Ballistic corners make a big difference for these 6ft drop-rated cases
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Ballistic Urbanite and Jewel Review – Ballistic cases are a little different. Which is a good thing!
Today we’re going to do a review of the Ballistic Jewel and the Ballistic Urbanite. Specifically, the Ballistic Jewel Mirage and Ballistic Urbanite Select! Ooooh! Fancy!
Both of these cases are relatively light, grippy, and both gave me a sense of Deja Vu as the shapes of the cases are quite reminiscent of the original Urbanite that we reviewed a couple of years ago. The best part of these Ballistic cases is the one-handed handling it offers for your devices.
For our Ballistic Urbanite and Jewel Review, we’ve given the Ballistic Jewel Mirage a score of 4.2 Eh’s out of 5 and the Urbanite a score of 4 Eh’s out of 5. But there is a disclaimer to these scores because the Urbanite, despite being scored lower the Mirage is #3 on our Top 10 list for the S7 and the Jewel Mirage doesn’t even reach the top 15.
It seems silly, but we updated the scoring system for the S7, so they are graded a little differently.
If you need a bit more info about the original Urbanite, check out the full review. If you want to know what the best cases that we’ve reviewed, check out our top 10 lists for the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S7!
Click here for the full review table for the Jewel mirage and the here for the Urbanite Select.
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Design – Ballistic corners make a big difference
The design of the Jewel Mirage and Urbanite Select are quite large around the corners. in fact, these extra large corners are called Ballistic Corners! Both aren’t as rigid as the regular Urbanite but its something you’ll only notice if you don’t have a device in both cases. The Jewel Mirage is a transparent case with the design on the Mirage being etched on by lasers! The back of the Mirage doesn’t have a lot of texture but the rubber edges and Ballistic corners make up for the the slickness.
The Urbanite Select that was sent to us is the leather version, and it makes the Galaxy S7 feel quite nice though it isn’t as grippy as the Jewel again, the Ballistic Corners still makes handling of the S7 decent.
We had issues with certain aspects of the build quality on the original Urbanite, but it looks like they’ve addressed them in these cases as you can’t see how the pieces are fused together. Both cases wear well over time.
Protection – Ballistic corners filled with air?
For iPhone/Galaxy S protection, as you saw in our review video, you can easily drop your device from 6 ft if you wanted to. The Jewel Mirage is a little different than the other cases as there is a large air pocket in the corners that provides that shock absorption which is something Spigen (Spigen S7) does as well as the Evolutive Labs.
The edges of the case are quite high, in fact, they are some of the highest edges of any case and will keep your devices screen off a flat surface. Both cases fit tightly around the device so you won’t have to worry about dust/debris scratching up your device.
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Functionality – One-handed usage of your device is top notch!
Getting to your iPhone or Galaxy S, both cases offer large cutouts so you can easily use whatever-sized USB, Lightning or headphone cables. The buttons on the case are easy to press, but the high edges on the case will be noticeable when you’re QP-ing during a text or email.
The Ballistic corners have enough texture to them which prevents them from easily sliding around on a flat surface. The last thing to note is that edge to edge screen protectors won’t work with these cases.
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