Review: Proporta Alu-Crystal Case

My recommendation for all small electronics users has always been simple: “Buy a gadget, buy a case.”

Those periods of time where I’ve been without adequate protection for my digital darlings have been harrowing.

Like many others, I came to expect a considerable time lag between the introduction of any new device form factor and the commercial availability of quality case options for it.

It appears that now, at least for the introduction of new iPod, that this delay is now pretty much negligible. It was with some awe that I watched an impressive number of manufacturers release either revised versions of their existing cases or entirely new case designs within days it seemed of the 2G Nano launch. Truly, at no point did an owner of a 2G Nano ever have to voluntarily go without a proper protection.

So, iPod peripheral manufacturers really seem to have their act together now and hopefully the rest of the world will quickly follow suit.

One of the first 2G Nano cases to come across my desk was Proporta Alu-Crystal.

Proporta is a company whose products I have not looked at before, but I can say I was pleasantly impressed by both the number (hundreds and hundreds and hundreds) as well as quality of their products. They might just be a one-stop shop for all your small electronic needs.

I have never hidden my disdain for cheap rubber or aluminum cases. The world of mall cart vendors are full of shelves upon shelves of this dreck, all made in the same Morlock slave factories I imagine of poorly or barely recycled prophylactics and chewed up aluminum pull tabs Simply awful.

Enter the Alu-Crystal.

Now, a clear polycarbonate plastic case, that seems obvious. And aluminum, well, I think everyone in the whole world has released an aluminum case of one sort of another by now. Rubber, it’s an almost cliche staple of the case world, easy to use but hard to master. To combine all three materials, however, artfully and effectively, in a way that just sort of works, that’s very very impressive.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a complicated case. It’s a fairly simple idea, but the beauty is that it works, works where I have seen any number of other offerings just fall below the quality radar screen, and works well.

I do like the idea of an aircraft grade aluminium back plate wedded to a polycarbonate front plate. The clear plastic protects the front of your device, with a cut out for your click wheel, while still letting you show off your Nano’s new colours. The rubber bumpers in between the plates as well as the rubber strip on the inside of the back aluminum plate help keep your device snuggly in place as well. The included lanyard for wearing it all about your neck is a great touch.

There are indeed far more ruggedized case options out there in the world than Proporta Alu-Crystal, but I acknowledge that not everybody cavedives, rockclimbs, or kickboxes while listening to their ABBA collection. For everybody else in the world looking for a really nice case for their Nano 2G, the Alu-Crystal is an easy choice. I give it an 80%!