Windows Phone Thoughts: Now You See It: Proporta Crystal Case for the iPAQ 2200 and 1900

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Monday, May 3, 2004

Now You See It: Proporta Crystal Case for the iPAQ 2200 and 1900

Posted by Anthony Caruana in "HARDWARE" @ 10:00 AM


Vital Statistics
OK, before I start I better confess; I’m a case junkie. At any given time I’ll be switching between three or four different cases for Spike, my iPAQ 2210. Also, although the Proporta Crystal Case is available for other iPAQs, my comments will mainly be about the Crystal Case for the iPAQ 2210.

The Crystal Case promises to deliver plenty for a very reasonable price. Amongst its key features are:

  • shatterproof
  • shock absorbent
  • completely clear (ideal for use with GPS systems)
  • cutouts give access to stylus, ports and controls
  • secure closure catch prevents accidental opening
  • double hinge allows case to be folded through 360 degrees
In order to see if this case would live up to its promise of protecting Spike while keeping it accessible I used the Crystal Case exclusively for a few days.

Using the Crystal Case

There’s a lot to like about this protective cocoon. The iPAQ is very securely held in place. The Crystal Case takes advantage of the two small indentations on the back of the 2210. Once secured I was not able to remove the 2210 easily. I shook the case and tried to dislodge my iPAQ but was not able to.


Figure 1: The small lugs inside the case hold the 2210 securely in place.

With the iPAQ firmly locked into place, you can easily access all of the Pocket PC’s buttons and controls. Once I’d started Microsoft Reader I was able to change pages easily and the clear front made it easy to read the screen.


Figure 2: As you can see, it's easy to read the screen with the Crystal Case closed. My screen is also covered by a Pocket PC Techs Writeshield.

There are well placed cutouts for the power button, soft reset, headphone jack and the internal speaker.




Figures 3, 4 and 5: Cutouts are well placed to give access to all the iPAQ's control buttons.

Extracting the stylus is the most difficult operation. The case has a small slider that is used to push the stylus out of its slot. While this worked fairly well, I managed to pop the slider out of its slot and had to replace it.


Figure 6: The small slider for extracting the stylus is OK, but I did manage to pop it out once. Also, it doesn't quite push the stylus out far enough to make it easy to grab that little plastic stick.

Access to Spike’s dual slots was reasonable. For users of CF peripherals, the CF slot is well exposed. This is particularly handy if you use a CF GPS receiver as you'll be able to view the screen easily and have the case closed.


Figure 7: It's easy to access the 2210's CF, even with the Crystal Case closed. However, you won't be able to access the SD slot.

My biggest issue with the cutouts in the top section is that access to the headphone socket was quite tight. Plugging my headphones in was not as easy as I'd have liked, with the side of the headphone jack beinght right against the cut out.

The base of the case provides access to the charge and sync connector. I was able to connect a sync cable but you won’t be able to use your cradle. In fact, I was not even able to use my HP foldable keyboard.


Figure 8: Access to charge and sync port was easy with the Crystal Case.

The dual hinge design makes it possible to flip the lid completely behind your iPAQ. However, I didn’t do this often as I found that the case was uncomfortable to hold like this as the edges were quite hard.

However, the sides of the case have a series of grooves, aiding the case's gripability.


Figure 9: The groover on the side of the Crystal Case make it easy to hold.

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