It seems that many iPhone case manufacturers have reached the same conclusion: plastic and rubber pair wonderfully together to make a case. iFrogz is no different, as its Cocoon ($35) for the iPhone and 4S follows that trend. With a two-piece design made from soft polyurathane on the inside and hard polycarbonate on the outside, the company aims to protect your device better than either material could handle alone.
There aren’t too many surprises with either half of the case. The inner layer is plenty pliable, but returns right back to its original shape when it’s not being handled—for the most part.
In our testing of a handful of units, we found that the outer lip doesn’t sit quite flat along the top and bottom edges of the phone. We wouldn’t consider this a deal breaker in any way, but it’s very noticeable and shows that tolerances could be tightened a bit.
Otherwise, Cocoon has the attributes one would expect of a rubber case: nice button coverage and openings for the headphone port and noise-canceling mic, side switch, camera and flash, speaker, mic, and Dock Connector port. The latter is pretty tight, with only enough room for Apple’s cables or equally small ones, and the material is too thick to support docking.
Over the rubber fits the rigid plastic shell with a soft touch finish and a grid-like design. It covers the sides while adding structure and greater protection, as well as a camera flash diffuser.
Like Incipio’s recent The Specialist, Cocoon is a good but not great entrant into the hybrid plastic/rubber case field. We really like the the look and feel of it though, especially the soft touch plastic, even if it doesn’t come with the same screen protection pack. The Dock Connector issues are important, but will likely only affect frequent dock and docking speaker users.
