With all the fancy (and often expensive) new phones coming out, many people worry about theirs breaking, getting scratched up, etc., and this is a good reason to have a phone case. For a lot of people, being able to have the phone at your hip via a belt clip is also advantageous. Last week, I got a couple cell phone cases with belt clips in the mail to review from FoneGear.

Originally, I was just going to review an Arizona Cardinals case from their NFL line, but they carry more than just the NFL phone cases, so I also grabbed a Michigan case for my friend Greg and a wall charger for my iPhone. As a side note, if you visit the site looking for your team and don’t see it, refresh the page and you’ll get more teams to show up.

NFL themed cases

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the box was the rugged exterior of the Cardinals phone case. As with just about any case, if you throw it on the ground, your delicate phone may suffer, but this thing will protect your phone in the event of a small drop. For that matter, this thing could probably stop knife, though I didn’t try that. The case, itself, consists of two pieces of what feels like leather. The pieces are thick and rugged with a definite texture to them for a good grip. It’s held together with elastic to make a good fit to any bar or flip phone, which is good because it doesn’t help much if your phone falls out of the case.

On the back of this case is a belt clip with swivel and quick release. The swivel is designed so that it doesn’t move around freely, but has stopping points that require some actual intent to get past. This keeps the phone from swiveling all over while you’re walking or running. Some cases swivel freely and although it’s not the end of the world or anything, it’s nicer if they don’t. The quick release is positioned in the right place and releases smoothly when you want it to but keeps your phone in place all other times. The case slides up out of the clip, so even if you accidentally hit the release, you’re fine unless it’s in the middle of a kart wheel or hand stand. The clip was the only part of this case that I think could use improvement. While it holds well (really well, actually), that’s at the cost of not being very easy to clip on. It just doesn’t open wide enough to make it an easy operation with one hand.

At $12.99, these cases cost a lot less than some others without any less quality. It was definitely less than I expected them to cost.

Collegiate smartphone cases

The second case I got was a little different. This one was from the Collegiate series of cell phone cases for smart phones and the logo wasn’t the only difference. While slightly less rugged and textured, this case was still really thick and almost as durable. It looked a little nicer than the Cardinals case (for my tastes, anyway) and seemed well-suited for a smart phone. Of course, I threw my iPhone in it right away and it fit snugly. Both cases have a soft inner lining. This is more important with this case because smartphones generally have their screen exposed.

Like the Cardinals case, this one has a swiveling belt clip and like the previous case, this one swivels only with intent. That is to say, you have to pretty much try to make it move for it to move. Again, this is a good thing. One difference with the belt clip is that this one is more of a pressure clip as opposed to the previous phone’s spring clip. Instead of pinching with two fingers to open it like a clothespin, this one just slides onto your belt or the edge of your pocket, car visor, etc. Normally, I would say that makes it more likely to come loose from your belt, etc., but in this case, it has a firm grip, so that doesn’t seem like a concern. Additionally, this case comes with a snapping loop. With this loop, the case could be attached to a purse, stroller, etc. and just hangs as if it were on a key ring. It’s nice to have options.

At $19.90 (some are $19.99), this case offered a little bit more for a price closer to what I’ve seen with most holster cases.

More cases, chargers, etc.

While I was shopping, I figured I’d get something else that I need, and that’s a good wall outlet charger for my iPhone. There’s really not a lot of features to talk about on a wall charger. The questions here are of price and base functionality. Of course, the most important of the two is the functionality. This charger does what it’s supposed to, so that part of the equation is good. As for the price of $29, this was comparable to other chargers of its quality. There are cheaper chargers, but many of them even look cheaper. In the end, I’ll pay a few bucks more for to feel more comfortable with a better charger.

Ordering experience
Ordering on the site was pretty painless. FoneGEAR has a decent shopping cart and most things were pretty easy to find and add to my cart. The one quirk was the listing of NFL phone cases in that it seems to only list 12 at a time and they are randomly chosen from a much more complete set. I’d prefer to see an alphabetized list. Completing the purchase was pretty straight-forward and everything arrived pretty fast and well-packaged.

Conclusions
I’d love to see more options like the Arizona Cardinals case for a smartphone, but they also have a lot of styles I didn’t mention like NBA, foneGIRL and foneSTAR, to name a few. For the most part, if you’re looking for a new phone case, you should be able to find something you’ll like. They also carry other accessories, gps cases, laptop cases, etc., so there’s a chance you’ll wind up buying more than just a phone case like I did.

The prices were generally pretty good, but they’re having a sale right now, too. At the time of this writing, everything is 20% off, AND they are also offering free shipping on orders over $35.

And because I know you love contests, I can’t forget to tell you about the one FoneGear is having. You can read the official rules, but it all boils down to a simple tweet. Anyone can enter by following @foneGEAR on Twitter and Tweeting out a message containing their favorite NFL or NCAA team with the hashtag #foneGEAR and a link back to this post! Enter today for your chance at some gear for your phone.

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