iLounge

Company: Belkin

Website: www.Belkin.com

Model: Belkin Sports Jacket for iPod shuffle

Price: $24.99 (3-pack)

Compatible: iPod shuffle

Belkin Sports Jacket 3-Pack for iPod shuffle

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Category: Cases - iPod shuffle

Pros: Silicone rubber protection in three colors for iPod shuffle, including detachable lanyard necklace.

Cons: Sloppy tailoring of top piece to iPod shuffle’s body, unnecessary rear holes, value so-so.

In an effort to catch up on a backlog of reviews that have slipped through the cracks, we’re providing a collection of capsule reviews today for cases and clips that we’ve passed on covering extensively earlier on. The cases that we’ve chosen for these capsule reviews are ones that aren’t breakthroughs, and don’t need a ton of extra explanation.

We could spend a fair amount of time talking about the good and bad of Belkin’s Sports Jacket 3-Pack for iPod shuffle ($24.99), but we’re not going to: this is a simple and somewhat sloppy set of three silicone rubber cases for the small iPod. The top portion covers most of the shuffle’s body, while the bottom part covers the shuffle’s USB cap. You get one clear, one blue, and one pink Jacket in the package, plus a single white fabric lanyard that attaches to a rubber hole on the side of each case.

On a positive note, the cases do cover the shuffle’s front and rear controls and most of its faces and sides, leaving a reasonably sized hole for the headphone port. But it’s fairly obvious that Belkin had another company make these cases, and that they were designed to go with an accessory (a thin arm or wristband) that ultimately didn’t wind up in the package. There are two slits in the back of each case, with no explanation for why they’re there, and honestly no need for them either - they unnecessarily diminish the case’s protectivity, and bulge at the back in an unflattering way. The other killer factor on this design is that the top and bottom rubber pieces don’t fit precisely together; there’s a gap between them because the top silicone piece is too small.

There are many silicone rubber cases for the iPod shuffle, almost all of which we’d pick before these. Imperfect as they are, Griffin’s SiliSkins (iLounge rating: B+) would be a better, smarter purchase if you really need three skins in these colors (for a lower price, even), but if you really want a good iPod shuffle silicone case, we think iSkin’s Shuffle Duo (iLounge rating: A) is a much better buy.