Database Develop

Review: U-BOP BoldFLEX Silicone Skin for HD2

Hi all,
My new silicon case just arrived.
If you're wondering, or looking, it's this one.
I thought I give a small review
Ordered the case via U-Bop's Amazone shop on dec 10, arrived today dec. 17. Not bad for normal airmail shipping I guess. total price 11,23£ shipping included.
Now, about the case:
Grip feels good, not slippery but the nice feel of rubber but a little smoother.
All cut-outs seem ok, there's enough room in the front for all sensors located around the speaker on the top. I was a bit scared that the bottom "rounding" would interfere when you try to use the hardware keys but that is ok*.
On the left side, where your volume buttons are, the case has a special bevelled surface so you still feel where the buttons are. Very nice touch I think making it easy to find the volume buttons without have to make a cutout for the buttons which would result in another dust-gathering trap
The down side of things then: although the case is advertised as being "skin-tight" and "form-fitting" the truth is: it sits to loosely to my liking. I would think that if you make something that is supposed to be form-fitting and skin-tight etc then it would need at least some effort to slip my HD2 in there and it would be as tight as .... well think "men in tights" (was the first thing that slipped in my mind) ...
Honestly. I think if I drop my phone it would be well protected for the first bounce.... but I'm scared it might just be thrown out of the case on impact!
It just feels a bit to 'light' and not much of the tight etc is noticeable.
Another small think I immediately notices was that the moment I had slipped it on and carried it around for a few hours in my pocket, dust appeared out of nowhere, clinging on to my screen where I had never seen it before?!? Strange as I always carry it in my pocket and I can't really remember ever having dust there that clearly... I'll see if that clears after a few days use.
I took some pictures and a small movie to give a general idea of what I mean.
So overal:
the PRO's
- good feel
- anti slip
- drop protection (100% for the first impact... guess % goes down with each consecutive bounce )
- all sensors, camera, flash leds, 3.5mm jack and micro USB are reachable
- volume keys can still be located through touch feeling
- cheap
the CONS
- not at all skin tight as advertised
- dust-magnet?
hope you liked the review. I'm interested en opinions of people using other types of silicon cases that do feel skin tight and secure so let me know what you have!
link to youtube for the movie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ3fMmOg-zs

Thanks for the review. It looks cool for the most part other than it's not skin tight...

To be honest, I'm getting more and more dissatisfied by the day
Taking the phone out of the pocket is a sure way to get at least 1 corner of the silicone case dislodged from the phone. Sometimes even the two top corners come off so you end up fetching the phone without case
And I can also confirm that the case is a dust magnet in the meantime... so no good there either...
I think I will be filing for the 14 day money back guarantee on this one and trying another one...
DicE
galaxys said:
Thanks for the review. It looks cool for the most part other than it's not skin tight...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yep I'd have to agree 100% with your review, bought one of these cases on ebay and initially thought it was good, but as you say it's not skin tight it's more "underpants tight"...so the case does come off sometimes when you take the phone out of your pocket as it sticks to your pocket...and if you are looking for a static dust magnet this wouldn't go amiss...

Just an idea guys, but does silicone shrink when exposed to heat? If so, you could try bathing it in hot water to shrink it a little... ?
Grtz
Lukas

shrink? you sure about that? Haven't tried that.
case could do with a wash though since it has been sucking in dust like a black whole for the past couple of days so... let me give that a try
If we're sure of one thing then it's that it wont break the case
DicE
Lukasss said:
Just an idea guys, but does silicone shrink when exposed to heat? If so, you could try bathing it in hot water to shrink it a little... ?
Grtz
Lukas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

DicEvsTytnII said:
shrink? you sure about that? Haven't tried that.
case could do with a wash though since it has been sucking in dust like a black whole for the past couple of days so... let me give that a try
If we're sure of one thing then it's that it wont break the case
DicE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try it? Coz now I'm curious myself...

