Today we’re going to take a closer look at the Fantom Five case for the iPhone 5 and 5S. This case does a few things differently when compared to similar waterproof/shockproof cases which is a good a thing. This case was suggested to us by one of our viewers, Pogo Kilogramm so thank you for finding it and letting us know. We reached out to Fantom and they were awesome enough to send us a review case. I’m excited to do this review because we don’t see many waterproof and shockproof cases outside of the normal LifeProof and Otterbox cases.
The Fantom Five iPhone 5/5S case is a waterproof iPhone case up to a depth of 3 m or 10 ft and droppable from 2m or 6ft. Based on these specs, the Fantom Five provides just as much drop protection as your standard LifeProof and Otterbox cases but can go deeper than both by an extra meter or 3 ft. This case does look a lot similar to the Survivor+Catalyst case made by griffin with it’s clear polycarbonate case.
Right off the bat, there are a couple of interesting features such as the safety lock which I will talk about in a bit, and the built-in rail slides for mounting to a variety of different things. You also get to choose from a fine selection of 4 rubber colorers bumpers to customize the look of your case and if you’re need some sort of drumming instrument, you might be able to get away with using this case as a percussion instrument. More on that in a bit.
The Fantom Five iPhone 5/5S case is clear and quite light. Taking it apart is quite simple, you unlock the safety latch and pull. The top of the case, which is most of the case, has a black rubber bumper that travels along the entire case. There is a membrane that covers the ear piece speaker and Fantom calls this the “Clear Voice Membrane”. I will note that the front of case the case is very clean in the sense that there aren’t other cutouts for the other sensors since it’s clear.
The screen protector, or high tech foil, as Fantom calls it feels pretty tight and thin but from our accidental drop, it’s fairly tough. I say it’s tight because it sounds like a drum when you tap it. Actually, the whole case sounds “tight” so if you need you can definitely use this as a percussion instrument. I suggest you check out our water test video for the Fantom Five. You can find it in the video annotations at the end.
The case is not Touch ID compatible so you won’t be able to use that feature of the iPHone 5S. If you want to know if this case is still waterproof after this accidental drop, The screen protector does have little dots on it and these dots eliminate the rain bowing effect that plagues other cases like the LifeProof Fre. You can’t see these dots when your screen is on.
I’ll add that the Fantom Five iPhone 5/5S case is big enough to accompany a screen protector. Fantom says that it will accommodate most screen protectors but stay away from the thicker ones such as the tempered glass screen protectors.
Along the edges of the case, the area where the Fantom Five mounts to is recessed a bit. In additional to it being functional, it provides extra texture to the case. The volume buttons are quite easy to access, in fact the Fantom Five has done a great job with the buttons as it still provides that satisfying click when you press the button. It’s the same for the Power button.
I will mention that the case will not allow you to access your mute switch which is something we’re seeing a lot more with rugged/waterproof cases.
The backside of the case is completely clear which allows you to show off the color of your iPhone and is quite thick. The camera is covered with a highgloss, polished PC lens and the black rubber around the flash is to prevent any sort of backflash reflections in your pictures.
Now the entire Fantom Five case is held together by the safety lock mechanism at the bottom. The safety lock latches onto the hooks at the bottom of the top part of the case. The safety lock is pretty unique with the only other case that has something similar is the Incipio Atlas ID which has a plastic diaper. You won’t be able to charge your iPhone in this case with the safety lock installed as the locking mechanism is there instead. Locking the case is fairly simple as all you have to flick this switch.
You can access the headphone jack of your iPhone but if you have anything bigger than your stock EarPods, you’re going to need to use the headphone jack extension. I do have to mention that the extension isn’t waterproof, only splash-proof.
Now, unlike the “Clear Voice Membrane” for the ear piece speaker, there isn’t a membrane for the speaker at the bottom of the case. In fact, the area right below the speaker is solid plastic so the speaker sound is going to be very muted. Now there is a similar membrane for the microphone so taking and receiving calls shouldn’t be much of a problem. If you want to know how muted the sound is, check out the full review for the case. Links are at the end of the video. The only padded part of the case can be found on the inside of the bottom half of the case. There is a bit of foam that holds the iPhone in place.
Now, I’m pretty impressed with the safety lock mechanism. The Fantom Five iPhone 5/5S case is one of the few cases that does something different at the bottom of their case and from my initial impression, it works. The only thing that I’m concerned about is the droppability of the safety latch which we’ll find out during our drop test.
