Proporta: iPhone Echo - Mirrored Screen Protector and Dual Skin Silicone Case

As you may recall Proporta recently released for the iPhone a couple of new products. These were respectively the Proporta Echo - Mirrored Screen Protector for iPhone 3G Dual Skin Silicone Case (Apple iPhone 3G) Proporta were kind enough to send samples of both of these to us to take a look at.

The Echo screen Protector kit comprises: The Screen protector itself (with it's own peel off protective film on either side) A very nice Proporta badged lens cleaning cloth A plectrum of plastic for bubble removal One set of instructions Installation of the protector is easy. Firstly you use the supplied lens cloth to clean the screen, then peel off the back face protector film (labelled peel first), and carefully apply it to the iPhones screen - being careful of course to line up the piercings for the action button and the speaker (it may take a number of tries), next you use the plectrum to smooth out any bubbles you may have inadvertently trapped. Finally you feel off the other outer protective film which is again labelled and viola there you have it! As you can see the mirror finish is simply astounding when the iPhone is turned off - here I've angled the screen so that it pics up the reflection of the patio windows.

Yet when the iPhones screen is turned on the mirror finish vanishes completely leaving a clear slightly mirrored surface for you to work with. The screen and icons are perfectly visible through the protector and the only sign it is there is that the non-screen portion of the iPhone is still fully reflective. The touch sensitivity of the capacitive screen is not affected at all and in fact the fingers glide over the new surface slightly easier than the original screen. [Oh and for those with eagle eyes - yes that is a Pocket Informant Icon you can see in the screen shots. I'm highly honoured to be a member of WebIS iPhone Pocket Informant test team]. I'm hoping here that Proporta develop this screen protector for other devices, it would be so cool on the Xda Ignito (HTC Diamond)or Serra (HTC Touch Pro).

The Dual Skin Silicone Case is a two layered silicone sleeve with an inner layer in a cloudy white colouration and a more translucent outer layer. The inner layer fits within the outer and is held in place via close manufacturing tolerances, there is no layer bonding used at all. The skin is simply stretched over the iPhone and the elastic nature of the silicone serves to hold it into place. It fits the iPhone 3G quite snuggly and when held in the hand gives a nice feel to the iPhone, the slippery surface of the iPhones native housing is replaced with one which is much less likely to slip from the grip. The front of the case is pierced of course for the screen and action button to be accessed. The only slight niggle here is that the rounded edges near the button 'wobble and flex' a little.

The bottom of the case is slotted to allow access to the connector and speakers. The only real problem here are for those users who have purchased the desk cradle as the case prevents it mounting into the cradle. The rear of the case also has two triangular holes within which allows one to attached the supplied lanyard cable.

A piercing at the top of the case allows the headphone jack port to be accessed, and unusually the on / off button is protected as the case is not pierced to allow access but instead there is a raised bump which allows you to depress it to trigger the switch. Both products are manufactured of high quality materials and I have no hesitation in recommending both of them!