Proporta Dual Skin Silicone Case for iPhone 3G

UK company Proporta sells a full line of cases and covers for all sorts of mobile phones and other gadgets. From your Dad’s leather holster and flip cover, to gadget bags like the one featured in our recent cellphone accessory guide, you can tell these blokes really live and breath mobile accessories.

For this round up, they actually sent over two cases. The first of which is their Dual Skin Silicone Case that features a two piece design that gives the case a two tone color scheme and a grippy texture. This dual layer also serves as a bit of extra protection for your iPhone 3G in case of a drop, but don’t expect it to save you. It might lessen the blow though.

Installing the case was easy peasy. It just slips over top of the case and that’s all she wrote and reverse to remove. However, I did notice that while pulling the case over the phone, it did have this tendency to peel away from itself due to the dual layer design. I also noticed the same thing when pulling it out of my pocket as the silicon would stick momentarily, dislodging the case.

Although the grip was good once in your hand, day to day use really did a number on the two halves, making them look like two separate halves as the corners started to lift near the button on the bottom. Protection though was good and the dual layer, though adding some bulk, should help with some sudden impact. Of course, the real glass screen is still a target for termination.

All the ports from headphone, to camera to dock connector were all properly exposed though I did find it silly that the mute button was completely covered up. You can make it work if you try real hard, but I found more often than not I would need to peel the case off to access it.

The case comes in the white/clear as shown or a black/charcoal color scheme and retails for $18.51 US.

iLuv Perfect Fit (iCC71) Silicone Case for the iPhone 3G

The folks at iLuv are all over Apple and we’ve had a chance to review and see quite a number of iLuv products. Their “luv” for producing iPod cases and accessories made it logical for them to jump into the iPhone arena. They sent us two cases from their new “Perfect Fit” series starting with their silicone case.

The iLuv Perfect Fit Silicon Case for the iPhone 3G slips on over your handset easily and provides a nice snug fit that doesn’t move around much, whether pulling it out of your pocket or fumbling for your favourite app. Although it won’t provide as much protection as the Proporta Silicone Case, it does provide a much more precise fit which I find very appealing. The case does come off as easily as it goes on as well, allowing you to use all your iPhone dock products easily. They even made the color transparent enough to show off the Apple logo.

All of the buttons are properly exposed including the camera, speaker, dock connector and the mute button which was erroneously covered up by the Proporta version. The switches that were covered, like the volume, main button and power button can easily be activated through the thin covering. What I didn’t get though was why iLuv decided to cut the speaker holes the way they did. There’s nothing behind the two left and right holes! However, I quickly forgive this remembering that they included a free anti-glare screen card with the case. The case also has dimpled ridges along the side to aid in its grippiness.

The iLuv Perfect Fit (iCC71) Silicone Case is quite the bargain at $12.99 US and comes in white as shown and a black version too.