Posted in Products with tags EnGenius on February 16, 2024 by itnerd
Engenius last year launched a series of access points targeted towards home and small office users called EnGenius Fit. This line of products is meant to take aim at the pain points of these user by making them easy to deploy and manage. Today I’m reviewing the EnGenius Fit6 4×4 Lite (also known as the EWS-276fit) and here’s a look at it starting with the bottom:
1 x 10/100/1000/2500 N-BASE-T, RJ-45 Ethernet Port
1x DC Jack (this is a good time to mention that this is a PoE device and no AC adapter is included)
Reset button
On the side is a Kensington lock slot.
The top has a bunch of LED’s to indicate the status of the access point. One thing that I should point out is that this access point is really thin. Thus it’s more likely to go unnoticed.
This access point supports 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz WiFi. Which means that you can get up to 2400 Mbps in the 5-GHz frequency band & 1148 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz frequency band in ideal conditions. It also supports everything up to 802.11ax. In my testing using my usual testing protocol, I got these speeds:
4.5 meters away: 912 Mbit/s
10 meters and a pair of concrete walls to deal with: 569 Mbit/s
These are better than respectable speeds. If you had this access point, I doubt there’d be any complaints. Especially with multiple clients which this access point handed without an issue.
In terms of managing this access point, you get three options:
Option A – Cloud Management: Manage and monitor the Access Point through the FitXpress Platform with a mobile app or through the web portal.
Option B – On-Premises Management: If you want to manage the device in on-premises mode, you need an onsite management station running a FitController connected to the same network.
Option C – Standalone Configuration: You connect to the access point with a web browser and manage it that way.
I set it up using Option C, but it’s nice to have options for whatever you feel most comfortable with. And deploying it only took me 15 minutes.
The EnGenius Fit6 4×4 Lite Indoor Wireless Access Point is available now for a price of $149 USD. If you’re looking to blanket your office, or a home with WiFi that won’t break the bank, and at the same time have something that is easy to deploy and manage, this is totally access point is totally worth looking at.
Posted in Products with tags HyperX on February 14, 2024 by itnerd
When you’re serious about pwning n00bs in whatever game you play, skill only gets you so far. Because if you’re playing with the average mouse, that will be the difference between winning and losing. That’s where a mouse like the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 comes in. This is a very lightweight gaming mouse that has a maximum polling rate of 8000Hz. Meaning that if you sense that someone is behind you, this mouse will allow you to quickly spin around and pick them off before they can pick you off.
Let’s have a look at the mouse:
From the top, it looks like every other mouse out there. But the tell tale RGB lighting is present, which tips you off that this is a gamer focused mouse. But there’s another thing that will make it clear that this mouse is focused on gaming:
You can add rubber grips to the buttons….
…. and the sides to make sure that your fingers don’t slip at a critical moment. Speaking of buttons, you get four plus the scroll wheel. You can program all of the buttons on this mouse using the HyperX NGENUITY Software (and I should mention that you can customize the RGB light as well using this software), but you can’t reprogram the scroll up/down inputs, and the left- and right-click button functions can only be switched. Not a deal breaker, but some of the competition allow you that level of customization. One big plus is the cable. It’s made out of paracord material and I had no issues with it snagging on anything. Why is that important? It’s important because it’s distracting and that might get you pwned.
I tested this first with Call of Duty Warzone, then with Team Fortress 2. Long story short, this mouse works well. It’s light which means that it won’t tire your hands, and it is very precise. I was able to precisely get headshots in Team Fortress 2 much easier with this mouse versus the mouse that I usually use. All the buttons are very tactile which takes away that moment of “did I click the button” that one might have in an intense gaming session. Finally, the rubber grips are something that you should try, especially if you have sweaty hands as it simply makes gaming better.
The only real downside to this mouse is that left handed people need not look at this mouse. That’s not unusual for mice, but it would be nice to see a gaming mouse that can be used by anyone. Having said that, I’d recommend this mouse if pwnage matters above all else. The HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 is $80 CDN and worth it as far as I am concerned.
Posted in Products with tags Lincoln on February 13, 2024 by itnerd
Last night my wife and I attended an event hosted by Lincoln that was intended to showcase their new 2024 Lincoln Nautilus. This is a 5 passenger mid-sized luxury crossover that is intended to play in the same space as the Lexus RX. But it has one thing that in my mind will make it stand out from the Lexus product. I’ll get to that one thing in a moment. But let’s look at the Lincoln Nautilus:
Lincoln had a black and white one on display. Personally I like the white one as it really shows off all the details of the vehicle.
