Misc

Magpul Phone Cases – Long Term Evaluation

It’s extremely easy for companies within the realm of guns and gear to slap their logos on cheap, generic, low quality Chinese merch and sell it to the blissfully unaware for a few extra bucks; but a trend I’ve noticed over time is that the companies with good bread and butter product also tend to put out better side projects.

Magpul Industries Corp. have been doing these phone cases for the Samsung S series and iPhones for a good few years now and they have served me personally extremely well. My last 3 phones (spanning a period of nearly 7 years) have been Galaxy models to include the S3, S5 and S7. All have had Magpul cases in orange and when I think back I can recall that combining all 3 devices I have conducted hundreds of ‘drop tests’ from various heights and on to many different surfaces. With all those drops combined I have never had anything damaged on any of those phones with a Magpul case equipped – not so much as a scratch.

This is not to say these are the best cases in the world because there are hundreds of manufacturers of protective covers for electronics, but the plastic Magpul use certainly appears to work very well and without adding huge bulk to the device. There are much thicker, more protective cases out there and there are much thinner ones that fit more nicely in to your pocket, but the Magpul option seems to sit in the middle ground and do an excellent job of protecting against impacts without being ridiculously chunky.

The product description states these are made from “thermoplastic elastomer” which is just some marketing BS because thermoplastic is purely a term applied to absolutely any plastic than be be melted down repeatedly if made hot enough, while elastomer simply means the material has rubber-like qualities i.e. not stiff and brittle. The outer texture does provide for a decent level of grip, both in terms of shape and in not being a smooth, slick material. The lip on the front face lifts the screen up away from surfaces and all your ports such as headphone jack (if your phone manufacturer gives you one?) are accessible.

Last but not least the branding is minimalist and the overall appearance is not especially tacticool given the many other phone cases out there which all look very similar.

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