OtterBox Defender Case for iPhone Protection

Published March 7, 2016

Now that I’m the proud owner of an iPhone, the first order of the day is to protect my investment. I’ve never spent so much money on a small piece of electronic equipment in my life, so it is important to do what I must to keep it in one piece. Remember the video of the poor kid who dropped his phone right out of the box? I didn’t want that to happen to me so I purchased an OtterBox case.

Levels of OtterBox

OtterBox, from what I understand, does a good job of protecting iPhones and other devices. There are various protection levels and sizes of OtterBox cases. I chose the Defender series, which is touted to be “Approved for Aggressive Antics.” Put through over 24 tests during 238 hours of testing, the OtterBox protects iPhone devices from drops, dust, screen scratches and overall iPhone scratches.

In addition to the Defender series, there’s the Commuter, Symmetry, Statement and Strada series. I chose Defender because it offers 3 layers of protection whereas the Commuter offers only 2 and the Symmetry and Strada appear to have just one layer. With its genuine leather material, the Statement seems to offer the least amount of protection but the most amount of classic style. It’s much more attractive than the Defender, but I didn’t want a beautiful case, I wanted a case to protect my investment. I’m not very much on style.

With OtterBox you can choose all types of funky colors and designs. I decided to throw caution to the wind and order a basic gray case. The one I ordered also came with a holster. The holster allows you to clip the iPhone to your belt, purse or wherever else you’d like to clip it. I find clipping something as large as the iPhone 6s Plus to be impractical for my daily usage, but I guess if I were a foreman on a construction job, clipping it to my belt would be a necessary feature.

The holster clip, when turned sideways serves as a phone stand. It’s perfect for watching videos, texting and, for those of us who like to write, by attaching a keyboard I can actually get some writing done. No need to prop it up against a coffee cup or any other object on the table to keep the phone upright.

Placing the iPhone in the OtterBox

It would be nice of OtterBox had provided instructions on how to insert the phone into the case. I know, I know, putting a phone in its case sounds like a no-brainer, but this grandma had a tough time of it. So much so that I had to go to YouTube for step-by-step instructions.

I didn’t feel so bad after I read several YouTube viewer comments. It seems other folks had just as difficult of a time as I did installing the phone.

A few words of advice before you place the phone in the OtterBox. Grab a scissors and cut out the plastic covering that goes over the iPhone fingerprint touch ID. The plastic covering prevents the phone from reading the fingerprint. Cutting it out before you install the phone makes for a much neater cut. I cut it out after the phone was installed and it looks rather sloppy. I just didn’t feel like wrestling with my phone again to get it out of the case for a neat cut. I’ll trim it neater on another day when I’ve gotten over the last fight with the OtterBox case.

While on the topic of the plastic touch ID cover, it looks like OtterBox put it on as an afterthought. It doesn't seem to measure up to the high-quality construction of the rest of the case. In my opinion, there should be perforation marks around the plastic fingerprint ID protector to make it easy to remove.

OtterBox Installation Tip

During the wrestling match of placing the phone in the OtterBox case, be mindful not to smudge the iPhone screen. The last thing you want to do is claim victory over the OtterBox case only to look at your phone and see that your oily fingers left smudges on the phone screen that are now forever locked in place underneath the protective screen of the OtterBox case. *Heavy Sigh*

Last Modified: 2 December 2022