iLounge

Flip Case for iPod, Case-Mate’s Leather Flip Case for iPhone, and Vaja’s iVolution Top Holster for iPhone. All of these cases used a semi-novel design that integrates side coverage into both the front and rear halves of the case, which snap together to protect almost all of the device’s body.

PRT’s angle is basically to offer a cheaper alternative to the $70 Vaja design—which to its higher-priced credit, can be customized in a wide variety of colors—that’s closer in price to the $30 Targus iPod and $35 Case-Mate cases.  The Leather Jacket uses nice but not stunning black Sheepskin leather wrapped around an inner hard shell, plus black velvet lining to keep the case from scratching any of the iPhone’s chrome surfaces. It also includes a detachable two-tone metal belt clip—a feature you’d pay more to get in the Vaja case, but commonly see in $30-40 iPod and iPhone cases, like Case-Mate’s. Unfortunately, PRT’s clip is unusually loose and rotates freely around rather than ratcheting like most of its competitors.

We can’t complain much about PRT’s approach to iPhone protection, which is superior to Case-Mate’s. Though the side and top controls are exposed at all times along with the headphone port and rear camera, the case covers everything else save iPhone’s bottom corners, using bottom holes for pass-through iPhone speaker and microphone access. Gaining uninhibited bottom and screen/control access is as easy as flipping open the front flap; you can even conceivably dock iPhone in a Universal Dock if you’re willing to flip the case open and adjust it a little during insertion.

Our only major issues with the case are the typical flip ones—we don’t like having to open the front to use the iPhone—and the price. Pacific Rim’s $40 tag is too steep for a case this plain, and though it’s considerably less expensive than the Vaja Top Holster design, there’s nothing here to merit any sort of premium over the good $30 playthrough leather designs we’ve tested; you get better protection than from the cheaper Case-Mate, but you pay more for it. Consider this case a better deal if it does on sale or appears in more interestingly detailed variants; as is, it’s nice, but plain and not as convenient for daily use as we’d prefer.