Customer Reviews

OtterBox Defender Case for BlackBerry Bold 9780/9700 series - Black

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This case consists of a hard shell that the phone sits in, a flexible,transparent key pad wrap around, and a silicone cover that wraps around the hard shell. In detail: the key pad has side and bottom flaps that wrap around the Blackberry and cover the key pad completely. You can leave it off if desired. Next, the hard shell is a two piece assembly that snaps into place. It and the silicone cover that will surround it has holes and slit sections that fold back to expose MOST jacks, buttons, etc of the Blackberry. They do NOT allow you to use the Desk Charger because the two contacts at the bottom two sides of the Blackberry are covered and have no access port through the case. The upper mute and lock buttons do, however, work through the case. Everything else , microphone, headphone jack, mini USB jack, etc. is accessible. The hard case includes a built in window that covers the screen (it is not a traditional screen protector but rather a piece of glass or plastic that is part of the hard case ). The hard case also has exterior raised areas where the silicone fits over to help lock it in place. Finally the silicone is very flexible and you fit it over the hard shell, fitting over the hard cases' raised areas and aligning a few tabs in the silicone case that fit into the hard shell. The Blackberry is now completely enclosed save for access jacks.

The case is not too bulky for my tastes and should provide reasonable protection from drops, bumps, etc (I haven't had to test that out yet). It does slip into my pocket fairly easily and because of the silicone has some friction that will keep it from sliding around. The case includes a separate holster that you can use with the case if you want. Its hard plastic like the hard shell and covers half the phone (you put the screen side facing the ratchet belt clip and the silicone back forms the exposed other side of your holster. The holster has a small magnet so the Blackberry can turn off when fully placed in the holster. The Blackberry is held by two side round extrusions of the holster that fit into two round recesses in the hard shell. The flexibility of the plastic holster presses the two round "buttons" into the hard shell and keeps it in place somewhat like snap buttons. The bottom of the holster completely surrounds the Blackberry by about half an inch to also help keep the Blackberry in place. My unit is fairly new, but I didn't experience any tendency of the Blackberry being easily knocked out, i.e. the holster seems to securely hold the phone.

I would say the whole thing looks pretty sharp, with or without the holster. If you could get to the charging contacts* and place this in a desk charger so as to make use of bedtime mode (a bed side clock while charging) I would give it five stars.

* You can also charge by the mini USB jack

Update: October 4, 2010 from a letter I just sent to Otterbox..

Dear Otterbox:

I am writing to let you know of another defect in your Defender case for the Bold 9700 by BlackBerry.

Please do not send a replacement. It will be discarded and not installed.

When I purchased your case, I had previously been using Zagg's Invisible Shield for my devices. I purchased the Defender both from the advertised design and as a result of word of mouth endorsements for Otterbox and your overall reputation.

As much as I liked the hard core techy look of the Defender, there is also some hassle factor - dismantling to do a battery pull, blowing talc "air" on the screen at cleanings to avoid the watermark on the screen, etc.

I could put up with all of this, but not with the numerous defects.

First, there was the holster, then a cracked window, then the tabs on the case breaking from the pressure of the holder clips. The last straw was a repeat of the last, making the holster completely unusable.

I have thrown out the latest broken case and the holster you just sent - along with all of the parts and silicone sleeves I was keeping as spares.

Did it escape your attention when you designed this that cases are not supposed to be intricate systems demanding constant care, repair and other attention - that they should just protect the phone and not be given a second's thought otherwise?

Also, looking over your site and other reviews about the 9700 Defender, it is obvious Otterbox cut corners in its design. For the little money you might have saved, you must have lost it in the warranty claims. In my case alone (pun intended), you have sent numerous parts free of charge including shipping - including at least 2 but maybe even as many as 3 complete replacements. There is no way you could have made any profit from your sale of this to me at this point.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend you on to others given my experience. I will in all fairness agree that Otterbox stands behind its products - but that is only half of the equation. The other half is making a product worthwhile to stand behind - and this case Otterbox failed. Since it is the only product of yours I have tried, I would be loath to try another product of yours without giving another manufacturer a chance.

In this situation, I am ordering a Zagg screen shield and have dusted off my BlackBerry cheapy free holster.

Sincerely,

Adam Lamar

Burbank, CA

Original Review:

I just received my own case today, having bought the Blackberry Bold about 2 weeks ago. It is my first experience with an Otterbox product.

First, The case is like nothing else I've seen. And there appears to be a significant improvement over the Defender for the Blackberry Bold 9000 Series - there is now a clear film shield that fits in place very well and very easily over the keyboard, leaving an opening for the electronic touchpad. Otterbox got rid of the film for the screen and replaced with a clear, hard polycarbonate screen that is affixed to the polycarbonate portion of the case. So NO worries about screen clarity, bubbles, etc. Once everything's together you can't even tell anything's there.

