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Tech 21 Special Ops Submariner review (yellow)

Tech 21 Special Ops Submariner review (yellow)

The good: The Tech21 Submariner case has an extremely durable and completely waterproof design that will protect your iPhone from the elements while letting you use the touch screen at the same time.

The bad: The Submariner case won't let you access your handset's volume control or ringer switch. You're required to use a second accessory, and the touch screen cover attracts hair and dirt

The bottom line: The design could use a few tweaks, but as a waterproof iPhone case, the Tech 21 Submariner will serve you well.

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In a world where iPhone cases are a dime a dozen, it has to be difficult for companies to make their products stand out. I suspect, though, that Tech21 has an easier time than others.

Based outside London, Tech21 produces a series of rugged iPhone cases that come in a wide variety of designs. I first met with the company last May at CTIA where an exec demoed D30, the unique substance that forms the protective backbone of the company's products (check out my CTIA slideshow for D30's wacky properties). Then, a few weeks later I was able to take its Impact Band case for a test-drive. As Tech21's base accessory, the Impact Band is similar to the Apple-supplied iPhone bumpers, but it steps up the durability without sacrificing aesthetics. Yet, as good as it was, the Impact Band was just a stepping stone to a bigger and more entertaining challenge with the Special Ops Submariner. More than just a simple case, the Submariner is really a tool for using your precious iPhone 4 or 4S in the rain, the pool, or even underwater. As the Submariner has yet to go on sale, Tech 21 would not release a price at the time of this writing.

Now I'm sure that some of you might be asking why we really need to use our phones when we've gone for a swim. Absolutely, the way smartphones suck our attention is pretty ridiculous at times, but the Submariner isn't just for people who can't go 5 minutes without checking Facebook. Besides a day at the pool (or if you want to be really decadent, a hot tub), it's great for the beach, boating trip, or anywhere else water could invade your handset. Like with most submersible cases, you can't make a call with the phone inside (you can dial, though no one on the other end will hear you), but you can do just about everything else.

Design

At the top of Tech21's product line, the bright yellow Submariner stands apart in its space. While some competing cases are essentially Ziploc bags with an iPhone thrown in, the Submariner has a polycarbonate shell that completely encloses your phone. As a result you get double-duty protection with the skin securing your cargo from drops on a hard surface and the strong rubber seal keeping out sand, dust, and other fine particles. Beneath the main compartment is a second deeper well that can hold your credit cards, some cash, and a couple of keys. Around front is a silicon membrane that lets you continue to use the touch screen when your phone is inside (more on that later). Take note that you can't access the volume controls, ringer switch, or power control when using the case.

Of course, I have to mention that the Submariner is the opposite of the Lifeproof case. While that product is slim and lets you use headphones and access controls, the Submariner is about as bulky as you can get. It won't fit in your pocket or even a smaller bag. It's not that one design is "correct," but rather it depends on which design is right for you. While the Lifeproof case is more for everyday use, the Submariner is meant more for recreational and outdoor activities when portability isn't a concern. Also, while I trust Lifeproof's CEO when he says that his product is completely waterproof, the Submariner's extra bulk gives me more peace of mind.

Opening the Submariner is a simple three-step process. After releasing the small flap on the top right side, rotate the main lock away from you 180 degrees to unlock the hatch. Then, flip down the front of the case on its sturdy hinge and insert your phone. Note, however, that you'll need to have an Impact Band already on your phone for it to fit properly. Without it, your handset will be too small for the Submariner and will drop down into the second well below. You can use a thinner Apple bumper if needed, but even then the display won't rest completely flat against the membrane. So while a bumper is a workable substitute, it's a pretty poor one.

Though I get why Tech21 requires you to use the Impact Band -- it adds another layer of protection, it's great as an everyday case, and it prevents the phone's antenna from rubbing against the Submariner's hard shell -- you'll have to keep track of two parts if you want to use the Submariner as intended. If you forget it for a day, the Submariner is essentially useless. And if you lose the Impact Band completely (like I did), you'll have to shell out $39 for a replacement.

A day at the pool

I used the Submariner during a long pool day at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. Admittedly, I was a little nervous at first -- intentionally dunking a cell phone would make any cell phone geek cringe -- but I loaded my iPhone and jumped in. As Tech 21 promised, the Submariner will float with a phone inside, though it does so vertically with only the very bottom of the case poking above the water. I tried pushing the Submariner below the surface several times and it promptly bobbed back up a few seconds later. The detectable lanyard is plastered with Tech21's logo, but it's made of sturdy fabric and handy for wearing around your neck.

I spent most of the afternoon floating around the Mandalay Bay's lazy river with the Submariner in tow. Using the phone presented no issues whether I was texting or tweeting, playing a game, making dinner reservations on OpenTable, or browsing the Web. Just remember that the touch screen won't work when completelty submerged. The membrane had a spongy feel, which was weird at first, but I got used to it quickly. And at the end of the day, I was able to use the touch screen and the Home button just as I normally would.

