Needless to say at this point the iPhone 4 is completely gone from view. The beautiful aesthetics of the iPhone 4 are swallowed up by plastic and rubber. Poof gone. There isn’t even a hole in the back of the case to let the Apple logo shine through. However, all this is by design since the goal of this case is protection bar none and it succeeded in that endeavor during my tests.

Holster

The case ships with a heavy-duty holster to clip on your belt. Solid, sturdy, and bulky it isn’t playing around either and securely holds the encased iPhone 4 in its clutches. My only complaint about the holster was that you could only put the iPhone 4 into it with the screen facing inwards. Sure that just ups the level of protection, which I have to remind myself this case is all about, but it would be convenient to have it face out once in a while.

For example, some cases allow you to do this and use the holster as a stand so you can watch videos without having to hold or prop the phone up. Nervous phone checkers – won’t like this holster since they’ll have to pull the iPhone 4 out to check for phantom text messages if they want to see the screen. This is the one thing about this case that I really didn’t care for all that much.

Conclusion

The Ballistic HC case is an ideal case for all you rough and tumble folks out there. It certainly offers some serious protection for the iPhone 4. However, the problem I encountered with the holster means this isn’t the daily use case for me. I’d use it whenever I need to, but I’ll be more likely to grab a case that allows me to choose when my screen is accessible or not. However, the bottom line here is that the Ballistic HC case is ready for just about anything you can throw at it. So if that is what your concerned about it is worth a look.

[xrr rating=3.5/5]


Model: Ballistic HC for iPhone 4
Company: Ballistic
List Price: $49.99
Buy Now: The Ballistic HC case for iPhone 4 is available from Amazon for $24.99.

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