The case assembled fairly quickly.

Use: I like it - the buttons were all premolded out on the inner film, so it's about the same as not having the shield. The trackpad takes a bit of getting used to in the "up" direction. Otterbox accounted for this by cutting into the polycarbonate part a bit, but you can still feel something. It's not bad, but just something you have to get used to.

The side buttons I find actually much easier to find and use with the extensions Otterbox made on the silicone skin - so here you have an improvement over the original blackberry.

The top buttons for Lock and Standby/Mute also have silicone extensions and easy access.

The only drawback I could find in the case itself is no immediate access to the battery/SIM compartment, but to create such access I think would have severely compromised the protective quality of the case. There's a program called "QuickPull" I tried that simulates a full battery pull - but it does not work on the 9700 version yet. That was my own experience, and all other reviews I read indicated the same. So hopefully, until QuickPull resolves this, you will have to get by with the soft-reset by pressing alt-shift-delete.

The sound, screen resolution, etc are perfect.

Holster - there is some controversy on this if you search online for reviews. Otterbox made a change from their original sleeve design to a dual-clip that the phone ratchets in and out of - so you can't really slide the phone in, you have to go in diagonally and snap in place. Also - VERY important - the screen must be facing in toward your body - not outward - they did this on purpose for another layer of protection.. Fit seems snug enough to me but I was able to deliberately pop out the phone by "accident". I can see where users of previous models would be less than pleased by the change. I prefer to wear the phone in a horizontal rather than vertical position. I'm sure this will help prevent accidental bumps that could dislodge the phone. It is so new, I'll have to wear a few days and will follow up on this page. I am not thrilled with the holster design, but it might be ok. I am going to keep my eyes open and if Otterbox ever does update the holster with their original design, I'll probably pick it up. Either way, in my own opinion this isn't bad enough to pass on the case or even the holster.

Cheers,

Adam Lamar

Updates:

1) Have worn around for about a week now. The phone has NEVER popped out of the case by accident. I personally like wearing it horizontally because of the bulk of the phone with the case, comfort, and better control taking the phone in and out. Maybe this makes a difference?

2) I found a watermark does appear on the hard screen. I also ran across a video on how to get rid of it - and it works!

[...]

With three layers of protections, it protects the Blackberry Bold 9700... too well like a Russian gunship or a King Tiger tank. It adds bulk to an otherwise slim Bold 9700 so you can't use the OEM swivel belt-clip pouch. The only part not protected is the trackpad.

The silicone layer provides shock absorber protection & grip but it's a magnet for dust. All the buttons are covered while the micro USB & earphone port has a rubber flap to protect from the elements. You can't dock the Bold 9700 to charge it since the contacts are covered up.

The plastic layer is hard to open to get to the battery and the micro SDHC card. One needs to take their time and be careful so as not to break the delicate plastic tabs. The keyboard bezel makes it hard to press the surrounding edge keys. On the good side, it has a hard clear plastics pieces that protects the screen and the camera/flash. The "diaper" membrane protects the keyboard.

The swivel belt clip is one of the most important feature I'm looking for in case and it has the mini magnet to make the unit go on stand-by. The problem is that this layer of protection is flawed since my armored Bold 9700 popped off & fell to the ground twice already from the belt-clip only in a week's use. Thank god I didn't lose it. The other 2 layers protected the unit from harm though. It held through sprinting up a few flights of stairs though. Latching the Bold 9700 needs getting use to since your shirt or earphone cables tend to get snag in the process.

Audio comes out undistorted and doesn't affect call quality. The protective plastic does not distort the picture & movie quality of the phone's built-in camera.

With all these protections in mind, it doesn't make it waterproof but will help make the unit last longer. Best for those who don't need to take out the battery frequently to reset their Bold 9700 and have a bag to carry it around.

I bought this case after having the case for my 8310 Blackberry for two years. I was sadly disappointed after having the case for only two weeks the clip that holds the phone could not hold the phone. The phone was dropped from the case several times a day. After two weeks the clip on the side of the holder finally cracked. Otterbox was very good about replacing the case. It took them several days to respond to the e-mail but once they did the case showed up quickly. So now I have a new case that won't hold on to the phone as well. After two days of dropping the phone several times (including loosing the phone once because of this fine clip) I had to stop using the clip. I have reported what happened to the staff at Otterbox who say this is it. So my recommendation is if you do anything in life other than sit on a couch don't use this case. If you think you can wear it on a belt forget it. If you are going to carry the phone in your pocket or in a purse then you will be ok. Just make sure you put it in something that will catch it when it falls out so you don't loose your phone.

