There's been much discussion about Seidio's rubberized case, of which I have three.

For those who do not know about the difference, a "rubberized case" is a hard plastic shell that contains a coating of rubber on it. The case comes in two pieces and snaps together and fully encloses the phone.

As to feel, those of you whom have ever owned or touched an IBM ThinkPad will understand when I say that the Seidio rubberized case surface feels just like a ThinkPad case.

A rubberized case is NOT like the skins that people mention in here. Rubber skins are like wet suits or rubber gloves. They are flexible and fit on the Pearl like a rubber glove would fit on your hand.

Anyway, when Seidio first came out with their rubberized cases there were complaints about the price [$30 plus shipping]. We all agree that a better price would be about $20 shipped.

Since Seidio came out with their case, all the "Chinese knockoffs" are starting to appear on eBay and throughout the Net. I recently bought some of these as gifts [stocking stuffers]. I did this because I was not going to spend $200 on Seidio stocking stuffers.

Well the old saying "you get what you pay for" has proved true with these cases. My Seidio case has held up very well. The Chinese "fakes" have proved disastrous, NOT in terms of the case itself holding up, but the rubber coating.

I get the impression that the Chinese knockoffs had their rubber coating spray painted on. It may not even be rubber.

Other than the rubber flaking off like a cheap paint job at the spray and wash, the Chinese cases seem pretty good in terms of construction and fit.

BE WARNED, HOWEVER, THAT I WOULD NOT TRUST THE BELT CLIP AND MECHANISM THAT ATTACHES TO THE PHONE! I SUSPECT THAT BASED ON THE WAY THE RUBBER IS FLAKING OFF THAT THE CLIP ON THE PHONE WON'T HOLD UP ALL THAT WELL EITHER.

So bottom line, you get what you pay for. Go ahead and get the cheapo cases as the case itself seems OK. But don't buy the rubberized ones and don't use them to clip the phone to your belt. They should be OK in a briefcase, pocket or purse.

Here's some pics of the cheapo phone cases. Ain't they purrty.....

Side Note: On reflection, I think they made a lousy stocking stuffer. My friends and girlfriend are going to think I am cheap son of a beach. Maybe I am.

SanFran, will you post a pic of Seidio's rubberized case? And tell us how many days you have been using it please. Thanks!

I would love to see that also. Seidio doesn't provide detailed pictures like yours so that's why I didn't buy the product.

Here's the Seidio that is three months old.

The back has a speaker grill I installed. [It's an aerator from a faucet].

So did you just take off the battery cover then put the siedo case on?

No, the Seidio case simply snaps over the entire Pearl.

LOL...Thats funny that you mention something about Chinese knockoffs on Ebay. I bought a SanDisk 1GB card on Ebay a week ago and seem to have nothing but problems with it it seems. The writing on the box is half Chinese and half English. Guess I'll have to get a new card.

Thanks for the comparison on the 2 cases too cuz I was almost going to buy one of those on Ebay. You just made my decision easier.

X2! Great pics SanFran. Nice custom work on that speaker grill too! Did you have to cut/drill the case out for that screen?

I had a spare faucet aerator that I noted at the time could be used for something.

A few weeks ago I was refilling a laser toner cartridge. The refill kits come with a soldering iron looking thing that has a circular copper tip that you heat up [by plugging it in] then touching the plastic toner cartridge. It melts a hole in the plastic so you can use that to refill the cartridge with toner.

I noted that the heated iron's tip looked the same circumference as the faucet aerator. I put the two next to each other and it was an exact match.

So I heated up the iron and melted a hole in the Pearl's battery cover and the Seidio case. Then put glue around the inside edges of the aerator and the Seidio case.

Audio is super loud.

Cool, eh.

Thank you for the review. Seidio uses the top grade rubberized material to ensure the durability. We also back up our products 100%

David Chang
Seidio