Pros: Simple water-resistant cases are designed to let you enjoy your iPod while working out or walking in the rain. Designed with a triple seal and pass-through port for safe connection to your earphones, water is unlikely to penetrate through to the iPod. Very reasonably priced by standards of most water-resistant offerings; includes detachable necklace.
Cons: Case is guaranteed only to be water-resistant, not water-proof. Design is somewhat unattractive, use of iPod inside is limited. Difficult to get iPod in and out of case.
Highly similar to Aquapac’s Waterproof MP3 Player Case, ifrogz’ new bagz cases (lowercase theirs) use three separate Ziploc-style airtight seals to insulate your iPod or nano from water. Unlike the Aquapac designs, ifrogz makes no assurances that their cases are waterproof, only that they’re water-resistant, and says they shouldn’t be used in high-pressure underwater conditions.
Each case comes with a white lanyard and a headphone port extender, the latter fused into the case to provide a safe way to listen to the iPod inside. Controls and screens remain accessible while in the bagz.
ifrogz is best known for its “design your own case” concept and multi-piece, silicone rubber designs. Now, apparently using technology similar to that from French case makers Aquapac, and identical to more expensive cases from Allsop, ifrogz has added water-resistant “bagz” cases ($10) to its lineup. Not intended to be submerged or floated on water, they are called water-resistant only, and are available in two sizes – large, for full-sized iPods, or nano bagz for anything nano sized or smaller. Each comes with a white lanyard cord and integrated headphone port extender.
The ifrogz bagz are little more than plastic sealed bags with plastic coated headphone port extenders and white fabric lanyard necklaces, and since no effort has been made to actually fit any particular iPod’s body, there’s very little to say about their build quality other than that they’re fine – we deduct two points here only because the cases don’t make any effort to contour to the iPod at all. However, as promised, they provide a water-resistant environment for the iPod or nano, using a simple redundant set of three Ziploc-style seals to prevent anything from getting in.
The bagz did not score as well as we would have liked in the Ease of Use category, partially due to the time-consuming task of placing our test iPods inside, and getting them out.
Your first challenge is opening all three seals; the next step is to plug in the audio adaptor, which proves difficult depending on the size of your hands; and finally, once the audio adaptor is plugged in, you can then seal the bagz. While we found the Click Wheel easy to operate while in the bagz, the Hold switch is not easily accessible, and for somewhat obvious reasons, the Dock Connector is completely unusable. Thankfully, the headphone port is easily accessible through the integrated extension cable, and the screen is easy to see while inside.
Bagz receive two points for their special feature – water resilience – which isn’t completely novel, but isn’t common in iPod cases, especially at this price point. Additionally, the bagz come with a white lanyard necklace, which is adjustable and detachable, for one more point here.
Besides the case’s obvious marks of protectiveness – it covers literally every part of the iPod or nano inside, for a raw score of 8, and gets one point for the thickness of its plastic – the reason to buy bagz is its water resistance. On this point, we were pleased with the results: the case properly resisted water coming from both a shower and a running faucet, and also survived being tossed in the dirt. When we opened the bagz, our iPods were exactly as they should have been – dry and clean.
