Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs hated cases for the iPod, iPhone and other products his company sold. He thought they hid the beautiful design that made them the unique products that they are.
When the iPad came out, he relented somewhat to have a protective cover on the screen, but some of that was financially motivated since it meant Apple could capture some of the money being collected by third-party manufacturers who were having great success selling cases to Apple’s legions of fans.
I’m not sure what Jobs would think of Hard Candy’s line of cases, but I am as impressed by their effectiveness at protecting portable devices as I am by their design.
If you travel with your electronics, you’ve probably come to rely on them to keep in touch with friends and family, to research destinations and to entertain you during long waits while in transit.
If you own an iPhone or iPad, you may already own one of the myriad of cases available for them. Some are more effective than others at actually protecting your devices from more than scratches.
The Hard Candy cases I tested seemed pretty solid. While I didn’t have a spare iPhone to drop from a great distance to test the extreme limits of the durability of the polycarbonate shell of one of Hard Candy’s Chrome Slider Cases, it’s obvious that it would do a better job than most of the run-of-the-mill cases out there which are more fashion accessories than anything.
In addition to the rigidity of the outer shell, the interior features rubber shock absorbers to further cushion your phone if it falls. Of course, if it falls face down, directly on the screen, all bets are off.
I liked that the case is actually two pieces that lock together. That makes it a breeze to put on or take off. At one point, I had a bit of problem with a fat connector when charging the phone and it was easily solved by removing one of the case pieces.
The bonus is that case design looks nice, comes in a bunch of colours, feels good in the hand and is not so distracting that people are going to stare at you.
The Chrome Slider is one of several case models that Hard Candy offers for the iPhone. You can browse the designs on their website.
For the iPad, they have a similar bevy of case designs, including the Bubble Sleeve. It’s a futuristic looking clamshell case that zips over your tablet. The interior is a soft fabric and it comes with four rubber corners that attach with velcro which allows you to precisely position them to keep your iPad from moving around.
While the case is marketed specifically for the iPad and iPad 2, it can fit other tablets of similar, or smaller size, because the interior corners are moveable. For example, I was able to fit a Motorola Xoom tablet with in the case with little difficulty.
The bubble design of the case consists of a soft plastic exterior that has rows of oversized, outward-facing bubbles which act as shock absorbers if your case receives a sharp blow. Think of it as a designer bubble wrap.
I didn’t test the case with my sledge hammer, and I suspect it wouldn’t hold up to such abuse, but it’s clear that the Hard Candy Bubble Sleeve will do a good job of protecting a tablet computer in most normal situations.
More info:
Hard Candy’s iPhone cases come in several styles and colours which retail for $34.95.
The Hard Candy Bubble Sleeve is available in 3 colours for iPad and Macbook and sells for $49.95.
They can be purchased directly from their website:
Test units were provided to canada.com by Hard Candy for this review.
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