iPhone 6(s+)

Pelican ProGear Voyager Review – iPhone 6/6 Plus

 

The best thing about this case is the belt holster? Seriously?

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Today we’re going to do the review for the Pelican Voyager. This is a slimmer tough case for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus that comes with a belt holster.

We really like how grippy the case is as it’s going to have a hard time sliding off any flat surface. Pelican’s warranty on the case is pretty awesome and the belt holster is decent and has a nice viewing feature to it but getting to your actual iPhone is going to be a little tougher in this case and despite being designed to Mil-spec’s we have no idea how high you can safely drop it.

Based on our time with the Voyageur phone case, we gave it a score of 3.4 Eh’s out of 5. We’ve rated this as a tough case rather than a slim case. This case does score better than the Otterbox Defender and the Griffin Survivor All-Terrain but not as well as the Ballistic Hardcore or the Amzer Crusta. If you’re wondering how this case fares against other cases, check out our comparison tool!

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Design – Thinner than most tough cases (but just as tough!)

Pelican ProGear Voyager Review - iPhone 6/6 Plus - Case DesignIn terms of design, the Voyager, Pelican says it has a thin design and we’d have to generally agree. It’s no means close to your slimmer tough cases like the Thule Atmos X3 and Griffin Survivor Core but it’s definitely not as massive as the Ballistic Tough Jacket and Griffin Survivor All-Terrain.

Installation of the case is pretty simple but the screen protector needs to be thumbed on. Taking the case apart is fairly simple and when we were first using this case, we were worried that it would come apart quite easily which we’ll elaborate in a bit. In terms of build quality, the case holds up quite well as the rubber portion of the case is usually what makes contact with the surface. The polycarbonate corners do show a bit of scuffing if you purposely drop it on the corners.

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Protection – Just as tough as any other case

Pelican ProGear Voyager Review - iPhone 6/6 Plus - Drop Test ResultsIn terms of drop protection, Pelican makes it sound like it is incredibly tough. Their packaging has the words “Military Specifications” written on it a few times but it doesn’t tell you how high you can actually drop it. Now, Pelican products are usually known for their toughness but with the Voyageur, dropping it from this height, results in the case coming apart. That’s 3 ft, not even chest height. We thought it was just the case for the iPhone 6 version so we went and bought an iPhone 6 Plus version and we’re still not terribly confident about the drop protection of the case. There is a bit of damage on the 6 which will be covered by Pelican’s warranty.

Screen protection is decent as the edges of the Voyageur are incredibly high. Annoying high, we’d have to say. It does come with a plastic screen protector that is scratch resistant and it does hold up against keys but again, you have to thumb the install for it. You’ll also notice that the screen protector doesn’t quite fit too well as it’s too big for the case so the case actually lifts it off the iPhone.

In terms of water protection, this case isn’t waterproof and there are gaping holes everywhere for water to make contact with your iPhone. In terms of dust and debris, the Voyager does offer better protection as the ports are sealed by the plugs at the bottom of the case but it still allows sound and your voice to go through the case without much degradation which leads to the next part of the review, accessing your iPhone inside the case.

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Functionality – Access to the iPhone is lacking but the screen accessibility is really nice

Pelican ProGear Voyager ReviewWe’ll be honest. Getting to your iPhone in this is where the Pelican ProGear Voyager falls flat on its face as getting to your iPhone becomes a little annoying after a while.

The buttons on this case are really tough tough to use so putting your iPhone to sleep or changing the volume, or taking pictures becomes quite frustrating. The design of the mute button access is a awkward since the flap moves up and down whereas accessing the mute switch is a push/pull motion so you end up having to move your hands a lot to do something that was incredibly simple before.

There are no issues getting to the camera (if you can press the buttons to take a picture) and the port cutouts are large enough to use larger than average headphone jacks and lightning cables like this Awesome Cable.

The edges of the case, despite providing great clearance for screen protection makes the edges a little tougher to get to. This is really noticeable on the iPhone 6 version of the case and less-so on the iPhone 6 Plus version.

In terms of screen viewability, if you’re using the included screen protectors, you’re going to be dealing with the bubbling due to the screen protector being too large. If you do get this case, W’d recommend getting a 3rd party screen protector. During this Pelican ProGear Voyager review period, we used a Tech Armor Ballistic Screen Protector that fit the high edges of the case perfectly.

