To Protect and Preserve (the original look)
OK, You just got the BlackBerry Curve – one of the slimmest, coolest and hottest Smartphones on the planet. Depending on the model, you paid anywhere from $99.00 to $250 or more for it. You hold it in your hand and it feels so nice, thin and…..fragile. You don’t want to drop it, but we all drop our BlackBerry at some point. So, you need a case to protect it…just in case (sorry about the pun). Luckily, there are lots of options at the ShopCrackBerry.com Store.
One of the things I love about my 8320 is the color – I don’t necessarily want to mask or cover that up in a case. Fortunately, I have a good option in the Speck Products SeeThru Case for the BlackBerry Curve 8300 series.
Overview
Here is the “Official Overview” of this case:
Speck Products SeeThru for BlackBerry 8300 Series - Protect your BlackBerry Curve and keep it slim and sleek! Get great protection and functionality with the SeeThru case and holster. SeeThru cases are made of translucent hard plastic to beautify and protect. 2-piece snap together SeeThru case includes screen protection and removable swivel holster.
- great screen protection
- removable swivel holster (belt clip)
- full phone functionality while your phone is in the case
- protects yet keeps a slim profile
Design and Function
The Speck SeeThru case is designed to snap over the BlackBerry, giving it a clear, hard outer shell. The case is totally see thru – as the name indicates. There are cutouts on the sides for the convenience keys and charging ports and on the top for the standby/mute key.
Speck’s version of the Seethru case has plastic over the screen as well – to provide an added layer of protection. Included is a plastic swivel clip for attaching to your belt and securely holding your Blackberry.
I found that I had access to pretty much every button and key while the BlackBerry was in this case. The screen protector did get in the way, just a little, when I went to press the trackball. I also found that the convenience keys were a bit tricky to push and the mute key was very tricky to push when this case was put on the BlackBerry.
One thing I appreciated was being able to clearly see the nice Pale Gold color of my Curve through the case. I also appreciated that little bulk was added by using this case.
The holster has a very minimalistic design, but it does hold the BlackBerry securely. Unfortunately, this holster/case combo does not contain a magnet to put the BlackBerry into "sleeper" mode when inserted into the holster. This means you can't utilize the BlackBerry Operating system's In Holster sound profile settings. It also means you will want to hold down the mute key for 2 seconds to manually put the phone into standby (save battery life and prevents accidental keyboard presses) when inserting into the holster.
Fit and Finish
The Speck SeeThru case fit perfectly onto the BlackBerry. I did feel some “sharpness” around the cutouts of this case. Very important was that the camera lens was not obstructed nor were any of the keys on the front of the phone. There was no added glare by having the screen covered. One curious thing about the finish of this case was that there was a seam in the upper left hand corner of the case – sort of small square. This was in the area where the case seals together – so, my guess is that it was simply re-enforcement of the plastic.
BlackBerry Curve Protection while Preserving the Original Look
Protection
This is a hard case. It seems like it would protect the Blackberry in a fall – but there is no padding, so I don’t’ know how the fall would be absorbed. What it did protect against were scratches and scuffs = both on the screen and on the device.
Overall Conclusions
This is a nice, inexpensive way to protect your BlackBerry and not lose any of the “luster” of the nice color. I happen to really like the feel of the rubberized sides on the new BlackBerry curve. When using this case, I lose that for the feel of hard plastic. It doesn’t add a lot of bulk which is a good thing and it preserves the general look of the device. If you simply want a hard “skin” for your BlackBerry, this could be a fine alternative for you.
