After the release of the BlackBerry Z10 in the U.S., I knew one of the first things I would have to do before getting mine was to purchase a case to protect it with. I am very specific and with my profession I need a holster and decent protection. I scoured the web and bought a few to initially try out, and after finding I was not completely happy, continued my search. I then landed on the SEIDIO ACTIVE case w/holster. It came in a few colors (glossy white, garnet red, amethyst and royal blue) and I immediately grabbed the blue. It looked amazing online, so it had to look as awesome in person, right?
When the package arrived, it came in two boxes. I removed all the contents and the case came in three parts: a rubbery black soft shell, the royal blue hard outer shell and the black holster w/swivel clip. One thing I immediately noticed was the silver strip at the bottom of the outer shell. If you check online today, Seidio has changed their description to include this feature. However, when I ordered this it was not identified in the description. So, it is a metal flip out stand! I was excited about the case already, and this bonus feature just put it over the top for me.
First things first though, I put my Z10 into the rubber soft shell. It fit like a glove with minimal manipulation necessary. The whole border of the device was covered without any screen interference. The volume button covers are not gaudy and do not interfere with operation. Next I put the outer shell onto the soft shell. In the picture you may see the corners and middle sections have some cut outs. These are there for the outer shell to latch onto. After getting the device into the outer shell, pressing up on all the corners will seat them into the grooves. Then ease the middle sections into the soft shell grooves and your device is fully protected.
Now I moved onto messing with the metal stand. It is a nice metal strip with a spring loaded type release. At the bottom of the stand, under the ‘SEIDIO’, is a groove to put a fingernail under to release the stand. It feels secure when closed and is definitely sturdy enough open for most hard surfaces. Once put on a softer surface it isn’t really big enough to hold the weight and balance the device. But if serves its purpose and truly is a great feature of this case.
Finally I grabbed the holster. The clip rotates and is very sturdy. For my job I need the clip to be just about a quarter inch longer to secure to my duty belt, but I haven’t had the holster fall off yet either. The inside of the holster has a soft felt to protect the Z10 screen when locked in by the spring loaded top clip. There is a magnet to put your device to sleep when holstered as well, very important feature I found a lot of cases have been lacking initially. I also have put my Z10 in face front and face out, and both the top clip and magnet work with each. Another feature I really like is that the battery and HDMI ports are accessible while holstered (face into the holster). The headphone port is also accessible when holstered as expected.
My overall reaction; the SEIDIO ACTIVE is by far the best BlackBerry Z10 case I have used out of the four I have tried. It is simple yet very effective, and the color choices are nice as well. The price point varies depending on where you find it, but the cost is definitely worth it. Check out the case at SEIDIO or Amazon and get your Z10 protection on!