There are some pretty crazy iPhone cases out there. There are cases in: plastic, silicone, stainless steel, gold, wood and we have to imagine anything in between. Color wise, the variety is endless and feature wise – if you can’t find a case that does what you want it to, you must be looking for the iPhone time machine. You remember the end of Thank You For Smoking, when Nick is coaching the cellphone executives about denying the link between cellphones and brain cancer. Yeah, that scare is probably real. Before we send you into complete shock, Pong Research thought of a solution: protect your iPhone and protect your body.

Out of the Box

Before we get into the science of it (which we unfortunately will later on), let us take a moment to admire the packaging from Pong Research. Sure, the company might only make one product (two if you count each color), but they at least figured out how to make a box for it. It’s your normal run-of-the-mill iPhone case decorated with plenty of information regarding what the case does besides protecting your iPhone. Inside, it’s the case and some cardboard; but we are for the minimalist attitude.

Design

Pong Research offers its iPhone case in two colors for the 3G/S models of the iPhone family. We got the one in black, but the lime green seems like a could fit if we had a Lamborghini Murcielago (which we don’t – currently, just in case you were wondering…) From the initial impression of the outside of the case there is nothing special. Upon further inspection some of the intricacies get exposed. The back features small dots at at various levels creating an extremely unique texture and perhaps even heart. Extending from the white Pong logo on the bottom left hand corner a little over an inch is a quarter circle of raised pegs that at certain angles look to almost replicate Engadget’s logo. (We failed at that, just look at the picture below)

The rest of the case features smooth hard silicone. More so then any of the other silicone cases we have had, we felt a sense of sturdiness surrounding the entire case. The holes for the camera and volume button are not only perfectly crafted, but also extend out a bit further, giving us a better sense of security. The bottom featured a dock connector port and two perfectly symmetrical holes for the speakers, while the side featured covering for the volume control and a hole allow access to the ringer control.

Protecting Your iPhone

The case does it a tad bit better then most. As we mentioned above, everything is just a tad bit more sturdy then most silicone cases. Additionally the craftsmanship ensures that protection is sustained through long periods of time and wear. In some parts, the extent of the protection became a tad bit annoying. Getting used to how hard the volume and lock buttons must be pushed took a tad bit of time, but after a while we got used to the extra force required. Even sans the radiation blocking, the protection is worth paying a tad bit premium for and the major case makers hopefully will take notice of what Pong Research has brought to the game in terms of construction quality.

Protecting your Body

Obviously what you want to know about is the radiation reduction. We will make it simple: it reduces radiation between 60%-85% (depending on the type of radiation) according to independent labs. The other basic fact is that it deflects radiation, doesn’t cancel it or absorb it. It uses a “chimney effect” to deflect the radiation upwards from the back of the phone where the antenna is and then deflects it outwards towards the top of the phone. Without explaining things we don’t understand, the phone does deflect radiation both from the back of the phone and the front (screen). Checking out Pong’s website and the video below will likely help your understanding:

Conclusion

We have no clue if the case works, everyone seems to say it is and we see no reason to counter this claim. What effect does the 40% radiation have versus 100% radiation? Who knows. The case doesn’t hurt signal strength, it actually improves it by making the iPhone’s use of energy more efficient, but once again – we’ll leave that to the scientist to explain. The quality of the case is at the top end of silicone cases, but so is the price. You can purchase Pong Research’s iPhone case directly from Pong Research for $59.95. Want to know if you should purchase it? The simple TheMacFeed test: yes, we are using it currently.