Power Support Crystal Jacket Set for iPhone

Power Support’s $30 Crystal Jacket Set for iPhone () is another in that long line of time-honored combinations: a clear plastic iPhone case paired with belt holster.

Like many of its ilk, the Crystal Jacket comprises two pieces—front and back—that snap together with the iPhone in the middle. Power Support includes a thin, static-adhesive screen protector, but the screen is not protected by the case itself. There are openings for the headphone jack and the Sleep/Wake button on the top of the case; for the camera on the back; for the volume controls and Ring/Silent switch on the left side; and one for the microphone, speaker, and dock-connector port on the bottom. A small slit in the plastic lets you use the receiver speaker and there’s a cut-out in the front of the case for access to the Home button.

Once you’ve got the iPhone in the case, you can pop the whole thing into the included holster. From my tests, it seems that the holster prefers you to orient the phone with the screen facing in. You can make it work with the screen facing out, but there’s definite resistance to that direction. The belt clip rotates 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise, and though the clip itself feels a little flimsy, it held up well enough in my everyday use. The case itself is pretty slim; it doesn’t add a a lot of bulk to the phone.

The only problem I ran into the with Crystal Jacket was that when I put the case into the holster, one corner of the case would catch on one of the holster’s brackets, pulling the two halves of the case apart slightly. It may have been a slight imperfection in the particular unit I was testing, but it wasn’t a huge problem; the solution was just to push it a little more firmly, and the case would snap back together and into the holster.

Other than that minor glitch, though, the Crystal Jacket Set is a decent entry in the hardshell/holster lineup, though it’s perhaps a little pricey for the rather barebones features that it offers.