After over a week of delicately shuffling my new Pre from one carefully-emptied pocket to another, fiddling with the supplied faux-leather sleeve, etc., I ordered up a skin and holster. Then I ordered another.
I tried out a few at Best Buy, and they all sucked. Unlike the otherwise brick-like iPhone or Blackberry, the curvy and sliding Pre is hard to wrap a useful protective surface around. I went back to the internet, read a slew of reviews, and ordered the Seidio Innocase Surface sleeve and Innocase Holster from pre|central.
The Surface sleeve is great. I got mine in flat black; the exact same shade/texture as the Pre Touchstone back cover. The cover snaps on in two pieces with these tiny precise tabs, no problem. The cover works well enough with the Touchstone; the magnetic attraction is a bit diminished (the phone sometimes needs an additional nudge to find “home”), but the charging seems to work just as well as without the cover.
The Innocase holster I got is the one specifically made to fit the Pre with the Surface cover attached. This combination has pros and cons:
The screen is very protected, as the extra .6mm of the cover keeps the screen from making any contact with the already-felt-protected face of the holster.
However, the spring clip of the holster bumps over/around the cutouts on the top of the cover, by the power, mute slider, and audio port. No marks on the cover or phone yet, but the action is less smooth than otherwise.
The belt clip on the holster is very good: positive rotating detents, strong clip spring, and a pronounced hook on the clip. This will not fall off your pants.
The sole major failing of the holster is in the way the retaining clip is attached to the body of the holster; with the Pre removed from the holster, the empty holster is a Snag-O-Matic seatbelt- coat- door- and countetopr-grabbing Claw of Self-Destruction, and the retaining clip only lasted me two days before snapping off. It is simultaneously perfectly designed to hold the Pre securely when in place, and woefully unable to withstand any other stress with the Pre removed.
However, everything else is so good, I couldn’t help but immediately order an exact replacement from pre|central, who, by the way, have provided me with nothing but quick, simple, and direct service. I’m trying my best to be more careful with the new holster…
