The Great Case Roundup: The Bumper

Just like the Deluxe Leather Carrying case, I won my Bumper at a New England Palm User Group meeting. I don't think I would have bought it, but once I had one I was glad.

You see, I took one look at the rubber case and thought I finally had something that could combat the Cheesecake Factory Gravity Well. It is a little known fact that every time I take my Palm out of my pocket/purse/fanny pack at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant it falls and stops working. The screen doesn't shatter. It just stops working. Nothing can revive it - not resets, not reseating the memory card. It has to be replaced.

Luckily I caught on to this phenomenon while my Pro was still under warranty and I was able to get replacement units without too much trouble. Now I have a strict embargo on Palm usage inside this restaurant.

So armed with the idea that this thing would provide a lot of cusioning, perhaps enough that I would be comfortable using my Palm in the Chessecake Factory, I gave the Bumper a try.

The packaging and the web page both say the case fits PalmPilot Professionals, and technically I suppose it does, but it was a real struggle to get the case on - it took two of us a good 30 minutes to get it on. It was an incredibly tight fit. What's more, in the process of getting the unit in, my contrast wheel got pushed all the way up. I couldn't reach the wheel to fix it without taking the case off.

Unfortunately, it wasn't much easier to get off than it was to get on. Which is unfortunate because the unit needs to come out of the case to hotsync. Reluctantly, I gave up on the idea that this was the case for me.

The problems getting the unit in and out of the case are unfortunate because I actually like the case itself. It has a thin rubberized back and thicker rubberized sides and lips on the front. There is a hard plastic cover that snaps into place on the front when the unit isn't in use and on the back when it is. There are slots for two extra styli (one on each side). The unit was easy to use while in the case, and there is an IR window so you can beam while in the case.

The Bumper comes with an insert that resizes it for a V or Vx. I didn't have a V around to see if the case works better with that form factor. I did try it with a TRGPro and it was easier to get in and out than the Professional but by no means easy.

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