Lukasss said:
Just an idea guys, but does silicone shrink when exposed to heat? If so, you could try bathing it in hot water to shrink it a little... ?
Grtz
Lukas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I very much doubt it will shrink. They use silicone like this as baking trays!!

Take Apart

Anyone know how to get the front bezel off this thing?
It's begging for a paint job.
Thx!

and perhaps a generous application of rubber cement. I had ONE creek point when i bought it - annoying but livable enough (plus the fact all the bad hours of xmas I was working I never had time to return it in the 30 day period to best buy). now almost 2 months latter theres three...
theres a teardown thread or two on here somewhere but the search button seems to be failing (or my browser....)
- Will.

It must pop off, but I don't want to be the guy to try it...

In the tear down I remember seeing roughly 10 small philips screws holding it from the inside to the metal sub structure. To tighten it you need to remove the back of the device then you will see the screws running around the perimeter. I also remember the screen is held to the bezel with a form of double faced tape.

waremaster said:
In the tear down I remember seeing roughly 10 small philips screws holding it from the inside to the metal sub structure. To tighten it you need to remove the back of the device then you will see the screws running around the perimeter. I also remember the screen is held to the bezel with a form of double faced tape.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its funny because the guy at Best Buy was trying to pull the back off of the one I returned... No idea why he was trying to yank the back off of it...
I guess if he had succeeded I would have seen the screws..

Funny enough the display model NookColor at my local best buy was practically falling off. When I first looked at the device I nearly did not buy one because of that but then getting one in my hands at B&N changed my mind.

The front bezel is a "tape and cover" paint job. The screen is glued to the frame pretty solid. I had mine apart to fiddle around and to get the back off for a mold. Most of the screws are Torx #5 or #6. Tape it off good and you should be ok as far as the front bezel. The rear and metal frame you can easily get to by proper disassembly.

Here's the zdnet guide,
http://www.zdnet.com/photos/nookcolor-teardown/487636?seq=21
Here's what I did.
You'll need a torx 5. After you unscrews the 2 screws by the sd slot, use your nail along the chamfer corner to lift the back siding up. Then use a credit card to lift the back up and run along the edge to unhinged the back.

techboydino, are you going to make a new front bezel? might be a small after market for such things. I'd pick up a more solid one if the price was right.
actually metal front and back pieces would rock...
- Will.

I would like to see a silicon back cover case that has a kickstand..

WillCameron said:
techboydino, are you going to make a new front bezel? might be a small after market for such things. I'd pick up a more solid one if the price was right.
actually metal front and back pieces would rock...
- Will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was really considering metal but the fact that most would have to really take special care to actually seperate the bezel from the screen really kind of set me off that. making a case for this is rediculously hard. (compared to my attempts at other devices. if you ever seperated a screen for a cell phone from the glass then you know what I mean. I am trying to replace the back with aluminum and wanted to do a carbon fiber front. so far everything is too thick or just plain looks bad.

Ever heard of masking tape?
3M BLUE painters tape FTW

Glad to find this post!!!
This maybe a little off the subject but does any know where I can purchase a replacement faceplate frame cover.
I accidentally drop my nook color and now it has a nasty crack...
Thank you all in advance!

i took the kickstand off a picture frame...white glued it and had one. Then took it off to fit my new cover...replacement kickstand not put on yet..

nookme said:
This maybe a little off the subject but does any know where I can purchase a replacement faceplate frame cover.
I accidentally drop my nook color and now it has a nasty crack...
Thank you all in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is probably to pick up a smoked one off EBay or one with a cracked screen and a good bezel.
Actually post up WTB (want to buy) dead Nook Color in the XDA market and link to it in this thread. I seem to recall a couple readers here who have more than "gently used" Nooks....

Need help with a first world's problem...