Yet, I have one complaint with the membrane. While water rolls off the membrane easily, it attracts more than its share of dust, hair, and pocket lint. The extra particles didn't interfere with my use of the touch screen, but I could feel them beneath my finger. More than feeling a tad icky, it also made the membrane look dirtier than it probably was. I wasn't sure how to clean it so I let it go, but germaphobes should take note.

You can play music with the phone in the case, but you'll need to turn up the volume high to hear your tunes properly. Audio quality is diminished, as well, and the Submariner lacks the Lifeproof case's headphone adapter. Just remember that you can't access your iPhone's volume controls while using the case. Hopefully the company will make a produce with more control accessibility in the future.

Thanks to the clear skin of the Submariner, you even can take pictures underwater as long as the touch screen will register your command. I had a lot of fun with this feature even if it's one area where I noticed a design flaw. Because of the off-center placement of the deeper well, you should taking photos only when your iPhone is placed upright in the case. Unfortunately, though, it's more comfortable to insert your handset upside down when you're wearing the Submariner around your neck because the phone will be facing the right way when you raise it up to your face. But if you do that, the lens catches the side of the case and your photo subjects look like they're standing in front of a fun house mirror.

Tech21 says that you can submerge the Submariner up to 6 meters (about 20 feet). I could only manage about 4 feet in the shallow lazy river, but I kept it in the drink for almost an hour. After I was done, I opened the case and found no traces of liquid inside the case or on my iPhone. Indeed, that was a big relief for someone who had a pile of work-related e-mails to answer. I also dropped the Submariner on the concrete pool desk a few times. The case didn't show any scratches or nicks, and my phone kept on ticking thanks to the Impact Band that's designed to absorb shocks and deflect them away from the phone.

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Conclusion

The Tech21 Submariner isn't for everyone, and it's certainly not compact or stylish, but it's the most durable and most versatile waterproof iPhone case that's I've seen. I'd take again if I were headed to the pool, a beach weekend, or even if I was just spending a lot of time outside in the snow or rain. Sure, I'd tweak the design a bit, and making a call someday is a pipe dream. For maximum iPhone protection, though, it does its job well.

Sprint Has The iPhone And T-Mobile Doesn't

We previously published our report analyzing Sprint Nextel (S) versus Deutsche Telekom-owned (DTEGY.PK) T-Mobile USA back in May. We were stunned about how Sprint and T-Mobile USA have seen a reversal of fortunes over the last 3-5 years.

Because we have a long position in Sprint and because we added to it a couple of months ago, we're glad that Sprint and T-Mobile have switched places in terms of competitive strength in the wireless industry. Previously Sprint had a tenuous hold on its distant third place ranking in postpaid customers and had to deal with the emergence of T-Mobile in addition to competitive pressures from AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). While Sprint still has to deal with the dominance of AT&T and Verizon, we can safely say that it has been able to put significant distance between it and T-Mobile recently.

There are a number of factors that we would attribute this shift in competitive strong but the primary factor we see regarding Sprint's steady forward progress and T-Mobile's steady regression is that Sprint has the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and T-Mobile USA doesn't. Sprint has tremendous appreciation for Apple's cutting-edge, game changing iPhone smartphone device while T-Mobile USA has advertisements mocking Apple's iPhone as well as AT&T (the company dumb enough to offer $39B to acquire the broken-growth company known as T-Mobile USA). T-Mobile USA does host one million iPhone users on its 2G network even though it doesn't offer the device for sale.

We are disappointed that Sprint has not yet turned a profit during CEO Dan Hesse's tenure, while T-Mobile USA is still marginally profitable. We are also disappointed that T-Mobile is still generating more free cash flows than Sprint. However we can certainly justify why Sprint only had $209M in YTD 2012 FCF while T-Mobile USA had nearly three times as much ($623M).

Sprint increased its CapEx budget to invest in its Network Vision strategic reorganization in order to consolidate multiple network technologies into one new, seamless network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the United States. As part of this strategic reorganization, Sprint has joined AT&T and Verizon in adopting the 4G-LTE wireless communications network. Sprint has rolled out the 4G-LTE service to 15 cities in the United States in July and will roll it out to four more cities in August. Major metropolitan areas that Sprint rolled out 4G-LTE service to include Kansas City (Sprint's hometown area), Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. We can't stress enough that Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are major ILEC hubs for AT&T and we are glad that Sprint is taking the fight to AT&T. T-Mobile USA won't have 4G-LTE until next year.

In our previous report, we analyzed the significant progress that Sprint has made in improving its customer service culture operations and execution under Hesse. We pointed out how Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse had strong leadership experience at AT&T Wireless, where he helped lead its growth and enabled it to win several J.D. Power awards for service quality. Since bottoming out in Q1 2010, Sprint has enjoyed nine straight quarters of subscriber growth. Since Sprint only has 4.4M customers remaining on the Nextel iDEN network. With the Nextel iDEN network being shut down as of June 30th, 2013, Sprint will no longer have to deal with unhappy Nextel customers leaving Sprint after that date. Sprint's Q2 customer growth figures were not as good as we would have preferred; however, it was at least able to recapture 60% of the defecting Nextel post-paid customers.