So I had my Bold in the Commuter case at first - which was great - but after my cell was stolen with the case I decided I wanted to keep it on me at all times - hence the Defender. At first it was great - definitely rugged, but did not damper impact of my phone falling. Because of the bulk and poor design of the belt clip I dropped my phone more than I ever had. The phone easily was knocked out of the holster (happened at least once a day) and the phone would reset after impact (so much for absorbing impact). I use my cell for work (often forwarding calls from my studio) and my clients complained of an echo every single time - not professional.

This issue was completely resolved after removing my Defender case, however, when I removed the case, I saw that the hard plastic (under the rubber) actually had scratched up the the top portion of my phone (where the lock and standby buttons are) and the silver detail in the corners - not happy.

I threw the thing out. Get the Commuter case - its less bulky but will actually protect your phone better.

I had one of these for my older bb that i just loved. the ease of use, protection etc.

So when I got my BB bold I wanted one right away. A little disappointed. the phone gets knocked out easily because it just has a couple of ears that grab to hold it in. Which broke off within 2 weeks. This is no way as great as the older BB model. (the case is great protection for the phone but the holster sucks.

I went to several stores that sell cell phone cases, looking for a good protective case for my new BlackBerry Bold 9700, and every single store I went to recommended this one!

If you're looking for a BlackBerry case that is durable, rugged, "weather resistant" (ie if you get caught in the rain with this in your pocket, it definitely buys you some time) AND not only protects the screen, but the keypad as well, than this is the case for you!

While there's no instructions for putting it on your phone, it's relatively straight forward if you actually pay attention when you open it up. (Just pay attention to where pieces interlock, so that you don't feel like you're about to break it if you need to open it up to get at your phone down the line...trust me, this thing is like a steel-trap). And yes, I have dropped my phone in a parking lot, and this case did magnificently. There wasn't even a scuff mark!

By far though, my favorite feature is the fact that it has a hard plastic screen protector, and it also has a more flexible plastic keypad protector, so no more grime getting in between the keys! The only possible downside I can find is that because of the track-pad (that replaced the old roller-ball style), there is a tiny square cut-out on the keypad protector, but that is necessary to be able to use the track-pad.

And, just for the record, it also comes with the "clip holster", which has the BlackBerry standard magnet on it, so it "hibernates" your phone. And for added phone protection, they've made this case so the only way to holster it is face-in, which adds even more protection to the screen and keypad.

It's more expensive than some of the other cases you might find, but trust me, you get what you pay for, and with the OtterBox Defender, you get it all! And if you're thinking of just going and buying it at your local store, don't bother. They're all charging at least $50 for it, so you're definitely better off just ordering it here.

I give this case an outstanding 5 out of 5 stars!

I have been a fan of the OtterBox products for some time now. This case just reinforces that to me again. It was easy to install - It works great - It looks great - AND it feels great in your hand. Others have commented that edge keys are a little crowded by the case. That is true, but it doesn't really seem to be a barrier to using the phone with the case on. The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars is that your thumb frequently catches on the cutout for the trackpad while using it. This is both somewhat annoying and it can affect ease of use a bit. You get used to it, but it does detract a little. YMMV

Almost everything I thought it would be.

I have owned an Otterbox defender case for my iPhone 3G, 3Gs, 4 and now my BB 9780.

This is an excellent case - however - the oil slick effect the built in screen protector makes which is only really visible when the device is turned off is really bothering me. I'm half tempted to rip this one off and purchase a screen protector which you apply on separately. I can only imagine the dust being trapped in between the screen and the screen protector slowly being permanently imbedded!

Otherwise, adds a nice man size bulk to the phone. It makes it a little harder to use the track pad and access keys to the extreme right and left - next to the plastic of the case. The clear protector that goes over the screen feels cheap. Would have preferred a full out black silicone cover like the rest of the case.

I like the how the holster awakens and put my phone to sleep...however the clipping mechanism on either side of the phone isn't the best.

My biggest gripe is the oil slick on the screen protector - I cant believe no one wrote about it! If I knew this I probably would have just gotten the wimpy commuter case. Otherwise its a great phone case certainly worth what I paid for it on Amazon.

Working in outdoor humid and unforgivable temperature extremes is tough on any phone. I like the complete protection and cushioning of the Otter Defender case, but I'm not crazy about the holster. It's very easy to knock loose from the case in the woods or on a ladder as I have done several times. Also find it difficult to retrieve when called. I'll have to find a more practical case for my purposes, but I'm happy with the protection it otherwise affords.