Apple rarely designs a case or armband so superb that it displaces competing alternatives, but this year’s $29 iPod nano Armband came close, leaving little apparent room for third-party developers to do better. Good looks aside, Apple’s Armband protects the whole nano except for its bottom corners, and uses a unique dual-finished plastic face with a tactile Click Wheel cover and an indented Action button. Yet Marware and DLO have both tried to do better, and in certain ways succeeded with new alternatives: Marware has three different Sportsuit-branded options ranging in price from $20 to $30, and DLO has the new $30 Action Jacket for iPod nano.
Though they all come with the same basic pack-ins—a cleaning cloth and unnecessary clear film protectors for the nano’s screen and Click Wheel—Marware’s three Sportsuits otherwise have different features: two transform from wristbands into armbands, while another transforms from a case into a hand, belt, or arm-ready case. The simplest version is the Sportsuit Runabout ($20), which like Apple’s Armband serves only as an athletic iPod holder, and not as a plain case—you can’t detach the Orca-skinned neoprene nano holder from the matching wristband. An armband extender allows you to add inches of additional length to the wristband, enabling it to be worn on your bicep. It comes in either black or blue colors.
Marware also sells a $30 version of Runabout called Sportsuit Relay, which comes only in a black and red color combination and includes two differentiators—a more pouch-like bottom and a shoe-mounted Sensor holder—specific to the Nike + iPod Sport Kit.
Then there’s Sportsuit Convertible ($30). Unlike Relay and Runabout, this version starts by giving you a fully detachable, usable iPod case with the same Orca neoprene material, and the same nano-hugging body as the Runabout; there are no special compartments for the Nike + iPod Sport Kit parts, but you can fold open the case’s bottom and attach the Nike receiver if you’re willing to compromise bottom protection in the process. Three color options—black, blue, and silver—also set it apart from the other cases. But what’s really different here is the case’s back, which features a Multidapt clip base that you can use with a variety of attachments, including three found in the Convertible package.
The first attachment is an armband, which is as long as Apple’s, and thereby a couple of inches longer than the extended Relay and Runabout bands—long enough for even big biceps; conversely, you can’t make the armband small enough to wear around your wrist. Second is a handstrap, which is designed to mount the nano snugly in your hand while you run. Third is a nice spring-loaded beltclip, for mounting Sportsuit on your shorts.
You choose the attachment you want to use, or detach all of them just to keep the nano covered in your pocket or a bag.
As the prices of all of these nano armbands are so similar to one another, there are several important factors we consider important: protection, ease-of-use, accessory compatibility, and wearability. All three of the Marware armbands offers slightly superior protection to Apple’s design, covering the nano’s full body except for tiny Hold switch and headphone port holes, which aren’t as precisely aligned or cut as we’d have hoped; two of the three cases came with the punched-out headphone dot still hanging by a string. Similarly, none needed the Hold switch hole, and in the Runabout, it’s useless, as it doesn’t really expose the switch properly.
On a positive note, our headphones worked fine with all three cases, even though the small holes made us concerned that they mightn’t. Similarly, we found it generally very easy to use the nano’s Click Wheel, even when the glossy front surface was wet, though we found Apple’s matte-finished and indented face a bit easier to use and nicer to look at. Despite the misalignment of the Hold switch holes, we found use of the switch basically the same as on Apple’s case, which offers less protection.
The cases differ most in accessory compatibility and wearability.
