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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Needs Design Changes/Updates
By DR Conrad
After using this product for over a week I have noticed that it has a severe flaw with respect to the secondary battery in the Toughcase. After closely 36 uninterrupted hours of charging with an Apple 1000mAh charger, the Toughcase indicator reports only a single bar (out of four possible). After experimenting with compoundings to include disabling wi-fi and bluetooth and GPS, ensuring that the Toughcase GPS is swapped off, and even switching the iPhone off, the best I have gotten so far is two bars after over 24 hours of ceaseless charging; this is when the iPhone already has a 100% full charge mind you. The ONLY way I have been competent to get the Toughcase battery to charge to the full or entire extent is to remove the iPhone from the case and charge the case separately. Although the two do distinguished rather easily, it kind of defeats the point if you have to do this to charge each time.
The case has a good solid feel to it, and does take away from the portability of the iPhone, but I assumed that going into this and it is not a problem.
As others have mentioned, the retention clip does leave something to be desired.
One other loss of functionality that seemed a little buried was that the external headphone jack is only three conductor vice the four conductor necessitated to use external microphones and in-line remotes, I was disappointed but knew beforehand as well, but I do not see why it would be all that difficult to port that functionality from the dock connector interface to the external port.
I did not genuinely experience the O-Ring disturb that so a good deal of others have but I do see how that could occur easily. A simple application of mutual sense keeps everything in check on that issue.
I had perfectly no difficultnesses when speaking on the phone and respectively, none of the people I spoke to said that any audible alter was notable.
In conclusion I may tell you that the case has a good solid feel to it. I would trust it in a downpour but I would never submerge it; it might be up to the challenge but I am not more than willing to bet my phone on it. The battery is surely not the marketing point of this case, with my iPhone at 15% charge, I turned on the internal battery (no GPS, no wi-fi, no bluetooth) and was capable to charge the phone up to 94%, for all the hassle of charging and the size I want 100% plus charge. The external GPS added a modicum of accuracy to GPS navigation. I think this product needs a little reworking before it merits the $180-$200 price tag. If all goes well, perchance a second gen will be just the ticket, until then I am returning this and sticking with my otterbox defender.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
A will have to have for explorers...
By nycyclemonkey
I decisive to buy the Magellan Tough Case for my 3rd generation ipod touch after much exploration and debate. The debate was because of the hefty price, which was made a little better on Amazon as I did save regarding $20.00. I closely purchased DualShocks gps cradle, but when you element in the fact that the Tough Case provides shelter from closely anything you may throw at it, battery charging, and GPS capability, the decision was an easy one to make. I have had it for one week now, and it has already impressed me. I travel a lot by bike, and love attempting to get to new and unexplored locatings on my bike. This case has turned my ipod touch in to the extreme travel companion. Now I have music, route mapping (with proper apps from itunes store), gps, wifi, video to watch when I want and extended battery life. Wonderful. The only set backs I see are two.
1) The Tough Case is rather big, but not so much so that it becomes cumbersome. I have a Camelbak which I use on my bike rides which comes with a pocket for ipods. The Tough Case with my ipod in it fits utterly in that little pocket. Besides, the size adds to the protective quality of the case.
2) The initial time I used it, it was charged almost fully, and then I took it out for a 35 mile bike run. I had it running almost the entire time playing music, running two apps, and acting as a battery charger. With all this, the Tough Case lasted in regards to 4 hours, which to me seemed a bit short. There is a way to choose amid having the gps on or off, which may help lengthen the battery life of the case, but the main reason I purchased it was for the gps, so I won't be doing that.
I highly commend this product if you own an ipod, like to travel, and want accurate, easy navigation. I likewise highly commend downloading the Navigon app from the itunes store. It's a bit expensive, but part of the reason the ipod now works so well as a navigation system. Basically, it gave me voice navigation while on my bike. Just plan your route, commence the navigation, and you are off.
Sweet!
5 of 5 persons found the following review helpful.
Good as weatherproof case and battery but not to improve GPS
By Juan Sanabria
We ordered this case and tested it in a huge outdoor garden in an venture to improve GPS reception with a fleet of iPhones. The GPS chip included with the iphone is rather weak and we were hoping this would fetch accuracy down to less than 15m. We tested it using the iPhone 3GS running iOS 3.1 and again running 4.1
After testing we noticed various things:
Pros:
The case feels lasting and the further and added battery is unquestionably a plus. I would suggest the case for an individual who wanted a rugged outdoor case to use in all weather and who needs extended battery life.
Cons:
The GPS reception was not noticeably improved. We tested it alongside another iphone that was not in the magellan case and the positioning was identical. The one divergence was that it seemed to sample GPS position more oftentimes nonetheless the stated position was commonly the same as the bare iPhone and oftentimes not better than 20m accuracy.
Buttons near the sides of the screen are difficult to press because the inside edge where the case and screen protector meet is thick and not beveled enough.
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