Velopac Protective Smartphone Case

The Velopac smartphone case is cheap, light and does what it's supposed to. Unfortunately, it doesn't do it for long.

Now that the phone that you have to have in your pocket costs as much as a bike, um, I mean some wheels, um, I mean a nice pair of cycling shoes, it pays to keep it safe and dry when out and about, especially cycling when it's frequently wet.

Made in the UK by Wildoo the VeloPac Smartphone Case is a semi-flexible PVC sleeve to protect your phone from the rigours of cycling and the weather. It's see-through on one side with a range of bicycle-themed designs to chose from on the other, just to let people know what you do for fun, and to boost your own self-worth.

The VeloPac isn't there just to shelter your device from the damp elements that can bother a cycle-jersey pocket but it's also designed as a useful barrier to the soggy ingress of sweat from the other side, which can be quite corrosive to expensive electronics. Depending on the size of your phone there's room to stuff other valuable things inside the VeloPac Case that you don't want to get damp as well; keys, money, credit card and wotnot. Okay, keys and loose coins really aren't so delicately susceptible to moisture but it keeps all those loose knickknacks in the one safe place.

The clear front panel lets you see your posh phone screen and the material it's made from allows you to do all your social touch screen activity without taking the phone out of the case, which is handy if you need to Twitter and then Facebook and then Instagram your ride just so everyone else knows how Epic you're being riding in the rain, or if you need to instantly see if you KOMed that Strava section.

You can also talk to someone, in real life, to explain why you're going to be late without taking your phone out of the VeloPac but it feels a bit awkward grappling to hold onto a phone inside a semi-rigid plastic bag. If you have an old fashioned phone with actual buttons on it then it can be tricky to punch them accurately through the plastic and you're better off to taking it out of the sleeve to use. But that means it might get wet, and everyone will see it and laugh.

A sturdy press seal closure strip runs along the length of the case which easy to use, even with gloves on, and it snaps firmly in place to keep moisture out.

It's a nice idea, but.

It's a bit big. In order to fit a small yet powerful computer inside it the case is quite wide. The VeloPac will fit round all smartphones up to a 5.5in screen, which, when you've added on the space needed for the closure strip makes it 4in across in old money, and over 7in tall. That extra width means that it won't fit in some cycling pockets without a bit of folding over, which leads to creases and bends in the plastic, and it's tall too, which makes it poke out the top of a pocket, lanky into the rain.

The plastic material of the VeloPac is quite shiny and slippery which means it can sometimes slowly work its way out of a pocket if you're riding with a lot of body movement, standing up out of the saddle, sprinting, getting low in the drops, the sort of thing cyclists do all ride, every ride. All of this motion seemed to be a very effective way of worming the VeloPac slowly up and out of a pocket, leading to the annoying practice of having to continually reach around during a ride to check that the case hadn't crept out of its pocket too far as a prelude to launching itself onto tarmac.

But most critically in compromising the waterproof shelter of your expensive phone is that the VeloPac will split (see test report), turning it into a not very Protective Smartphone Case. Repeated pullings and pushings of the closure strip, especially clumsily with winter gloves on, weakens the side seams. Combine that with the VeloPac's plastic turning a little brittle when it gets a bit cold and those side seams will tear next to the the seal at some point turning it into an expensive useless leaky piece of plastic with a cycling pattern on.

Verdict

Would be a nice idea if it wasn't a bit big, and didn't want to slip out of your pocket and then split. You can buy at least 200 locking sandwich bags for £5.99.