The Otterbox Commuter for Nokia n8

It finally came, after two weeks of anxious waiting. I planned to get this a very long time ago but because my goal of getting the n8 at that time was not realised, it was a bit too risky to just order it and then not being able to use it at all. But finally, at long last, it came. And one good thing was that the price has dropped. Tremendously. Really.

The Otterbox comes in basically four series but in thise case, for the Nokia n8, there are two; The Commuter which used hard plastic (abs?) and the Impact which is a honeycomb silicon casing.

I love seeing this favourite Kastam stamp: Dilepaskan
(translation: Released w/o having to drive all the way
to the #@%& KLIA to collect and pay tax on it.)

Even the packaging is wonderful.

All you have to do is to slide the black part of the
packaging out and you're ready for the next step.

This is the contents of the Nokia n8 Otterbox. The
casing is in two parts, which is the silicon and the
hard plastic. The you have the screen protector
which comes in its own packaging. And yes, the
yellow 'Otter' piece is a squeegee.

And so, out with the old and in with the new. The
first thing you must do, is to wrap the n8 with the
silicon protector. That is, AFTER you have taken
out the old casing, and cleaned the phone. Anti-
septics are optional.

Before you attempt to start with the casing like
me here, now is the best time to actually put
on the LCD screen protector. Please use the
squeegee to squeeze any trapped air bubbles.

There. The n8 is now in its silicon skin. Its soft,
its sticky and also, its... well, black.

After that, slowly squeeze the n8 into the hard
casing. Its like wearing one of those Stormtrooper
costumes where you first don the black bodysuit
before encasing your whole body with hard white
pieces of armour. So, make sure you know which
way is the right way and do align before putting it
in because I think, its very hard to remove.

Voila! Done! And compared to my 'old' free silicon
casing, this is much better. However, unlike the old
silicon casing, the Otterbox feels very slippery in my
hands. It feels tough and heavy and all but slippery.

Looking at the bottom of the casing, Otterbox did take
into consideration about the n8's bulging camera piece
and so, when the case is on, the buldge leveled out. Yep,
makes the phone feel 'flat'. Slippery but flat.

Where there are ports or buttons, the silicon protects
them. Here, the flap covers the USB and the charger
port. But I am thinking about wanting to cut off the
charger port because sometimes it obstructs the
charger jack. There is one disadvantage here in the
sense that I will not be able to see the white LED
located on the MENU button which is completely
covered by the silicon.

The volume and camera buttons are protected and
when I take pictures, it feels very comfortable and
yes, it does remove the camera-shake problem that
I had when I was using the old silicon casing.

And so, with this Otterbox Commuter casing, the n8 feels so 'right' in my hands. It does cover most of the casing and so, if you wanted to show off your n8's colour, you're out of luck. But still, it does its job and I am very very happy with it. Oh, if you go to their Website, they do cater for iPhones, iPads and some other smartphones too.

At first I though it was the n8's factory screen protector which made the screen not so responsive as I thought. But during the Otterbox installation, I removed it and well, the response it much better, which I prefer it that way. I hesitated putting on Otterbox's screen protector fearing that I would end up with a not so responsive screen. So I bit the bullet and well, I must say, the screen protector does it jobs well. Not only does the n8's display look crisp and bright, the responsiveness is still there. Only problem is when the n8 goes into auto screensaver more, do you see all the smudges from your dirty little fingers. And getting a conductive pen is not my cup of tea.

There problem now, is the raised edges from the casing which makes some area on the screen hard to register. This is very different from the 5800's resistive screen where you can get by with a poke from a toothpick or a pen's cover (I seldom use its stylus).