The daytime running lights really stand out from most cars that I see because it really ties in the key elements of the front of the vehicle well.
Even though this is a mid sized crossover, it visually looks bigger because of the long hood. That’s going to give it a lot of presence on the road.
The theme with the lights that you saw at the front continues in the back with a single bar across the back of the vehicle. One thing that I will note is that there’s minimal branding on this vehicle. I am guessing that Lincoln wants to make the design of the vehicle speak for itself.
Now let’s move to the show stopper feature of the Lincoln Nautilus.
Meet Lincoln’s new 48″ 4K panoramic display. This display packs 1000 nits of brightness and insanely high resolution that approaches retina quality. The display is divided up into three parts:
Critical: This is the section of the display in front of the drive. You’ll see your speedometer and other critical driving related info.
Supportive: This is the centre section of the display where mapping and real time traffic info will live.
Glanceable: This is where less important info will live. For example I saw weather, Spotify and Tidal in that section.
This setup is great from a drivers perspective because when I first saw this display, my concern was that there’s so much here it would be distracting. But clearly Lincoln thought the same thing and went though the time and effort to make that less of a concern.
The infotainment system is powered by Google and Google Assistant allows you to do things like change the temperature in the car via your voice as this is intended to be a voice first system. But if Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri is your preference, this system supports that.
That brings me to my next point. Unlike a certain member of the big three North American carmakers who dropped support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in their electric vehicles, Lincoln is playing nice with everyone and giving them the choice of both, or just using the Lincoln Digital Experience by itself. And Lincoln gets bonus points for the level of integration that they offer. Have a look at this:
If you have. look at this picture, you’ll see that Apple Maps is on the centre of the 48″ display as well as the lower display. I point this out because most manufacturers do the bare minimum to put Apple CarPlay and Android Auto into their cars. Lincoln has gone the extra mile here and need to be commended for doing so as it simply creates a much better user experience.
Another thing to point out is that the Lincoln Digital Experience gets access to the Google Play Store. Which means that it will have its own app ecosystem. At launch, you’ll be able to access the following apps:
Spotify
Amazon Music
Audible
Tidal
iHeartRadio
On top of that, if you’re not driving you’ll be able to use the following apps:
YouTube
Prime Video
They didn’t stop there. You can browse the web using the Vivaldi Browser app and a Bluetooth keyboard. Google Chrome is coming soon as well. So are video conferencing apps, though I couldn’t get a list of which ones. But I have to assume that the usual suspects being Zoom, Teams, and WebEx will make an appearance. Finally, this system supports games. And it was demoed to me using a Bluetooth connected Xbox controller which allowed me to play a quick game (badly I might add) of Asphalt Nitro 2 which is exclusive to Lincoln. In terms of the quality of the gameplay, my wife commented that this vehicle had a better graphics card than some gaming PCs as the quality was great. I noted a tiny amount of lag that I suspect is due to the controller being connected via Bluetooth. But I would need more time with this vehicle to confirm or deny my suspicions. But that was the only thing that I noted in terms of lag. The Lincoln Digital Experience was otherwise quick and responsive when doing pretty much anything that I tried.
The next thing that I want to touch on is privacy. You might recall last year that privacy within vehicle infotainment systems blew up in the media when it came to light via Mozilla that cars were “rolling privacy nightmares” as they collected all the data they could and sent it to car companies so that said car companies could monetize it. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Lincoln must of taken note of this because the Lincoln Digital Experience at first glance is not a “rolling privacy nightmare”. I was shown where I could allow or deny individual permissions, such as microphone access on a per app basis, as well as stop the Lincoln Digital Experience from communicating with Lincoln at all, as well as controlling any advertising that may pop up. While this is another one of these things that I would need to dig into more to see how far this extends, I am glad to see Lincoln recognize that there are people out there who really care about their privacy, and build an infotainment system that addresses that need.
Wrapping up here, I want to touch on updates and security. This system will get regular over the air updates in the form of updates that enhance the system, updates to apps, and even the monthly Android security updates that Android users are used to. And it’s all done automatically over the air via 5G. That’s good to know because for someone like me who lives in IT and constantly preaches to people to install all available updates to stay secure, I like to see when companies make that process as easy as possible.
