[T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide] Blue6IX:
Okay - i'm excited!

Just got home a little bit ago, and though I have to run right back out, I stole some time to play with my new case (at the expense of dinner...) because it finally came in today.

First impressions: Packaging is attractive, and once open it comes with screen protector, screen-cleaning cloth, a 4-pole extension piece for the headphones jack and the case (and some very short paperwork).

The case is 3 parts, as listed above, outer for the top, inner soft rubber for the bottom, and outer not-as-soft rubber for the bottom.

Compared to the hard-shell case I have, it's much more bouncy, definitely can't classify the trident as a hard case compared to that - but it's not very flexible, like a gel-type case would be.

Since I can't bend the outer-case very far (and we're talking small distance here) without being pretty postive it'll break, I suppose it has to be considered a hard case after all. Sorry if this seems like a mixed opinion here, it's definitely not a gel-type case.

The color is nice, darn close to my favorite color of green - and green is my favorite color.

I like the fact that the part that covers the speaker (where you would listen to a phone call from) is a shield, preventing stuff from getting in the speaker. Ditto for the bottom half over the two speakers on the bottom of the phone.

The power port for usb is still uncovered...as is the headphones jack. So we've almost got a winner here, I would have liked for something covering both of those ports. I have a piece that fits in the headphones jack, which you can see in one of my pictures below (came on a stylus - check them out on amazon and you'll find one)...but I still have no solution for covering the open usb jack.

I have no idea why there are two tiny cutouts on the upper piece right above where the volume buttons are...this perplexes me. ( edit again - figured it out. When you hit caps or alt on the keyboard, it leaves space to show the light that lights up when the keyboard is slid out.)

The power button, volume buttons, and camera button are covered with the bottom rubber insert piece, and they all press fine and work well. No issues with the way they are covered.

And of course...it doesn't fit in the old pouch I had for it (was for the flip camcorder) so I got a new one, it's a kodak. Wanted to move to something a little bigger so I didn't have to take a micro-camera case around with me for my cables and memory cards anymore. The kodak case still fits in my pocket, so win all around.

In closing:

I love the trident case, if it had something to cover the usb port i'd love it even more. If by some misfortune the phone gets dropped or banged, it won't take the same amount of jarring abuse, and the shock will be much, much more distributed and absorbed by the case.

I didn't use the screen protector it came with, the one I already have on it is a privacy filter which I much prefer.

ETA:

The first picture shows the trident case next to the old hard-shell case, with the phone above and a pen in-between for size guage.

Also - fits in the t-mobile universal car cradle that I have, and doesn't fall out - as the prior case also allowed the phone to do.

Both glossy & grippy. Won't slide across my desk when I push it because of the black piece that is exposed from the rubber insert, but if I turn it on it's face it slides easy when it's just the exterior case touching.

Yet another edit:

Just spent the last half hour playing castlevania:symphony of the night on a psx emulator, no overheating issues (on an anker battery too - keep this in mind)

This is and will probably always remain my biggest concern with any case for the phone, and while it's probably too early to tell for sure, so far so good. Just wanted to get a preliminary out there about it, and i'll post up a followup to this in a few days if no issues, or a reply sooner if there are.

Figured i'd edit it in instead of making a new reply, since no one else has said anything since my posting.