Seidio Active for Nexus 4 Review:
I’ll start off by saying I’ve had this case for 3 consecutive smartphones over a year and some and there is a reason for that: It’s pretty much everything you’d want in a heavy duty smartphone case. I used it on my Evo 3D, my Galaxy Note LTE and now on the Nexus 4 and I don’t see this changing once I pick up a Note 2 as my secondary device in a few weeks when my tax return shows up.
If you’re not familiar with how the Active works it’s a soft polymer interior case and an exoskeleton that goes over it and has the kickstand built in. The Exoskeleton comes in black, white, red, amethyst and blue. I went for the blue for the first time and I’m glad I did, coming from the white and black models previously. It really adds a little bit of excitement to the case for me.
The polymer part of the case has a soft sort of gel feeling to it without being sticky feeling and the blue exoskeleton has a matte soft touch feel. From experience the white model is shiny and more plastic feeling while the black and blue (and I’ll assume the red and amethyst as well) have this matte soft touch material.
As you can see in the picture the exoskeleton covers the corners and from experience you can pretty much throw this thing at a brick wall with zero consequences. I doubt you’ll find a more protective case on the market outside of some sort of waterproof case, which I don’t think they even make for the Nexus 4 at this point.
Now to the kickstand, which is a BFD for me. My first Android device was the Evo 4G so I’ve needed a kickstand added to every device I’ve used since then. The kickstand on the Active does have it’s ups and downs though, as it doesn’t work in portrait as the kickstand on the Evo LTE does, and it feels a little loose when it’s pulled out. It also protrudes from the case keeping it from laying flat if you put it down on a table or something, though I tend to put out the kickstand whenever I put it on a table anyways, so it’s not remotely a deal breaker. I do hope they take some cues from the Evo LTE on future models though and have it flush with the case and strong enough to work in portrait orientation.
To wrap things up I’d like to add that I wasn’t sure I’d want to use a case on this phone because of how luxurious the Nexus 4 feels nude, with the glass back and the curved edges on the front of the screen, but I think I was wrong here. Somehow Seidio made this case in such a way that it still feels like some sort of expensive exclusive 1% device with the materials that they’re using. This isn’t to say I won’t take it off on occasion around the house but I can see myself using this one case, as I did with my previous phones, for the life of the device. Highly recommended.