The Lincoln Nautilus is hitting dealerships now and starts at $64,395 CDN with your choice of a gas 2L turbo engine or a 2L turbo hybrid engine. While I haven’t driven it, the tech that the Nautilus alone makes it stand out from the competition. Thus it’s very much worth a look if you’re in the market for a five passenger luxury crossover.
Posted in Products with tags Shell on December 18, 2023 by itnerd
Because of recent issues with the Esso/Mobil app during its rollout that resolved themselves, that drove me to trying the Shell App to see if it was any better. And based on my testing, it is and it isn’t. Let me explain.
Registration is very easy. After you install the app you’re prompted to enter you email address to set up the app. And you are able to add your CAA membership number and your AirMiles membership numbers to earn rewards. In my case, I entered my CAA membership number as I can save 3 cents a litre on every fill up. One big plus is that you can create an AirMiles account on the fly if you want one.
In terms of being able to drive up and fill my car with gas, that part is stupid simple:
You drive up to the pump
You open the app
Pick the pump number
Authorize the pump using a stored credit card or Apple Pay. I selected Apple Pay as that is more secure.
Wait for the authorization to go through and then wait for the pump to tell you to select the grade of gas that you want to fill up with. Choose the grade and start pumping.
All of this was smooth and easy. I had no issues whatsoever filling up every time I used the app. So that part of the user experience was good. However, paying in store was not as good. The way it is supposed to work is that you choose to pay inside and a barcode appears to allow you to pay inside. If you’ve used the Starbucks app, it’s kind of like that. But for me, it has a fatal flaw:
Apparently you cannot pay using Apple Pay. Why I don’t know. But what it means for me is that I will not be using the app to pay inside a Shell gas station. After Petro Canada got pwned, there is zero chance I will be storing my credit card details in this or any other app. If Shell were smart, they would add Apple Pay support to the part of the app that runs in store payments because I am sure that I am not the only one who feels this way.
To conclude, if I had to rank this app relative to the Petro Canada app and the old Esso app, it’s able the Petro Canada app but below the Esso app. If Shell would allow you to pay using Apple Pay in store, it would be above the Esso app. But to be fair, I need to review the new Esso/Mobil app. I’ll be doing that in the coming days and we’ll revisit this.
Posted in Products with tags Ooma on November 21, 2023 by itnerd
Back in January I wrote a review about the Ooma Telo VoIP phone system. At the time I promised that I would follow up. And that took longer than I expected because to be frank, nothing much has gone wrong except for one thing that I will cover in a moment. The call quality remains excellent and she’s has had no problems. In short it’s been rock solid and she’s had no complaints.
The only thing that has gone wrong was that the client forgot to update her credit card with Ooma and that broke her phone service for a few days. On top of that Ooma’s emails warning her of this went to her spam folder. But one phone call to Ooma’s support on a Saturday afternoon sorted all of that out. I will also note that the wait time was under a minute and the problem was resolved in under 30 minutes as resolving the issue required a power cycle of the Telo device which takes 15 to 20 minutes to do.
The bottom line is that the Ooma Telo is a reliable product that I would recommend without hesitation. Their support is great, and I honestly can’t find anything negative to say. If you are looking to use a VoIP phone system to give you an affordable home phone line, the Ooma Telo is worth your time to take a look at.
This access point is pretty low key and doesn’t occupy a lot of space. In fact, it’s on the thin side It may even go unnoticed by most people. The only thing that you see on the outside are a set of LEDs along the top.The first is power, while the second indicates whether you’re connected to your router. The third and fourth lights indicate the status of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands respectively. You should also note that on the bottom right side of the picture is a Kensington lock slot for making sure that the access point doesn’t grow legs and walk away.
Underneath is a recessed area where there is your power connection if you’re not using POE (Please note that the power adapter is not included), and a gigabit Ethernet jack that supports POE, both on the right. And on the left is a hole to reset the access point via a paperclip. I should also note that all the brackets and screws that you need to mount this are in the box.
The access point supports the following speeds:
5Ghz: 1,200Mbps
2Ghz: 574Mbps
And it support up to WiFi6 as well. Plus it supports 2×2 Mu-MiMo. Which means that if you have a lot of devices, you should not notice any slowdowns.
Setup in typical EnGenius fashion is simple. Download and install the EnGenius smartphone app available in Android and iOS versions, scan a QR on the back of the housing and spend a few minutes getting settings that work for you configured. You might also want to check for a firmware update to make sure that you’re good to go. And I should also mention that there’s web management available as well if managing your access points from a smartphone isn’t your thing. But I will say that there does not appear to be any offline management available which might bother some people.
