The TOUGHEST? OtterBox Defender VS Ballistic Tough Jacket MAXX - iPhone 11 Tough Case Comparison

So who comes out on Top? Overall, I think the Tough Jacket Maxx eeks out a win between these two cases. For a pure protection standpoint, I think that would goto the Otterbox Defender.

Get the Otterbox Defender on Amazon!
Amazon US: https://mreh.ca/35ffBT7
Amazon CA: https://mreh.ca/2Mu1i4w
Amazon UK: https://mreh.ca/2Mrfyew
Amazon DE: https://mreh.ca/312LvyN


Or get the better case, the Ballistic Tough Jacket Maxx on Amazon!
Amazon US: https://mreh.ca/2W0DDPk
Amazon CA: https://mreh.ca/3flvZ9V
Amazon UK: https://mreh.ca/3fmQClR
Amazon DE: https://mreh.ca/2YxMpG7


Difference #1 - The Belt holsters

These are the only two cases in my stash of iPhone 11 cases that came with belt holsters. The Otterbox one works better BUT the Ballistic one is more functional.

The Defenders belt holster doesn’t rattle when it’s not clipped to your pants. To turn the Otterbox’s belt holster into a kickstand, all you have to do is press the top of the stand into the clip. To release it, you press the clip.

On the Ballistic holster, you need to hold the stand open while you dilly dally with a small piece of metal. There’s a chance that you might loose the metal clip. The Ballistic kickstand allows you to use it in portrait and landscape whereas the Defenders only works in portrait mode.

Difference #2 - iPhone usage

The Otterbox Defender handles like an iPhone that has a giant piece of rubber wrapped around it.

The Ballistic Tough Jacket handles like an relatively slim case with giant corners.

On a day-to-day basis, using your iPhone in the Tough Jacket is going to feel better. The lower case edges means you won’t be able to feel the edge when gesturing.

The Defender’s rubber shell has is very grippy and feels like a rubber shell. It’s the bulk of the case that makes the iPhone harder to use in the Defender.

iPhone usage goes to Tough Jacket.

Difference #3 - Water and dust protection

This one is simple. The Otterbox Defender offers better environmental protection because it comes with covers for the mute switch and lightning port. Now this would have been a bigger deal IF we were doing this comparison for devices like the iPhone 6’s which weren’t IP rated.

Now that every iPhone is rated to iP67, protecting the ports and switch from water isn’t a big deal. BUT if you need that piece of mind, well, the Defender has the flaps to do it.

Difference #4 - Overall wear and tear

In terms of longevity, I think the Tough Jacket is going to last longer because it’s a single piece. The Defender comes in three pieces and I know that as I use a product, I tend to pick at the parts that move. The port covers will probably come off or get torn off after an extended period of usage.

The build quality of the Tough Jacket is top notch as the multiple layers of PC and TPU are fused together incredibly well. Ballistic also includes a set of removable corners so if that part of the case starts to get ratty, you can swap them out.

These removable corners are made from a material called B Shock X90. I’m only pointing that out because it’s got silly name and is supposedly very shock absorbant.

Wear and tear goes to the Ballistic case.

Difference #5 - Drop protection

This one was a tough one to figure out BUT at the end, I think the Defender is tougher based on my experience with it. The overall design of the Defender hasn’t changed and so be tossing it 50 ft in the air 7 years ago is still fairly relevant from my perspective. BUT a 15ft drop in a Defender in my iPhone XS video resulted in the screen blacking out on the iPhone X that was filming the Defender Pro being dropped.

That’s just my gut feel. I feel very comfortable dropping my iPhone in the cases from normal day-to-day heights. The Tough Jacket is rated to 14ft which is a crazy height which is still a crazy height to be dropping things from.

The Defender doesn’t have an official drop height as it’s Otterbox Drop Certified which means very little to me because it doesn’t state how high you can officially drop it. One of the things that has bothered me over the years is that the iPhone doesn’t actually sit on any thing shock absorbing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to stay in the loop! We release 2-3 videos a week so there's going to be something new every week. We're all about helping you get the most out of iOS so click Subscribe!

WEBSITE: http://www.mobilereviews-eh.ca
T-SHIRTS: http://mobilereviewseh.spreadshirt.com
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/MobileReviewsEh

INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/mobilereviewseh
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/MobileReviewsEh
AARON: https://twitter.com/Aaron_The_Ho
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MobileReviewsEh