ID-America Gasket for iPhone 4 Review
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ID-America is a company known for making unique cases for your devices at reasonable prices. Recently they released a new blue version of their Gasket case, which is a snap-on back cover made out of aluminum and made to look like (as the name suggests) a car gasket head. It definitely looks great, but does it have substance to back up the style? Read on to find out.
Crack open the packaging, and inside you'll find the case itself along witih a front and back screen shield. The case itself is made of a lightweight aluminum and lined inside with a foam padding, this ensures that you don't run into any signal or GPS issues while using the case. Once you have the case installed on your phone, you'll notice it doesn't add much bulk to the device itself, since It weighs almost nothing and adds just a bit of thickness.
As far as cutouts are concerned, the Gasket is similar to many other snap on back covers out on the market. The top and bottom are fully cutout and on the side you have a large cutout for your volume buttons and vibrate/ring switch. Since it is open, you won't have any issues with any of your headphones or 30-pin cables. Also the side cutout will ensure this case works just fine with either the GSM or CDMA version of the iPhone. The camera cutout however was a bit of a mixed bag. I've used the silver version of the Gasket in the past and had no problems, but on this one there was a tint of blue sometimes when using the flash.
Moving onto fit and finish, the Gasket is really a mixed bag. The case doesn't require much effort to get on and off your device, but that comes at a price. The right side of the case doesn't properly lock onto the phone, in fact you can easily just slide it off your device. It seems like too much of the foam padding was used on the side of the case which doesn't allow the case to fit snugly as it should. Also the blue finish on the case seems to be very badly done as there were spots that were silver and in some areas the paint peeled off. The foam padding on the inside however, was nicely aligned and didn't fall apart during the time I used it.
The design on the back is very nicely designed and looks really unique. There were no issues with flash (manufacturing defects) in the case. The problem however, is that the edges around the various holes on the back are a bit sharp. They should have made the edges smoother to prevent this issue.
Overall the Gasket has gone down in quality since I last used it. The silver one I used to own was nicely built and had great fit, but this one just feels cheaply made in comparison. Had it still been the same case I loved when it came out a while ago just in a different color, I'd highly recommend it. However as it stands now, I find it very hard to tell people to check it out.