The best way to test this is to use POE. So using this EnGenius POE switch, I set it up and did some performance and range testing. I should note that besides getting the power adapter from EnGenius, you can also use a POE adapter like this one that EnGenius sent me to power the access point.
I used a WiFi 6 enabled device to do my testing of this access point and got these results:
375Mbps from 4.5 meters away
241Mbps at 10 meters and a pair of concrete walls to deal with
These are all respectable speeds and is in line with the best WiFi hardware that I have tested. I also tried to get this access point to trip up by throwing 10 WiFi 6 devices playing videos from YouTube at it. None seemed to have an issue in doing so. Thus I am certain that whatever your use case is, this access point will be able to handle it.
Posted in Products with tags LG on November 10, 2023 by itnerd
I am doing something that I normally don’t do. Which is to test a product, or in this case two products in a Starbucks. But given the target audience of the two products in question, I decided to do something a bit different. So let’s start with the first of the two products in question which is the LG gram 16″ Laptop:
The specific variant that I have here comes with the following out of the box:
13th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor i7-1360P (12 Cores: 4P + 8E, P: 2.2 up to 5.0 GHz / E: 1.6 up to 3.7 GHz), Intel Smart Cache 18 MB
16GB of RAM
512 GB SSD
16″ screen with WQXGA resolution (2560 x 1600) at 60 Hz
802.11ax WiFi
Bluetooth 5.1
FHD Webcam that supports Windows Hello facial recognition for login purposes
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Windows 11
Now this laptop is light. As in 2.5 pounds. And it’s super thin as well. And despite having a plastic feel to it, LG says that this laptop has passed MIL-STD-810H military durability testing. Though I did note some flex in the keyboard area. Speaking of the keyboard, one thing that I really liked was the fact that the keyboard had a number pad on it which makes it great for data entry nerds. Screen real estate is great given that the display is WQXGA high resolution 16:10 aspect ratio display that supports wide colour gamut, DCI-P3 99%. That’s perfect for not only data entry nerds, or those who want to do some photo editing. And reflections on the screen were not a thing in the Starbucks that I was in. One other thing that I will note that much like every black laptop, it is a fingerprint magnet. So having a cloth on your person would be advisable.
In terms of ports, you have a lot of flexibility:
From right to left, there’s a Kensington lock slot, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen2x1 ports, and a MicroSD slot.
On the other side, you get a headphone/microphone jack, a pair of USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4, and a HDMI port. In short, there’s more than enough connectivity to fit whatever use case that you have. Sound from the laptop was pretty good as the audio has support for Dolby Atmos.
Now just because this laptop is thin, that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. Running a Geekbench 6 test on the LG gram, I got these results:
Single-Core Score: 2309
Multi-Core Score: 10349
OpenCL Score: 16197
By Intel laptop standards, this is pretty good. While you will not be playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III on it, it’s got plenty of power most other things that might be on your task list. Be it office type stuff or even photo editing.
Battery life is rated at 14.5 hours. I managed to get 10 hours out of it which is more or less a full business day. Not bad for such a thin and light laptop.
Now at this point, you might be thinking that the review is done. But it’s not. LG has one more trick up it’s sleeve:
This is the 16-inch +view Portable Monitor from LG. It comes in this iPad folio like case that as you can see is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. It stays shut using magnets and it’s also rigid to protect the screen. It has two USB-C ports, one on each side.
Much like the iPad folio case, you can fold it to place it at the exact angle that you need with no fuss.
And the cool part is that a single USB cable connects and powers everything. When you plug it in, you get an on screen display to select the position of the monitor. That way whether you extend the monitor or mirror the two displays, it’s simple to set up. Here’s the cool thing, the monitor has the same specs as the LG gram’s display. So if you’re doing anything colour critical where both monitors need to match each other, you’re covered. At just under a pound, this really won’t be a weight on your back when you carry it with the LG gram as the whole package is sub 4 pounds. And if you ask me, that’s what makes this whole setup compelling as there are notebooks that weigh 4 or more pounds and do not offer this level of productivity.
So, how much does this setup cost? It’s less than I expected it to cost to be honest. the LG gram is $2149 CAD in this configuration. But LG offers other configurations that encompass smaller or bigger screens, or more RAM for example. So it would be worth your while to have a look at the options that are available. The LG gram + View is $450 CAD on top of that. So basically for under $2600 CAD you have a portable multiple monitor setup that allows anyone from students to remote working types to be productive wherever they are. If you need to be really productive wherever you are, this a setup that you should invest some time to look into.