Okay, I'm gonna start with this that I have OCD. Now that you know, Let's get on with business.
This happened to my beloved tablet:
Don't ask why or how, it's a long story and frankly it doesn't matter now, it's done.
my purpose for this thread, was that how can I fix it?
I've tried ceramic paint, it was okay, but it had some serious flaws.
1. Hard to paint it with that. huge PITA with brush, better with a sponge but still really hard.
2. It's very stable, and can't be removed easily, but, it cracks and falls off after a while.
3. only one coat is not enough. it needs at least 3 coats to completely cover it, and with that many coats it is creates a big bulge which is a huge eye sore.
Now, I've came to this conclusion that paint is no good. I thought I going for a complete re-paint (as I really like black for these stuff, I thought that may be a good idea), but when I opened the back cover of the tablet, I changed my mind. Now, I need some suggestions.
Thank you.
Before you post something, remember, I have OCD.

so, replacing the back cover is out of the question.. Going be a tricky one to solve.

thats going to be a pain to fix but i still think paint is the way to go.
Use a high grit sand-paper and sand it down until its smooth.
Use a spay of black primer and put like 2 coats of primer on and allow time to dry between hands.
Then i would use a high gloss black spray paint. 2 to 3 light coats of that.
Then very lightly sand it down(more of roughing it up a bit, not actually sanding it down) with the highest grip sandpaper you can get your hands on.
Apply 2 coats of clearcoat.
finally use a buffing compound and lightly buff the surface, that will give you a mirror black finish.
Those are steps i have taken in the past to paint electronics and they lasted a while under normal use and i was happy with the results. You could probably find a better step by step guide online somewhere.
Oh, and make sure you mask the screen and the side panels with MORE then one layer of masking tape or you will scratch it.

m1l4droid said:
Thanks for the reply. You mean full body paint? But it's very sensitive, slightest mistake and you lost your USB or speakers... and it's very hard to cover the speakers, am I right?
And you mean to scratch the whole paint off? That's really hard, on this device which is quite big, and has markings on the back.
I was thinking maybe covering it with something like leather... I can design a pattern for it or something, no?
Sent from my Nexus S with CyanogenMod 9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, the back cover pops off and you can do anything youwant to it without affecting device functionality. Iknow from my a500. As for the scratching, I meant that you dont want to scratch by accident your screen and the sides of the tablet, where the Ports are located. the paint will be a pain to do but with patience you could pull it off. you need to understand that since you are not a paint pro there will be a trade-off between the quality of the work and the self satisfaction of doing it yourself.
As for covering it, go to an upholstery shop and look at different fabrics. Get a really good glue, an exacto knife and a heatgun and get on it. Keep in mint that once the glue touches the tablet, there is no going back.

Possible fix for scratched bezel

I saw a few guys complaining about the scratched/bumped bezel which looks ugly because the paint will reveal the metal underneath.
Well, I also damaged my watch by accidentally hitting it . Permanent markers are not a good solution because they do not last.
Apparently the bezel is made out of aluminium and only the watch body is made out of steel, that why, maybe, the bezel is less resistant.
Last evening though, an idea came to my mind, which I also applied on the watch. The result is promising .
Using some fine sandpaper (600) and some real paper after that, I completely removed the paint from the top of the bezel.
As a technique, I laid the sandpaper on a flat surface (table) and then I pressed the watch on it while rubbing it. After the paint was completely removed, I did the same operation but using a regular sheet of paper (to add a nice finish on the metal surface).
Please be careful: you have to press the watch against the sandpaper (laid on a flat, hard surface), not the other way around. In this way you leave no room for mistakes and the revealed metal will be uniform and nice, w/o weird edges.
This is the result.

That actually looks really nice! I'm Impressed with it . Just out of Curiosity what watchface is that also as it suits the watch really well.

That's a custom watch face for WatchMaker (built by me). You can download it from here.

I'm not sure I have the b... sorry guts for this kind of job

First Hardware Mod!
That looks great! I know it's just a matter of time before I will need to do this. I have sanded/polished like this before and may I warn everyone:
Make sure you keep the sandpaper flat. If it rolls up under the face it will scratch the screen.​Better yet, only do this with a screen protector.

