Like many people over the years, I too have been the victim of my own clumsiness and destroyed a phone by dropping it in the worst possible place. Given our increasing reliance on our mobile devices to remain connected to our friends and society via social media, now more than ever a destroyed mobile phone is a disaster for the user. This led me to look into cases that provide high level drop protection and I found Go Ballistic Australia.

Installation

The installation is very simple, a lot of users have previously use the gel skins that are available for many phones. You install one of these over the device, then clip on a plastic cover over the top of that which provides the impact protection to the device. The phone sits inside of the case well, with almost no chance of it popping under for whatever reason.

Appearance

The Ballistic SG cases we tested were black in colour and very easy on the eye for our black phones. The rubber backing and plastic casing are well designed so that they look good whilst maintaining total protection of your device when you drop it.

Size

Obviously for a case to protect your device, it’s quite thick but that’s the trade-off you make. There’s really not a lot more to say on the matter, it’s nearly doubled the thickness of my Nexus S — whilst this didn’t fuss me, it may fuss style-centric users, but that’s not the market these cases are aimed at.

Pro’s

  • Provide drop and impact protection (excluding direct impact to your screen) that in my experience with smart phones is far superior to anything I’ve seen or used before.
  • Designed to protect your screen from face down drops by having protruding edges on the rubber skin.

Con’s

  • The cases increase the size of your phone dramatically
  • The rubber skin sticks to the inside of your pockets which can make taking your device out of your pocket quite frustrating

Final Thoughts

While the size increase may bother some users, these cases are not aimed at your average users. They’re marketed towards users who are constantly in harsh working conditions, where the risk of damage to a fragile smartphone (whether it be Android, iOS, Blackberry or Simbian based) is high. For users such as this, the $40RRP investment to protect a $500+ phone is minimal and protects their device from most damage.

Due to the outdoor work I do in my spare time, when I finally bite the bullet and get myself a new phone I’ll be seriously looking at purchasing one of these to protect the phone. Being someone in their target market I’m impressed — it’s a great case.

    10 Comments
    newest
    oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Not impressed

    I ordered a cover almost 2 weeks ago and still haven’t received it. I also
    cannot find their website and their customer service email does not work…I contacted the US website to see if they can shed light on this. My cc has already been debited.

    Matt Prosser

    Ballistic case? Hows it go against a standard 9mm round?

    Carsten Bauer

    Ah well done Mini Phil… disrupting daddy’s video 🙂
    We hate listening to him too…

    Noone

    one of the most destructive forces known to man,
     you are so right,
    love the video,
     made me smile
    only problem i am still in the destructive phase,…
    so if i can i want ,need, must, have road/industrial/military spec ip 55 ip65 protection.
    last phone did not last 7 days before a 3 meter fall .
    glad it was only 38$
    but it lived !!!
     light weight saved it
    cheap phones may not have case avaible
     tho thank heaps

    Phil Tann

    what phone are you currently running?

    Stuart Beeby

    Talk about nerves of steel! 😀

    Phil Tann

    He’s a good boy 99% of the time, I kinda knew I’d never get a “clean” recording and that was only the second one.  All good and demonstrated my point.  If the feedback is generally good, might do it again for another review some day soon-ish

    Daniel Tyson

    lol, I think perhaps Alex should test the Gorilla Glass 2 screen 🙂

    Anthony Tran

    Ahhh dear. That video was hilarious!

    Geoff Fieldew

    That video is gold mate!