When our family got a second cell phone line, I got a Nokia e62 pda/phone for my number. For some reason, pda/phones usually suffer in phone audio quality. Several of the Blackberry series suffer from this, but fortunately, I found the e62’s sound quality to be outstanding.

The only problem I had with the phone was the size and lack of pockets to carry it in, so I started looking for a case.

After looking all over, I found a case that offers a nearly extreme level of protection for the phone, and doesn’t affect the audio quality. I chose the PDair aluminum case and found it cheap on eBay.

PDair

I’ve used it for about two months now and it protects the phone just as advertised. You’ll notice from the picture, it is not only made from aircraft aluminum, it is well padded inside. There is a plastic window for the e62’s screen and it seems rather sturdy.

The phone is held securely in the holster by small tabs on each side. Even if your case opens while it’s on your side(which I find to happen often), the phone won’t fall out.

I found that I am able to reach all of the buttons easily enough while the phone is in the case as well.

There is one significant problem I found while using this holster, and because of it, I won’t be using the holster anymore. The fact that the holster often opens accidentally is annoying, but the largest problem is the aluminum case. I should have thought of it prior to purchasing it, but for some reason it slipped my mind that I would be putting my phone inside of a metal case. Metal blocks radio waves, and cell towers use radio waves.

I can place the phone in the case and watch the signal level drop as much as three bars. Places I used to have four bars of signal have no signal strength at all, when the phone’s in the case.

Nokia e62 in the PDair case

I had to remove the phone from the case when on the road to be able to carry on a conversation (using my bluetooth headset) on the way to work. In two months of use, the case hasn’t even been scratched, but the point of having a cellphone is to make and receive calls.

For protection of a phone, the case gets a 9, but for overall usability, I’d have to give it a 3 due to the signal dampening.

Although this phone isn’t the latest and greatest, I’d advise thinking twice prior to purchasing an aluminum holster for any phone.