Gift Guide: The Wetsuit Impact phone case

There’s little more frustrating for the first world technophobe than a smashed phone screen. But with the mix of mountain biking in a rocky environment, and the penchant for capturing and sharing moments on our phone for social media – broken phones, cracked screens, and drowned technology are an unfortunate reality.

There are plenty of phone cases on the market, but not all of them are quite upto the rigours that mountain biking, and mountain bikers, can put on them.

The Wetsuit Impact case is made for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and despite the name, it’s not made out of neoprene like a pencil case from the early 90s. The case is two pieces, with a firm backing wrapping around the sides, with buttons integrated into the shell for the ones on your phone. There are also sealed ports for speaker/headphones and charging jack on the base of the phone.

The top of the cover is lifted above screen height, with flexible glass to provide the touch screen functionality that you would expect. It withstands immersion to 2m deep, and provides protection from snow, water, dirt and dust.

Of course, the case adds bulk and size to your phone, but the rubberised edge makes it pretty easy to hold, and easy to grab out of a pocket or backpack.

In use, I had no issues with using the phone functions, and audio quality was normal – exactly what you would expect from a high-end phone case. The performance of the touch screen depends on setup, expelling the air from the case via the charging and headphone port to allow the case to sit flush with the screen.

The result? It was very good. But along the edges of the screen I had typos in emails and texts (more than normal) and often had to double press for the command to go through. I already have a glass screen protector on my phone – and this may well have played a roll.

But – my phone has been sweated on, dropped, and done plenty of time in grubby hydration packs over the past month – with no problems or damage to the phone. I tend to just switch it back to a nicer case when not riding, which is when I need the functionality of the screen a little more.

From: Dog and Bone

RRP: About $115