Posted in Products with tags Apple on October 2, 2023 by itnerd
Recently, my wife got an Apple Watch Series 9 to replace a Series 6 that had a battery health of 82%. Which meant she had to charge it twice a day which was far from optimal for her. There’s no big headline feature that may make you not want to upgrade from another upgrade. But there are a few features that may change your mind depending on what Apple Watch you’re upgrading from.
Let’s start with the look of the Apple Watch:
Let’s face facts. This looks like just like the last five versions of the Apple Watch. Nobody will know that you have “the new hotness”. Not even Apple Watch fans. But let’s start with the closest thing to a headline feature that the Series 9 has. Which is a brighter screen:
On the left is the Series 9. On the right is the Series 6. You can see that the Series 9 is brighter. That’s due to the fact that screen can get as bright as 2000 nits which is up from 1000 nits on previous Apple Watch models not named the Ultra. That will make the Series 9 easier to read on bright sunny days. So if you weren’t happy with your current Apple Watch in terms of screen brightness, this might be a reason to upgrade. I should also mention that the screen can dim to 1 nit which is down from 2 nits. That would be welcome in places like dark theatres, and may have a positive impact on battery life. But honestly, I don’t know if this is a feature that would entice me to upgrade from an earlier Apple Watch.
The next feature is the second generation ultra Wideband chip. Now the only feature that Apple demonstrated in their keynote was finding your iPhone 15/15 Pro like you would find an AirTag. Which is a backhanded way of saying that this feature doesn’t work with earlier iPhones. If that’s the only use case that Apple could come up with, then there’s no incentive there for me to upgrade. My guess is that Apple has some other purpose for this that they aren’t talking about now. But they will a year or two from now.
Another new feature is DoubleTap. It can be used to perform any main action on any complication you happen to have open on your watch face, from starting and stopping a timer to snoozing an alarm, to answering and ending a call. It uses the accelerometer and gyroscope to detect intention. Specifically that you have to raise your watch as if looking at the time before performing the two-pinch gesture with your watch hand. The problem is that at the time of this review, it isn’t available and is coming in a software update in October or November. I’ll do a separate article on this when the feature becomes available. But one thing that I do want to cover is that a version of this feature was available for years as an accessibility feature. Now I’ve played with this accessibility feature and it is only accurate about 80% of the time because it is a software only feature. Apple claims that the S9 system in package makes it close to 100% accurate because Apple made this a hardware feature. That seems reasonable and makes sense to me on the surface. But the cynic in me also says that Apple hardware gated a feature to push sales of the S9. Only Apple knows the truth on that front.
On-device Siri is available for the first time. That in theory means that it doesn’t have to connect to the cloud in order to process your questions. Testing this, I was able to set a timer without an Internet connection. But asking Siri 3+2 requires an Internet connection. How does that make sense? Speaking of Siri, you’ll be able to ask heath related questions to Siri for the first time. But only after a software update later this year. I honestly do not know how useful that feature will be as I personally don’t want the world to know what my weight is or what my resting heart rate is. But clearly Apple thinks it’s useful. So I guess we’ll see.
All of this is powered by the new S9 System In Package (SIP). It has a 4-core Neural Engine for processing machine-learning tasks twice as fast as the S8. Siri requests did “feel” a bit faster than my Apple Watch Ultra which has an S8 SIP in it. But the difference was so slight it was basically meaningless. And the Series 9 didn’t feel any faster otherwise because of the S9 SIP. The S9 is also more energy efficient, delivering that power, with the same 18-hour battery life as the Series 8 according to Apple. And this is where my wife did see a difference as she noted that battery drain during sleep as well as just generally was less than her Series 6 when new. For example, the Series 6 when new drained 20% to 25% when sleeping. This is now down to 10% to 15% with the Series 9. The other thing is that battery drain during the day was much less. At the end of the she would be down to 50% to 60% at the day. While that is an improvement, Apple really needs to focus on making the battery life longer as it has been 18 hours forever. Because what users really want is more battery life. As in more than one day without having to buy an Apple Watch Ultra to get it. How about it Apple?
Other notes are as follows:
New to my wife is fast charging. Which means that she can top off the battery in the Series 9 quickly if she needs to as long as she uses a fast charging puck to do so.
Also new to my wife is a temperature sensor that came out last year with the Series 8 and the Ultra. And just like last year, the watch doesn’t really use this info and present it to you in any meaningful way.
