Review: Lifeproof case is like a dry suit for your iPhone

Seth Weintraub | Oct 20 2011 - 6:42 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyOuqQ4zJCM]

I had a chance this week to demo a iPhone 4 and 4S case from a company called LifeProof that purports to offer 100% waterproof and military graded shockproof protection to iPhone 4 and 4S. There are other cases that offer this type of protection, but this one is relatively thin and also allows you to hear the speakers and use the mic thanks to micro-holed that are so small that water can’t get through but sound can. It also allows easy plugging in of a charging cable (forget docks) or headphone set with a convenient little O-ring adapter.

Well, it is certainly waterproof (even if it is really hard to let your iPhone go into the water the first time – what if you forgot to snap even one bit and it leaks?! There goes $600!). But it does work as advertised. At the showstoppers event, LifeProof were throwing them on the carpeted floor which didn’t seem all that harrowing. At home, I dropped it on hardwood from waist high (accidentally, incidentally) and the phone didn’t even see a scratch. The underwater images below were taken after the drop so the case appears to have weathered the storm as well.