Pelican does include two screen protectors so if you manage to scratch one of them and you get these bubbling artifacts, you can toss one without thinking about it much.

Now, the last part of this case is the belt holster that doubles as a stand which is nice. It allows you to view your iPhone in two different setup’s and in all honesty, this is one of the best parts of the Pro Gear voyageur which seems really silly to us. Especially for such an expensive case.
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Have questions about our Pelican ProGear Voyager Review for the iPhone 6/6 Plus? Please ask them on our Google+ page or on our Facebook page.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Bart

    June 14, 2015 at 8:31 am

    Love the site everyone! I want to share my story about this and another product reviewed by you. I currently use my iPhone 6 Plus with the setup as follows: Pelican ProGear Voyager with MIME’s regular Ghost Glass. Not the Feather or Color or Metal versions. I see that these two products did not score so well. However your MIME review was for the Feather + and Ghost Glass Color and not the regular Ghost Glass. I cannot use the Color version due to it being Edge to Edge and no where near compatible with this case. Okay sorry for the long intro there. I was using the trunk of my 2014 Ford Taurus and had my phone laying on the glass of the back window. Imagine your standing there talking with the phone on speaker. However the phone was very far down on the glass…as in more than half of the phone below the back window and in the way of the trunk, which would be a problem should someone choose to close the trunk. Behold me. I’m that guy. I fully closed the trunk with my phone underneath! The trunk even locked as in shut all the way. Obviously I had a panic attack and reopened the truck to coddle my broken in two phone. However I was pleasantly surprised to find my phone in one piece. I bent the iPhone 6 Plus slightly. Believe it or not it was less of a bend then I did to my iPhone 4S. Yes I bent the iPhone 4S in an Otterbox Defender with Ion Technology, but that’s another story. Let me know if you want to hear that one. All in all I am very happy with this case. I had to go with a slimmer case since I wear it with a holster on my belt daily. The regular Ghost Glass fit on the case is almost perfect as in coverage. I cannot press on the edges of the glass if I wanted to due to the large lip of the case. The cutout for the touch id even works better for me due to it being a natural low spot that my thumb instantly finds. Thanks for your time and keep up the great reviews!

    Bart

  2. Bart Sayers

    June 15, 2015 at 4:21 am

    Bart
    on June 14, 2015 at 8:31 am said:Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    Love the site everyone! I want to share my story about this and another product reviewed by you. I currently use my iPhone 6 Plus with the setup as follows: Pelican ProGear Voyager with MIME’s regular Ghost Glass. Not the Feather or Color or Metal versions. I see that these two products did not score so well. However your MIME review was for the Feather + and Ghost Glass Color and not the regular Ghost Glass. I cannot use the Color version due to it being Edge to Edge and no where near compatible with this case. Okay sorry for the long intro there. I was using the trunk of my 2014 Ford Taurus and had my phone laying on the glass of the back window. Imagine your standing there talking with the phone on speaker. However the phone was very far down on the glass…as in more than half of the phone below the back window and in the way of the trunk, which would be a problem should someone choose to close the trunk. Behold me. I’m that guy. I fully closed the trunk with my phone underneath! The trunk even locked as in shut all the way. Obviously I had a panic attack and reopened the truck to coddle my broken in two phone. However I was pleasantly surprised to find my phone in one piece. I bent the iPhone 6 Plus slightly. Believe it or not it was less of a bend then I did to my iPhone 4S. Yes I bent the iPhone 4S in an Otterbox Defender with Ion Technology, but that’s another story. Let me know if you want to hear that one. All in all I am very happy with this case. I had to go with a slimmer case since I wear it with a holster on my belt daily. The regular Ghost Glass fit on the case is almost perfect as in coverage. I cannot press on the edges of the glass if I wanted to due to the large lip of the case. The cutout for the touch id even works better for me due to it being a natural low spot that my thumb instantly finds. And last but not lease…the Ghost Glass did not crack or break in anyway after meeting the trunk. Of course the giant edges of the Pelican case helped with that. Thanks for your time and keep up the great reviews!

    Bart

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