Speck SkinTight Case for Trēo 750 quick review

What I most like about the physical looks of my Trēo™ 750v is its silver lining that circles around the screen and the navigation buttons, the shiny reflective buttons also add the contrast of its dark-blue colored body.

These are what really captured my sight whenever I lay my eyes on Trēo™, the buttons are so charming and easy to use. And the soft-paint finish of Trēo™ body also makes it so comfortable to hold, such a pleasure to touch and to utilize it.

But all of those goodness above come with their own disadvantages; the shiny looking navigation buttons along with the D-pad button paint will begin to fade after frequent use, and the soft-paint finish of the body is easy to attract dust while in pocket or on desk and it also easy chipped off against sharp objects such as keys.

Then again, the worst case scenario for any mobile devices is to be dropped by accident. This would be a nightmare for any mobile users, to see their beloved device to meet and greet the hard concrete below. I’m not exactly a clumsy clown like the one you love to laugh at the circus, but hey bad things happened and most likely we can’t predict nor prevent them from happening. The only thing we can do is to be prepared, like the saying goes: bring an umbrella before it rains.

So I thought it would be best to protect my Trēo™ with a skin that fits the contour of its body so I’ll have both protection and don’t lose its usefulness at the same time, as I was scouring for days in the internet looking for the best skin case, Sammy posted a news at PalmAddict that May C. from PalmDiscovery is opening up a contest to win Speck Products SkinTight Cases for Treo 700/750/755/680.

I gave it a shot, and what do you know? I won a case, and May C. is so generous to shipped it to my little country, she even paid the extra shipping cost and after the long wait the package arrived safely here few weeks ago. I immediately put it on and tried it right away, and here’s my take of the white colored SkinTight Case:

The SkinTight Case

The name says it all, it tightly embraces my Trēo™ inside. Being a new rubber skin case, it gives me a hard time sliding in the Trēo™. But after a few push and a heart ache watching my Trēo™ toughly get inside the case, the two of them finally get along just fine and the struggle is definitely worth a try.

My first impression is my Trēo™ look like being wrapped with iced milk topping, like you used to see of a decoration on the top of a chocolate donut. ~LOL~ It does however add a bit more bulk, and my Trēo™ feels more chubby but sturdy.

There are cuttings on the SkinTight Case, specially designed to create opening for Trēo’s functions & features such as the screen, keyboard, stylus, camera, jacks, etc. Not all of the cuttings are laid on perfectly; like for instances the LED indicator light hole misses just few inches, so is the hole for the earpiece, and I noticed the molding for the call+Windows Start and OK+end call buttons are mismatch in length size of the real buttons.

While on the back of the case, there’s a cool Speck name & logo. And on the right & left side, there are 5 stripes to enhance the grip on the case (click on the right side picture to enlarge it) which personally I think add more style to the plain back cover of the Trēo™ itself.

And as you can see on the right side picture there, the SkinTight Case doesn’t provide opening for the expansion card slot. But this is not a big problem, since mine is a Windows Mobile-powered Trēo™ that requires turning off the device before swapping the miniSD card. The SkinTight Case also covers up the infrared port, so there may some difficulties when using it.

The SkinTight Case rubber material really feel sticky in hand, and putting it inside pockets is not a good idea, because I have to push it harder into my jeans pocket and sometimes it got stuck in the half way. When I pulled it out of the pocket (also need an extra effort), the dust inside is all over the case, this probably is because of the sticky rubber material. Well, at least this can be a good way to clean up your jeans pocket for once in a while. ;-p

So the best way to carry it is with the holster which comes along with the SkinTight Case, that’s the good news. The bad news is there are shortcomings of how the holster is designed:

The SkinTight Holster

Now the rubber skin case itself has been very useful and quite enjoyable to use, but the SkinTight holster is a different story. It is made of strong plastic in transparent black color, there are two clips on the top to secure and release the Trēo™, but because it’s made of strong plastic material then I found it hard to place my Trēo™ in it and to pull it off with one hand. There are times where I almost dropped my Trēo™ because both of my hands were trying to open up the clips…

The SkinTight Holster only allows the Trēo™ to be put inside with the screen facing at front, I gotta admit this is good for showing off my Trēo, but not so good for protecting the screen if I accidentally bumped it in a crowd or against sharp angled desk. And this design also limits the sound of the ringtone whenever there are calls, text messages or emails coming in. --click on the left side picture to enlarge it--

The holster’s alligator clip to hang it onto my belt is very comfy to use, not too stiff and can be opened at ease. Another good thing about the alligator clip is its 360° mechanism which is easy to adjust, this really helps when my two hands are prying the Trēo™ out from the holster.

Last thoughts

For every Palm Trēo™ owners out there, this Speck SkinTight Case is an exceptional option to protect their Trēos and make it long lasting for extended of heavy use. But the additional bit of bulk because of the skin itself may become the biggest obstacle to choose between protection or the natural good looking of the Trēo™.

Honestly, I missed how strikingly appealing is the look of my naked Trēo™ without the skin case. But I don’t want to risk seeing the paint on it to fade, or if I accidentally scratched the body, so I’ll go with Speck SkinTight Case to guard my precious Trēo™ 750v from the cruelty of the world… and from myself. ~LOL~

* Special note: Once again I’d like to thank May C. from PalmDiscovery for the white colored Speck SkinTight Case for Trēo™ 750, and I just simply want to say this for those who don’t believe in great giveaways like she and Sammy who throws them so often at PalmAddict: “It is real, and I really-really received the goods/prizes. And this is the proof! Believe it, and keep your heads up cause you could be next!” ;-D