Case Logic do a PDA Slip Case which is just the right size to slide a Nokia N800 into. For people living in the UK, you can get them from Pixmania for the bargain price of £6 (and the not so bargainous price of £5 postage
).
In the true blogging style, I shall do a mini review of the various cases I’ve tried and include action shots
So first up is the Case Logic case, which looks like this:
As you can see, there’s a little loop of bungee cord to stop things sliding out. This is better than a flap as it means the N800 can be charged while in the case. The whole thing is made of some sort of fake leather and contains hard inserts in the front and back parts, and should help protect the screen of your Nokia from damage. I once smashed a walkman by walking into a table so I’m quite paranoid about delicate and expensive technology.
It might provide limited protection should your precious tech fall out your pocket and land on the floor. There’s one whole side and two corners that are exposed, and sod’s law says that’s what’ll land in the mud first but you might get lucky. Whatever happens, it’s better than the standard slipcase.
For the price it’s not a bad case. The bungee will probably snap at some point, but doesn’t look too hard to replace.
Prior to this case I had a Belkin universal PDA case, also made from black leather of dubious quality. And in true Belkin style it was a bit naff. Velcro was used to secure the PDA to the case, and that’s just a bad idea for the Nokia N800. The battery door comes off very easily if pulled, and since I use my N800 in the car it gets removed from whatever case I put it in quite a lot. Also, those book-style PDA cases just look tacky – like some bloated Filofax.
Now let’s depart from protecting the device when subject to the harsh reality of office life and see what we can do in more extreme locations.
Extreme locations like… underwater, sub-zero temperatures and half way up a mountain. I regularly subject my cameras to this kind of treatment and so own some more unusual enclosures.
Peli Products are well known amongst the more crazy members of our population for producing boxes that are… well… I think I could throw my camera in its case off the roof of my house and it’d survive. Of course, you can’t actually use the device while secured in the box, and can’t even open it if there’s a slight chance of water getting inside (not so handy for a camera being taken on a canoe trip… which is why I bought a waterproof camera) but it’ll ensure your device survives the journey to and from whatever inhospitable part of the planet you’re visiting.
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They come with no padding though, so everything tends to rattle around inside quite a bit. I solved this by acquiring some foam padding that is used in the ends of kayaks to prevent kayakers breaking their ankles. It’s a very dense closed cell foam that takes a long time to cut through with a semi blunt kitchen knife. The benefit though is quite obvious when, swinging from my climbing harness, I bash my camera off some rocks.
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In a fit of irony I did damage my camera by dropping it – but that was because I had the lid of the box open, and my camera fell out the box onto the floor. Yes, I take my camera to the top of a high place safe in its bomb-proof box and then drop it on the floor trying to get it out to use.
Feel like taking your PDA swimming? Well, ignoring whether the device can cope with the pressure, you’ll be wanting something more transparent and flexible. This is where an Aquapac comes in handy. Think of them as tough plastic bags with a watertight closure at the top. I once used one to play my GBA in the shower – just because I could. Be careful with them though, it’s quite easy to rip the seams or puncture the plastic. Not so good with cameras since water smears on the plastic making your photos look like they were taken from within a plastic bag (funny, that). For some extreme blogging they’d be quite handy though with a large Aquapac being able to contain my phone and N800.
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