[General Accessories] vectron:
You guys know me in the forum for posting a lot of reviews with pictures, all from original manufacturers. I'm fascinated with N2 accessories, especially cases ;) It seems that we have plenty of slim and every day uses cases out there. But when it comes to a rugged case (non ebay), everybody turns to Defender as a staple of ruggedness. I had one too a few months back, used it for a couple of days, exchanged it for another one, called Otterbox support - all ended up being a common problem related to their plastic built in screen protector not sitting flush with a screen of the phone, thus ruining the whole touch experience, almost making it feel like a resistive touch screen. But anyway, we had plenty of discussion about this subject, don't want to start it all over again. I was also impressed with Griffin Survivor case for S3, but they never made it for Note 2. Survivor is even more rugged than Defender, and actually has full screen protection including covering of every single port.

So, once I found on-line someone is selling "copy" of Defender and Survivor for Note 2 - I was intrigued to see how it will stack up to the real cases. The results - I was actually very impressed. I don't want to go into details of case review/design since it's not necessary. I had real Defender before, and quite familiar with its construction and material feel. Knock off part is a carbon copy of it. It even weights the same. I was worried at first the inner plastic shell will be a cheap brittle plastic and outer rubber shell will be "sticky" and cheap. It's actually high quality plastic and rubber feels exactly the same. I do have to note that plastic screen protector part sits perfectly on top of the screen, no sensitivity problems even with me using iSmooth screen protector, and no marks from s-pen. It was thinner than original Otterbox, and I was even able to push a corner of the screen protector out, but then I press on it with a finger and it went back (the glue part holding it together is actually some sticky stuff that is not hard). You'll be the judge how it looks from all the pictures I took.

With Survivor, I can only judge quality of material based on a comparison with my Survivor case for my kids iPod Touch. Feels identical, and high quality. Again, plastic screen protector had some issues because it looks like it has two layers with inner one was coming loose. [EDIT] - it was due to inner protective layer which I had to remove. Screen protector is good!!! [/EDIT] - its a very impressive and functioning rugged case with superior protection. Some of the port plugs have a very thin attachment string of rubber, and I wasn't careful when removing a belt clip so micro-usb port got ripped out, but it fits very snuggly inside of the port and still functional.

The bottom line, those are not perfect, and I can't comment on longevity of their use. But based on the details of design copy and how it feels, not to mention the price - these are VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!

So, here are the pictures for your enjoyment. Again, please keep in mind, these are NOT REAL Otterbox and Griffin cases, but rather "copy", where in case of Survivor it's a copy of the case which doesn't even exist yet!

.... not from where I've ordered, but found a source with free shipping to US and a very decent price: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Otte...ail-package-fast-free-shipping/820186629.html

;)