Pelican ProGear Voyager Review – iPhone 6/6 Plus

Design – Thinner than most tough cases (but just as tough!)

In terms of design, the Voyager, Pelican says it has a thin design and we’d have to generally agree. It’s no means close to your slimmer tough cases like the Thule Atmos X3 and Griffin Survivor Core but it’s definitely not as massive as the Ballistic Tough Jacket and Griffin Survivor All-Terrain.

Installation of the case is pretty simple but the screen protector needs to be thumbed on. Taking the case apart is fairly simple and when we were first using this case, we were worried that it would come apart quite easily which we’ll elaborate in a bit. In terms of build quality, the case holds up quite well as the rubber portion of the case is usually what makes contact with the surface. The polycarbonate corners do show a bit of scuffing if you purposely drop it on the corners.

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Protection – Just as tough as any other case

In terms of drop protection, Pelican makes it sound like it is incredibly tough. Their packaging has the words “Military Specifications” written on it a few times but it doesn’t tell you how high you can actually drop it. Now, Pelican products are usually known for their toughness but with the Voyageur, dropping it from this height, results in the case coming apart. That’s 3 ft, not even chest height. We thought it was just the case for the iPhone 6 version so we went and bought an iPhone 6 Plus version and we’re still not terribly confident about the drop protection of the case. There is a bit of damage on the 6 which will be covered by Pelican’s warranty.

Screen protection is decent as the edges of the Voyageur are incredibly high. Annoying high, we’d have to say. It does come with a plastic screen protector that is scratch resistant and it does hold up against keys but again, you have to thumb the install for it. You’ll also notice that the screen protector doesn’t quite fit too well as it’s too big for the case so the case actually lifts it off the iPhone.

In terms of water protection, this case isn’t waterproof and there are gaping holes everywhere for water to make contact with your iPhone. In terms of dust and debris, the Voyager does offer better protection as the ports are sealed by the plugs at the bottom of the case but it still allows sound and your voice to go through the case without much degradation which leads to the next part of the review, accessing your iPhone inside the case.

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Functionality – Access to the iPhone is lacking but the screen accessibility is really nice

We’ll be honest. Getting to your iPhone in this is where the Pelican ProGear Voyager falls flat on its face as getting to your iPhone becomes a little annoying after a while.

The buttons on this case are really tough tough to use so putting your iPhone to sleep or changing the volume, or taking pictures becomes quite frustrating. The design of the mute button access is a awkward since the flap moves up and down whereas accessing the mute switch is a push/pull motion so you end up having to move your hands a lot to do something that was incredibly simple before.

There are no issues getting to the camera (if you can press the buttons to take a picture) and the port cutouts are large enough to use larger than average headphone jacks and lightning cables like this Awesome Cable.

The edges of the case, despite providing great clearance for screen protection makes the edges a little tougher to get to. This is really noticeable on the iPhone 6 version of the case and less-so on the iPhone 6 Plus version.

In terms of screen viewability, if you’re using the included screen protectors, you’re going to be dealing with the bubbling due to the screen protector being too large. If you do get this case, W’d recommend getting a 3rd party screen protector. During this Pelican ProGear Voyager review period, we used a Tech Armor Ballistic Screen Protector that fit the high edges of the case perfectly.

Pelican does include two screen protectors so if you manage to scratch one of them and you get these bubbling artifacts, you can toss one without thinking about it much.

Now, the last part of this case is the belt holster that doubles as a stand which is nice. It allows you to view your iPhone in two different setup’s and in all honesty, this is one of the best parts of the Pro Gear voyageur which seems really silly to us. Especially for such an expensive case.
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