Smart phones have become such a necessity in our lives that one can hardly spend a couple of hours without them. With retail prices increasing with every new model out there, it makes sense to protect what is probably your most expensive investment that you use every day.
If you travel a lot and you are a regular sports person, you don’t want to carry extra cameras, cables, charges and cases with you. You want to travel light. LifeProof offers a great option – a case for your phone with multiple uses. You can use this as phone protection in everyday life (in case you are clumsy like me and drop your phone often) while adding a few accessories that can transform your phone into a cool sports camera.
LifeProof is the company behind this great idea. They specialise in smartphone (tablets and pads) protection and that is basically the only thing they do. At just 35g in weight and a “fit like a glove” design, the phone slips in and settles into the case without any difficulty. In hand and pocket though, the package now feels slightly bulkier. I have gone through many phones and covers, from functional to bling versions in the past and this was the first time the cover felt like part of the phone rather than its bulky winter coat. All ports, buttons and functionality of my phone were accessible same as without the cover protection — so far so good.
MODULARITY
What is great about this cover is that it comes with different Life Active accessories which give you the possibility to use it for whatever sport you want.
The bike and bar mount is easy to install – one click and its locked in place! The swivel makes it easy to adjust the position and tighten it for the perfect angle. Then you can ride out while recording action footage, checking new routes via waterproof GPS or simply listening to music from your phone.
The active suction mount meanwhile gives you the option to attach your smartphones to the windshield of your car or boat, to your stand-up paddle board and even your windsurf board! Basically, you can attach it to any flat surface. You can use it as a holder for your GPS navigation through the phone while driving a car.
DROP PROOF
Before testing I read some reviews on the cover and came to an interesting comment that someone left the phone in the case on the roof of the car and drove off and phone still survived. With this in mind, there was nothing holding me back to try this. We went out during the Eid break and took a nice long drive to Oman. I left it on top of my car (as suggested) and drove off just to see how long I would go until I saw the phone flying off. Most of you would relate to this cruel exercise! I found the phone after approximately 40 metres (still ringing) in the middle of the road, relatively unharmed. It is guaranteed for survival from a drop of two metres. I cannot translate this into my experiment but the result was very satisfactory. To the surprise of my colleague (as the phone was his) it was still working perfectly fine.
DIRTPROOF
Plenty of sand dunes later, we arrived at Asilah, a popular surf spot on the coast of Oman just below Sur. I kept dropping and leaving my phone all around the camp site and burying it in the sand to see how it will handle the abuse. After half a day of sandy hide and seek (oh yeah, I forgot a couple of times where I buried it so I fished out the trowel to the rescue) I gave it a rest and opened the cover to see not one grain of sand inside. Sand is a major issue wherever you may be in the Middle East. My smartphone being safe while being active outdoors scores high points on my scale.
WATERPROOF
Claiming one hour of safe submerging for up to two metres, this proved to be tricky to test in the swell of Asilah. However, I played with it in safe distance from the shores. Again, not only water but also water particles such as salt and micro-abrasive water solids are dangerous to electronics when dropped in water. The confidence I had from the previous day’s sand test kept me at ease here; absolutely no water damage whatsoever to the case or my phone. As long as you keep it sealed as instructed, you can enjoy watersports such as kayaking or SUP using the suction mount. All in all, this is a great solution for an all-in-one smart device.
As a bonus, I felt brave enough to run the phone through a quick wash cycle (keep it under 30 degrees without a drop of water). As expected, phone was without a drop and working perfectly.
This case is available in over four different colours. I recommend going for the bright colours – you would want to see where you dropped it in the water or between rocks when hiking or climbing. At just under 350 AED, it may appear a bit pricey but going without a case and replacing your smartphone (if it meets a mishap) will set you back tenfold. It makes perfect sense to protect one of your most important and most expensive pieces of technology.
Words By: Linda Turcerova Delgado
Photos By: Jung Francisco and Pavel Bafeel
