[Samsung Infuse 4G] electricpete1:
I bought this Case/Holster (Platinum Brand) when I got my Infuse phone in December 2011.

I think it’s very handy.

LINKS/PRICES:

When I bought it from Best Buy in December 2011, it was $35

I noticed this Platinum case for Infuse was STILL on the shelves at our local Best Buy a few days ago, suprising for a phone this "old"... that's what got me thinking about writing a review.

The Best Buy price is still $35, both in-store and on-line.

You can find it a LOT cheaper on Amazon and ebay now, an even better value:

Best Buy Link: ($35)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Platinu...lack/2835039.p?id=1218355302196&skuId=2835039

ebay Link ($13)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Platinum-Se...-Mobile-Phones-Black-/320893283714#vi-content

Amazon Link: ($10)

http://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Series-Samsung-Infuse-Mobile/dp/B006DRE4FQ

VIDEO

Here is a video for the same brand Holster (Platinum) except for different phone (HTC Thunderbolt). What's shown in the video is practically identical to the one for the Samsung Infuse, except for location of the cutouts in the back case, which of course have to match the features of the phone: i.e. openings for camera, usb port, headphones, volume buttons, power buttons, and in the case of Thunderbolt for a kickstand that we don’t have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHOs8iNEMJM

PHOTOS:

Each of those links above shows pictures of how the case/holster looks when assembled, with phone inside.

I have attached photo’s below of how the case/holster looks when disassembled.

CONSTRUCTION:

The case is two parts (top/bottom) and slides onto the back/outside of your phone. The case stays on the phone regardless of whether phone is in holster or not.

The holster (when phone is inserted) sits on the screen side your phone.

The holster has two clips:

The clip on top of the holster clips the top of the phone into the holster.

The clip on the back of the holster clips the holster to your pants/belt.

ADVANTAGES:

* When you’re walking around with phone clipped to your belt, the back-side / case side is face out... screen completely protected.

* The headphone jack is accessible when the phone is holstered, so you can listen to music on earbuds with phone in holster clipped to your side.

* It’s also handy for talking on phone while walking (not in a busy area of course). Use earbuds set with mic on the cord about 6" from earbuds (earbud/mic set available around $15... I don’t think the originally supplied earbud set had a mic), make the phone call (requires phone removed from holster for dialing), then put the phone into your holster and keep talking away. ** DETOUR: - By the way, when I tried to use an earbud set with mic on stock Froyo, it didn't use the external mic at all (it continued to use the mic on top of the phone which doesn't work if the phone is not close). Later, now that I've upgraded to GB with custom Rom, the external mic on the earbud cord now works great (I'm not sure whether it was the GB or the custom ROMs with voodoo that fixed it...does anyone know?). I also use that earbud/mic set when I'm on a long conference phone call in the office... it gives hands free talking so I can operate my PC keyboard at the same time that I'm talking on the phone without getting a crick in my neck (from holding a standard phone between my ear and my shoulder... the only other way to keep hands free). And of course I'm only using the PC for items directly related to the phonecall... I would never dream of checking my email or surfing over to sites like xda during one of our typical exciting business conference calls where I get to talk for about two minutes and listen for about 58 minutes ;) The earbud mic works great in my non-blue-tooth car too... much better than trying to use the phone built-in mic which probably isn't going to be anywhere close to your face when you're driving. END-OF-DETOUR.

* If you want to throw your phone into a briefcase, leave it in the holster and unclip it from your pants.... the holster provides great protection for your screen if it gets bumped against something in your briefcase.

* Both clips (phone to holster and holster belt clip) are sturdy and well designed. Removing holster clip from belt or removing phone from holster are both very easy things to do (1-2 seconds). You can see how easy to get the phone into and out of the holster in the last 20 seconds of the video linked above.

**If I didn't have the holster, the biggest thing for me is that the phone seems a little too big to fit in my pockets comfortably:

Back pants pockets - I worry about sitting on it.

Front pants pockets - I worry about what happens as I sit down and stand up. And I have to stand up to put it into my pocket or remove it from there.

Shirt pocket - I worry about it falling out when I lean over.

And if my phone is not in my pockets then I would be holding onto it or shuffling it to various other temporary places... just more likely to lose it or have some other absent-minded accident imo. It’s more convenient imo to just put the phone into my hip holster and not worry about it until I take it out of the holster when I want to use it. Then when I'm done using it, it goes right back into the holster on my hip (except at home... different story)

WEAKNESSES

* While the upper half of case is very securely gripped onto phone by friction, the lower half of case is much smaller than the upper half and so has much less friction grip to the phone. To make matters worse, the attachment between lower and upper half of case is not great. The result of these two factors is that if you tug on the lower half of the case you can get it to separate from the phone and upper case half. Therefore it is risky to put your phone into your holster upside down because if you then try to lift it out by grabbing the natural location near the top of the holster (which is now lower half of the case), that lower half case may become separated and you might drop the phone. So I make sure to always put the phone into the holster right-side up. Interestingly, the HTC Thunderbolt case shown in the video has upper and lower case halves almost equal size so they probably don't have as much problem (better friction grip for bottom)...I'm not sure what prompted the smaller lower case half size for Infuse but I think it was a bad design choice

* Speaking of absent-minded accidents.... I did manage to drop my phone from at least waist height when I removed the phone from the holster while I was literally trotting down the steps of a cement stairwell (had a lot of things on my mind, was in a big hurry, trying to save time by making a phone call on the run, perfect time to be careless).. When I examined the scene after the drop, there were cracks eminating from the lower left hand corner or the screen. I also found the bottom half of the case was separated from the top half and from the phone. I don't know whether the bottom half of the case came off as I was pulling it out of the holster, or whether it came of after it hit the cement. I'm not positive exactly what happened, but there are two possible scenarios:

Scenario A - Maybe I had my phone in upside down at the time... if that's true then that is probably the reason I dropped it and possibly the reason that the case didn't protect the screen (because the bottom case would have been separated from the phone before the bottom left corner hit the ground in this scenario).

Scenario B - Maybe the bottom case came off only as a result of the impact from the phone hitting the ground. If that's true, then the case was still not enough to prevent screen damage even though case was intact when it hit the ground in this scenario. The case is not particularly beefy and one with thicker corner guards may have done better in this scenario.

Scenario A is probably the more likely explanation for my experience, but I'm not positive.

I don't consider tendency for the bottom case half to separate as a major problem,

ONCE YOU'RE AWARE OF IT

. I could probably fix it with a piece of tape holding top/bottom case halves together better, but that's messy. Now that I am aware of it and conscious of the proper orientation, I don't feel the need to do that. Before I dropped the phone I was not particularly tuned in to the significance of putting the phone into the holster right-side up or upside down.

OVERALL:

I Have been using it for 9 months and I'm very happy with it. It is highly recommended as far as I’m concerned, especially at those lower prices. Just remember to put the phone into the holster right-side up.