Otterbox Defender vs Commuter vs Symmetry – iPhone 6 Cases

Design – Slim or Rugged, none of these cases are sleek like the iPhone 6

Between these three cases, the Defender is the thickest case followed by the Symmetry and Commuter. Out of these three cases, the Commuter handles the best only because the edges of the case are rounded like the iPhone 6. The Symmetry’s edge make a bit more difficult to use with one hand.

The quality of materials on the Symmetry are a notch above the Defender and the Commuter. The rubber sleeve on the Commuter stretches out quite a bit so dust and debris can easily fall between the case and the iPhone. The Defender will suffer in a similar manner as previous generations of the Defenders have as the rubber shell will slowly stretch out overtime, the port covers might fall/get torn off easily and there design doesn’t prevent dust/debris from entering the case cavity.

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Protection – The Otterbox Defender is a tough case…if you clean it.

In terms of protection, Otterbox doesn’t rate any of these cases to a specific Mil-Spec which is shame since they claim that they are tough cases but we can’t really say. Out of the three cases, the only case that we’ve tested in terms of drop protection is the Otterbox Defender. We’re giving Otterbox the benefit of the doubt by saying it will protect your iPhone from 6.6 ft drops but in our drop test, we threw in 40 ft in the air. The iPhone 6 is fine though a little bent.

In terms of water and dust protection, none of the cases are waterproof and only the Commuter and Defender offer dust protection but the poor design and build quality of these cases negates their dust protection in our opinion.

For screen protection, the only two Otterbox cases that come with screen protectors are the Commuter and Defender. The Commuter is sticky screen protector where the Defender is built into the case. We will note that during our 40 ft drop of the Defender, the iPHone 6 landed screen first on a gravel parking lot and the iPhone 6 screen did not shatter.

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Functionality – The case that has the worse built quality is the one that offers the best iPhone functionality

In our Otterbox Defender vs Commuter vs Symmetry comparison, we’re going to tell you that the case we don’t recommend is the case that provides the easiest access to your iPhone. The Symmetry and Defender had volume and power buttons that were a little more difficult to use. Every one of the cases allows you to access your hardware ports easily and use third party cables and headphones with the your iPhone 6.

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