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Hard Candy touts its tough-looking ShockDrop case as being “Construction-site approved.” We tried taking the case to a construction site to test that theory, but workers there said we were trespassing, so you’ll have to take Hard Candy’s word for it.
In any case, the three-piece design does offer substantial protection for your iPhone 5. Installing it involves snapping your phone into a plastic frame that features a screen cover, then wriggling the whole thing into a silicone case with a rigid ring around the camera opening. It’s not terribly difficult, but it’s more work than we’d like to do too often, with all the little ridges and edges that need to be snapped into alignment for a proper fit.
The covered buttons and bottom port make the phone a tiny bit more cumbersome to operate, but that’s to be expected for this level of protection. Thankfully the screen cover doesn’t hinder screen sensitivity, but even in our “definitely not a construction site” home office, it quickly gathered dust on the inside, requiring a complete removal of the case in order to clean it. Neatniks will want to keep that in mind.
The bottom line. If you need rugged, all-over protection, the Hard Candy ShockDrop cloaks your phone in forgiving silicone.
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