2013年3月17日星期日

Review: Is the Ampjacket for iPhone anything to get amped about?

  When I used to work an overnight shift at my old job, my coworkers and I had a habit of pulling out our phones and blasting music while we worked. I always thought it was a bit odd that my iPhone 5′s speaker was so much quieter than those of the low-end Android phones many of the other employees carried. It’s not something that happens often outside of that job, but sometimes I find that my phone is just too quiet.
  There are a variety of cases on the market that purport to solves this problem without any additional speakers. Most of these just work by putting a small cupped piece of plastic behind the speaker to direct the sound toward the front of the phone. I’ve been summarily unimpressed with these cases.
  When I saw the Ampjacket by Kubxlab, the distinct design caught my eye. Instead of a cupped piece of plastic, the Ampjacket redirects the audio from the iPhone’s to a two-way amplification chamber built into the back of the case. Could that be the key to finally getting improved volume out of the iPhone, or would it prove to be just another dud?
  The Ampjacket is available for the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, and iPad mini. The model reviewed here is specifically for the iPhone 5.
  Design
  If you’re going to put something on your iPhone, you want it too look and feel good. The Ampjacket is thicker than most cases in order to accommodate the openings in the back. That’s not an entirely bad thing, though.
  The rounded back makes the Ampjacket very comfortable to hold, and the sound cutouts on the back actually give you an additional point to grip the phone. I’ve been holding my with my fingers wrapped around the cutout rather than the body of the phone, and I’ve found that it’s actually more comfortable that way. And while a rounded surface may not seem like the best thing to set the phone on, the very back of the case (where you see the Ampjacket logo) is just flat enough to keep the phone from constantly wobbling back and forth.
  The rounded back also has an unexpected perk: it is now nearly impossible to pull my phone out of my pocket facing the wrong direction. Without a case, the iPhone is flat on both sides, so I end up pulling it out and trying to unlock the aluminum back. With the Ampjacket, I’ve pulled it out the correct way every single time.
  The case is very lightweight and doesn’t make the iPhone noticeably heavier. All buttons and ports are fully accessible although I did have some trouble getting to the sleep button at first. After a day of using the case, I got the hang of hitting the button from a different, easier angle.
  One issue that I found with the Ampjacket’s design wasn’t in using it; the problem was in removing it. While taking the case off (which I did a few times) I felt as if I was going to break the case, my iPhone, or both. I had a hard time finding something to grip on the phone to pull it out, and the acoustic opening on the back of the case isn’t big enough to really allow you to push the phone out the front. Even if it was, the case hugs the phone so snugly that I feared I would break the acoustic chamber right off of the Ampjacket. After removing it a few times, I still didn’t feel incredibly comfortable taking it off, and I still can’t do it very easily. I am also concerned that removing the case often (to put the phone in a dock, for example) could increase the chances of damaging the phone.
  Sound quality
  It wouldn’t be much of a sound-amplifying case if it didn’t amplify sound well. The Ampjacket definitely provides a big boost in volume. In terms of overall increase in loudness, the Ampjacket blew me away. I cranked my phone up to full volume to see how loud it would go, and believe me, this thing will go as loud as you need it and then some.
  Unfortunately, this volume boost comes at a cost. As is the norm for any sort of echo-based amplification, the quality of the audio suffers a bit. Specifically, the highs out-performed the mids, and the lows almost completely disappeared into the mix. This isn’t because of a design flaw or some other oversight. This is just how echoes work, and that’s how every single “speaker-free” amp case works.
  You can see a video of the Ampjacket’s effect on music below and judge the difference for yourself.

http://www.windowsanyway.com/

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