[HTC EVO 3D] ebolamonkey3:
Part I

Hey guys, recently I was contacted by Seidio and given a chance to review their Convert combo for the EVO 3D. They sent out the case last week, and I received it on Monday, June 27th. I've been playing around with it, and here are my findings.

Packaging:

It came in a little box delivered by Fedex. There was the case/holster in its packaging, a little card advertising some of their products, with a 10% off code for your next purchase on the back.

The plastic container contains a plastic sleeve with one ultraclear screen protector, a Seidio Surface case for the EVO 3D, a rubber case to wrap outside of the Surface case, a plastic skeleton to go outside of the rubber case, and finally the plastic belt clip/holster.

You can see the pictures below:

Preliminary Feel:

Before putting any of the products on, the individual parts feel ok. I checked the packaging and each part to make sure there wasn’t anything looking out of the ordinary, to make sure I didn’t receive a defective unit and that nothing was damaged during shipping. So far so good!

You can see all the pieces of the case here.

The Phone:

First things first, here’s my brand new EVO 3D, without any case or screen protectors. You can see the size, the thickness compared to my USB and keycap, as well as what the screen looks like without any screen protector on. The USB is a Patriot XPorter, and the keycap is a standard key from my Deck Legend keyboard.

Note the 3vo does not lie perfectly flat by itself.

Screen Protector:

As stated previously, it’s the ultra-clear variant (don’t know if Seidio sells any other kind), and it covers the entire screen and the capacitive buttons. You can read the details in the picture below. The packet contained the screen protector, a microfiber cloth, and a little application card, which is just a small piece of cardboard with straight edges.

It took me about 5 minutes to apply the screen protector. I found it easiest to line up the upper edge with the top of the screen, and then slowly press down the screen protector by bending it. At somewhere past the midpoint of the screen, it’ll become hard to hold on to the screen protector without shifting it. At this point I simply let go and let it fall on the screen. If you’ve lined up the top right, it’ll fall on the screen perfectly, and there shouldn’t be any air bubbles. Then use the application card to scrape out any air bubbles if necessary.

The screen protector itself works very well. I cannot tell the difference between before and after putting it on with the screen on or off. This is indoors though, I haven’t gotten a chance to look at it outdoors and see if it does remove some of the glare. I took 3 pictures of the phone w/o the screen protector, and 3 pictures of the phone with it on and you can see them below. The screen protector also feels very good and slick. It doesn’t feel quite as good as the bare screen that’s clean, but definitely better than that bare screen that’s full of fingerprints. The screen protector is also much better at resisting smudges and fingerprints, so you don’t have to wipe it every 5 minutes.

No screen protector:

With screen protector:

Note: the phone was on max brightness for all of these pictures

Seido Surface Case:

The Surface case is made of plastic and comes in 2 pieces. The top and bottom pieces both slide on to the phone and connect by a little piece of latch on the bottom half of the case. The case feels sturdy, and the outside texture is that of smooth rubber but not slick like hard plastic. So it’s not too grippy, but not so slippery that it slides out of your hand. The inside of the case is lined with a felt like material, so it will not scratch the phone.

Before I put the case on the phone, I tried putting both pieces together by themselves and was surprised to find that the resulting case was very loose; It barely stayed together. But once I put the case on the phone, the result was very sturdy and both pieces stayed on tight. That’s just how it was designed, so don’t worry if you piece the case together w/o the phone and it feels like it’s going to fall apart ;)

Once on the phone, the case is very form fitting, and does not add much bulk. The case raises the phone just enough on the front so that the screen is barely off the surface and just enough on the back so that the camera will not make contact with a level surface.

Seidio also left just enough space around the camera ring so that you could still see the red paint and that the speaker is not blocked. Very good attention to detail :) The case did not block any ports/buttons, and I still found all of the buttons easy to press. If I had to nitpick, it blocks part of the 2D/3D label on the phone, but you can still kinda read it. This would make a nice slim case to carry in the pocket. Although one concern I do have that I did not get to test is whether this makes the phone significantly hotter due to the felt like material on the inside of the case.

I don't know what this little hole is for, but Seidio has made a cutout on it on their case, so the attention to detail is awesome.