Gear4 Holborn Review iPhone 11

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At MREH, Monty and I have majors in iOS accessory reviewing and a minor in history. Did you know Zagg now owns Gear4? And that was a fairly recent acquisition since I know that Gear4 was in a bit of trouble in 2019.

The Gear4 Holborn is a simple case. Nothing fancy about it BUT it works which at the end of the day is probably the most important part of a iPhone case. The edges of the case are tight though I am mildly on the fence about the corners. The bottom of the case drops a little bit which isn’t great.

The case won’t slide around on the front or the back and the case will add around 40g to your iPhone 11. Now the slim design part of the marketing fluff my convince you that 40g’s is light but remember, the Casetify Ultra impact with it’s giant corners only weighs 3g’s more.

My only concern with the Gear4 Holborn is the wear and tear. On a daily basis, the soft rubber coating is going to showcase your face grease a lot. It’s just going to be very smudgy, all the time.

On a non-daily basis, the occasional drop on a non flat surface is going to scuff up the coating which is going to be very evident on this black case. It may not be as bad on the lighter Lilac colored case. This case also comes in burgundy which is a neat color.

The standout feature of the case is the texture. The soft-rubber finish is great BUT the cherry on top of this soft-rubber sundae is tiny bit of glossy material along the front edge of the case. There’s enough of it that it gives your fingers a tiny extra bit of traction when you’re using the phone in one hand.

When it comes to using my iPhone in the case, I had no issues with the port or the camera cutout. The mute switch is accessible though the buttons on the case are a little stiff for my liking.

My biggest issue when it comes to usability are the edges. This case isn’t slimmer than others at 81-ish mm but the edges are quite high and are noticeable when swiping from side to side.

The high edges also exposes the iPhone a bit more. The distance between the case edge and the 2.5D screen protector I have on this iPhone 11 is 3mm’s. On the Griffin Survivor Endurance it’s 2mm. On the Catalyst Impact, it’s 1.7mm.

This won’t matter if you get a 3D screen protector BUT most double tempered screen protectors aren’t 3D. The only extend slightly past the viewable area.

One of the things that I thought was neat about this case was the layer of material on the inside of the case. Most premium cases will have a microfiber liner to trap dust and debris whereas the Holborn almost has a memory foam like material. I’m assuming that’s d3O material? Thought I’d point that out.

Now this case claims to have 13ft worth of drop protection between the Polycarbonate shell and D3O stuff on the inside. Now the last Gear4 case I dropped from about 10ft didn’t do much for the iPhone screen. Technically, that’s not Gear 4’s fault since none of the iPhone that hit the ground was actually protected by the case.

It’s going to be the same for this case. There’s a good chance that I’m going to drop it from less than 13 ft in a generally face first manner and the screen protector on my iPhone 11 is going to break.

Also, before I get Val to scuff this case up a bit, I am wonder, will the Polycarbonate shell crack as easily as the Speck case did? Also, Gear4 wants you to know that the Polycarbonate is as used in bullet proof glass.
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