[Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fire3element:
I got mine from the local Radio****. Excuse me, I meant shack...

Anyways, I was very surprised with how thin and flimsy the materials were.

The rubber is like the newer style cases that Otterbox has been making since the S3, so its a little more ridgid and not as soft as say the Razr and GalaxyNexus defenders. The plastics are very thin and have a lot of flex to them. There are also those little 1/4in tabs all the way around the case that snap together and hold the front to the back. You know, those lil bastards that eat your fingernail to the quick when you have to pry under them to get the case open. Hated when Otterbox went to that design.

The screen protector is just as bad as the previous defenders, and possibly more so. It has lots of rainbow effect and bubbles/impurities in the protector that make it look terrible. It might just be more noticeable because of the larger surface area. Comparing it to my Droid X, RAZR Maxx, Galaxy Nexus and S3 defender cases, it seems not as fine grainy (matte finish) bit rather more glossy and sticky. The Spen does not glide effortlessly across the surface as well as it does on the screen protector that came on the phone.

Next problem is the rubber shell. The cut out around the home button was not well thought out. The bottom center of the rubber is VERY floppy and is a pain to install on the case. I am woried that with the home button cut out and the cut out for the charging port will stretch out in a very short time. Or even worse, the thin area from the front cut out to the back cut out will tear when trying to remove the rubber. If you look at a picture of this case from the front view, all the material holding the front to rear cut outs is the width of about 4mm. Just where the home button begins to go up into the cut out area, that edge around the base of the rubber (part rolled over the edges of the hard plastic case underneath) is all that is holding both flaps together.

Not only that, but the cut out for the home button simply pops in that area made for it with 2 tiny lil nubs on the rubber part to keep it in place. The rubber actually goes pretty far in in that recess for the home button. I am afraid that in a short time between use and stretching the usb port opening from charging will make the home button flap pop out. What about dirt and stuff getting in around that home button flap? I mean COME ON OTTERBOX! You know when the users finger pushes down on thd home key, anything around that cut out is going right in the case.

With all that said, the case does feel fairly ridgid once installed on the phone. Partly due to the phone providing support to the case. I do not feel that the Note 3 Defender is as good a product as the past Defender cases I have owned (count 4 previous models).

Next is the belt clip. Very thin, VERY FLIMSY. The case snaps so hard into the clip, it sometimes takes 2 hands. And almost absolutely take 2 hands to get the damn thing off the belt clip. Part of that I attribute to the flimsy design of the clip. It flexes when you try to push the tab to remove the case. Piss poor design.

I will say this... for an Defender case it is very thin and light. I assume the thin/cheap build of the case was to cut down on the bulk added to an already very large phone. I can allow for that, but there are too many errors in design that could have been made better with some thinking.

However, there is absolutely no reason at all for the piece of crap belt clip.

Sorry if I was too vulgar with my descriptions. I just wanted to get the point across to anyone considering this case. Definitely look at it in a store before buying one.

Good luck