The Sprint CDMA platform has seen 10 straight quarters with subscriber growth, including 8 straight quarters with growth exceeding 1.3M, and it averaged over 1.9M new subscribers during this period. We're not upset that subscriber growth has been predominately low-margin prepaid and wholesale customers, because at least Sprint has solidified its leading position in the prepaid segment and emerged as a leading carrier for mobile virtual network operators. These low-margin segments have also seen the fastest growth within the wireless communications industry and we believe that trend will continue. Sprint's CDMA postpaid segment has seen subscriber growth in 10 out of the last 11 quarters, the last 9 quarters and 225K or more in the last 8 quarters.

We believe that Sprint's steady progress in customer growth is proof of its strides towards improving the customer experience, which has been recognized by major 3rd party organizations like J.D. Power and Associates, the American Customer Satisfaction Index, ATLANTIC-ACM, Frost and Sullivan and Forrester Research. We also believe that Sprint's improved customer service is why Apple allows Sprint to be the third major US carrier of the iPhone. Granted Apple insisted that Sprint commit to purchasing $15.5B worth of iPhones and a number of Sprint's bear's growled that Sprint could not meet this contract. In our most recent featured analysis of Sprint, we thought we put that concern to sleep.

We previously discussed the growth of T-Mobile USA and its $50B blockbuster acquisition by Deutsche Telekom (DTEGY.PK). Despite suffering an $18B asset impairment charge in 2002 due to the implosion of the tech and telecom bubble, T-Mobile USA generated strong growth for Deutsche Telekom by growing its subscriber base from 7M in 2001 to a high of 33.8M in 2009. However, T-Mobile USA's subscriber levels have seen a small and steady decline to 33.2M as of Q2 2012. The real concern for T-Mobile USA is that it is seeing its postpaid contract customers churn out, and T-Mobile USA is lucky to replace them with low-margin prepaid customers.

T-Mobile USA stopped growing its customer base around the same time Sprint began to see growth in its customer base. We believe that Sprint's improvements in customer service have served to take market share away from T-Mobile USA, and because Sprint has Apple's iPhone whereas T-Mobile made sport of the iPhone, only to spend $4B to upgrade its network in order to accommodate 1 million subscribers who brought old iPhone devices onto T-Mobile's slow 2G GSM network. We think that is why even though Apple's sales of its iPhone smartphone slowed in the most recent quarter, it decided not to let T-Mobile USA join the iPhone club in the US. We think that is why Philipp Humm decided to step down as T-Mobile USA's CEO.

For customers and investors, we still believe that the best alternative to the AT&T and Verizon U.S. wireless duopoly is Sprint. We think Sprint offers stronger absolute and risk adjusted investment prospects, as well as a better customer value experience versus T-Mobile USA and its parent company Deutsche Telekom for the following 8 reasons.

Sprint offers the iPhone. T-Mobile has the iPhone only in Europe.

Sprint generates 90% of its revenues from the faster growing wireless segment. While Deutsche Telekom does not break out revenue by product, we expect it to generate a larger share of its revenue from wireline operations, which are declining.

Sprint has joined the 4G-LTE club, while T-Mobile USA won't have 4G-LTE until 2013.

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T-Mobile USA's parent, Deutsche Telekom, is primarily exposed to Europe, which is in the grips of the Eurozone debt crisis. Sprint operates in the US, which is the cleanest dirty shirt amongst the world's economies.

Sprint is the only company that still offers unlimited high-speed data. Verizon and AT&T are phasing out unlimited data, and T-Mobile USA throttles data after 2GB of use.

Sprint and T-Mobile USA have essentially switched places in terms of customer satisfaction ratings. It even dropped below AT&T, a company that has historically had low customer satisfaction ratings. Despite not merging with AT&T, T-Mobile has joined AT&T at the bottom of the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The Sprint platform (excluding Nextel) gained more total subscribers than all the other companies during the last quarter and the last 12 months. Sprint gained more subscribers than Verizon and T-Mobile International AG combined.

Sprint only has 12 more months of suffering Nextel run-off, and improved its Nextel retail postpaid contract subscriber retention rate from 27% in H1 2011 to 39% in Q4 2011, 46% in Q1 2012 and 60% in Q2 2012.

Based on these 8 reasons, we not only reinforced our long position holding thesis in Sprint, but also that T-Mobile USA is the sick man of the mobile communications world. We can see how even while Sprint was in the midst of a multi-year, multi-step transition process, it was still able to outperform Deutsche Telekom by a wide margin since the end of 2008. We expect Sprint to continue to solidify its hold on 3rd place in the US mobile communications market because Sprint has the iPhone and T-Mobile doesn't.

Though we added to our long position a couple of months ago, we don't believe that Sprint is out of the woods yet. We are not foolhardy to say that Sprint is in the same league as Apple or the AT&T-Verizon duopoly, but at least it's not losing customers like T-Mobile USA is.

Additional disclosure: Saibus Research has not received compensation directly or indirectly for expressing the recommendation in this report. Under no circumstances must this report be considered an offer to buy, sell, subscribe for or trade securities or other instruments.