The new recycled Nike band is really cool. If you scroll up to the first picture, you’ll see the “Blue Flame” colour Nike band that is made up of recycled bands. It looks really cool. One thing to note is that these Nike band comes with aluminium pin-and-tuck closure rather than the stainless steel pin-and-tuck closure that previous versions had.
So, should you upgrade to the Series 9? Here’s how I see it:
If you have a Series 6 or less, this should be an easy call to upgrade.
If you have a Series 7, it’s a coin flip in terms of upgrading. I wouldn’t, but I will let you make that call.
If you have a Series 8, there’s no point in upgrading. Ditto for those who own a first generation Ultra.
The version of Apple Watch Series 9 that my wife got was the 41mm aluminium cellular model which goes for $679 CDN. But it starts at $549 for the GPS only model. If you want to go to the stainless steel model, you can spend $899 or higher. Is it an iterative upgrade? Yes. But keep in mind that the Apple Watch isn’t something that you would upgrade every year. So just like a car, you buy in when you need to, or like in my wife’s case you have to. Thus I suppose that what the Series 9 offers is enough to keep it at the top of the heap in the smart watch space for now. But honestly, Apple needs to do more if they want to stay there. And “more” is rumoured for next year’s Apple Watch. Let’s hope that they deliver.
Posted in Products with tags Otofly on September 22, 2023 by itnerd
Today I’m having a look at the Otofly Ocean Band For Apple Watch. It’s a more affordable alternative to the Apple offering and looks pretty much the same based. Let’s start with what you get in the box:
You get the two parts of the band along with a metal clip that you can use to make sure that the band stays in place. While the metal used in the band is not titanium like the Apple offering, I doubt anyone will complain about that. I should note that the lugs fit well in my Apple Watch Ultra, so no complaints there either.
The band has a lot of adjustability in it which means it will fit big and small wrists with no issues. And the entire time that I wore it, it felt comfortable on my wrist. I did test it doing some Apple Fitness+ workouts and it stayed secure on my wrist for the strength and HIIT workouts that I did. I also did go for a swim in my condo’s pool and had no issues there either. If you wanted to actually use it for diving, there is an extension band available. Though I couldn’t find it on the Otofly website at the time of writing this review. But as far as I am concerned, this band is a total win as it works for those want a band that is going to stay on your wrist no matter what at a lower price point than what Apple offers. The Otofly Ocean Band For Apple Watch currently lists for $25.99 on their website and comes in 25 colours to match your style.
Posted in Products with tags Otofly on September 18, 2023 by itnerd
The iPhone 15 might be about to ship on Friday, but I have an iPhone 14 Pro case to talk about. This one is from Otofly and it’s their iPhone 14 Pro Silicone case, which to be fair is available for other phones such as the iPhone 15 Pro as well. I got a black and a green one from Otofly that I’ll use to illustrate the key features of this case:
The outside of the case is made of silicone that is very grippy. The inside has a microfibre lining that makes sure that your phone doesn’t get scratched. The only thing I would point out is that silicone can pick up the oils on your fingers, as evidenced by the black case. But given the fact that this case was comfortable to hold in my hand and doesn’t pick up lint in your pockets, as well as not adding any bulk, that’s far from being a deal breaker.
The case provides good protection for your camera so that lenses don’t get scratched. You can also see the sleep/wake button which has a pretty decent feel when you click it. As do the other buttons on the case.
The speaker grills and the Lightning port are the only things exposed on the bottom.
As for the most important part which is the screen, it works with screen protectors and provides a bit of a lip so that screen doesn’t touch the table if you lay your phone face down.
As for drop protection, I am going to guess that if you drop your phone in this case from say three feet, it will be fine. Dropping your phone from something above that height might be an issue. But having said that, you’re likely getting this case to express your individuality as there are 25 colours available. The only thing that is close to negative that I have to say about this case is that it lacks MagSafe. That was a bit of an issue for me as I have a couple of MagSafe accessories that I use on a regular basis. One is this MagSafe charger which worked mostly fine as it had just enough magnetic strength to stick to the charger and charge my iPhone, and the other being this MagSafe wallet which wouldn’t stick to this case at all. Having MagSafe would have been the cherry on top of the sundae so to speak as this is otherwise a very good case. Especially given that it is $18.99 on Otofly’s website. I’d be giving this case a look if you want a good quality case that’s easy to hold and offers some amount of drop protection.
