If you haven't dropped a phone and smashed it, you know someone that has. The hardest thing about owning a smartphone, it seems, is keeping it away from pesky surfaces like cement and asphalt.
Tech21 is a company that believes it has the solution, and in a form factor that won't turn your svelte smartphone into something resembling the original portable phones of the late 90's. It calls this product line Impactology, and while that sounds like one of 'those' marketing buzz words designed to make things sound more 'science-y', there is some science in play here that deserves a cool name.
The secret to these cases is a rubbery polymer called D3O. It was first designed to protect snowboarders from head injuries, is now used in motorcycle helmets, military flak jackets (along with several layers of kevlar) and can be wrapped around your phone to save it from a drop.
D3O is kind of difficult to describe. It sort of like the toy 'Gak' (if you remember it), a sticky, rubbery substance that is really malleable in the hand, but stiffens with an impact. This is due to the molecules in that make up the polymer, and the way they are loosely connected regularly, but then tighten to a lattice-like formation when struck.
What's remarkable is how little D3O is needed in a phone case. In the Tech21 flip-cover style cases there is a thin sheet of it laid in the inside of the shell, and with its standard soft-style covers, there is a 2mm strip running around the edge of the case. This is enough of the polymer to absorb the shock of a fall, and while Tech21 doesn't guarantee that it will protect your phone, it does believe it will save a phone from smashing in a majority of circumstances.
If you're keen to see a Tech21 case for yourself, they are available through Apple, Harvey Norman and Vodafone.
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