Really nice. You should offer your services for a fee, to do this for others afraid to do it themselves. Not that you'd offer any guarantees, but you have proof you know how to do it right .
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Wow that's a great fix for this. Showed the scratches on my bezel to the lg team at ces and they were surprised and would follow up with me after the show. They said they hadn't come across this issue (which I find hard to believe). Like you mentioned OP the bezel is aluminum and the lower parts are steel and seem to be much more durable paint wise.
I'm hoping they might send me a new watch with some better paint but if not I'm definitely going to use this method!

it does look good, however once you do this there is no going back ........
if you want a better finish you may want to try crocus paper after you have removed the paint on the bezel, crocus paper is very fine and may give a smoother finish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus_cloth

Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the paint, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .

ro_explorer said:
Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the pain, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So very true.
I personally think that looks fantastic and a milliion times better than a scratched bezel. Mine hasn't recieved any scratches yet, but seeing your results, I'm no longer panicked about that happening.
Thank you for a great solution!

yes of course, I like the look of it too
How long have you had the watch since you did this? Is there any signs of corrosion on the exposed Aluminium?
ro_explorer said:
Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the paint, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I did the operation on January 2nd (when I posted on the forum ). One full week passed since then .. no signs on the metal surface whatsoever (expected, it's aluminum and this does not corrode).
Here is a photo from today.

ro_explorer said:
I saw a few guys complaining about the scratched/bumped bezel which looks ugly because the paint will reveal the metal underneath.
Well, I also damaged my watch by accidentally hitting it . Permanent markers are not a good solution because they do not last.
Apparently the bezel is made out of aluminium and only the watch body is made out of steel, that why, maybe, the bezel is less resistant.
Last evening though, an idea came to my mind, which I also applied on the watch. The result is promising .
Using some fine sandpaper (600) and some real paper after that, I completely removed the paint from the top of the bezel.
As a technique, I laid the sandpaper on a flat surface (table) and then I pressed the watch on it while rubbing it. After the paint was completely removed, I did the same operation but using a regular sheet of paper (to add a nice finish on the metal surface).
Please be careful: you have to press the watch against the sandpaper (laid on a flat, hard surface), not the other way around. In this way you leave no room for mistakes and the revealed metal will be uniform and nice, w/o weird edges.
This is the result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my watch for a little over a week and don't recall hitting it against anything but this morning noticed my bezel has a scratch longer than half an inch. Doing a Google search brought me here.
I was going to try your method today. I understand using the 600 grit sandpaper to remove the rest of the paint from the bezel but how does the regular paper help the finish? My uneducated guess would have been to try a finer grit sandpaper such as 1200 instead of the paper.

You can use whatever finer than 600 you have (even coarser but you may risk it going coarser that that).
Unfortunately, 600 was the finest I had in house at the moment that why I used id. After that though, the metal finish was matte, missing that fine polishing .... there is where the regular paper got into action. If you use a regular laser printer paper sheet, it will act as a very very fine sandpaper, enough to give that fine polishing on the pure metal (aluminium in this case - soft metal, no other reason.

ro_explorer said:
You can use whatever finer than 600 you have (even coarser but you may risk it going coarser that that).
Unfortunately, 600 was the finest I had in house at the moment that why I used id. After that though, the metal finish was matte, missing that fine polishing .... there is where the regular paper got into action. If you use a regular laser printer paper sheet, it will act as a very very fine sandpaper, enough to give that fine polishing on the pure metal (aluminium in this case - soft metal, no other reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sir are a genius - your solution actually makes the watch look better than before the problem.

dzyuba said:
You sir are a genius - your solution actually makes the watch look better than before the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please tell us what did you do exactly to the watch, step by step. Thanks.
My request to any other people who want to adopt this method, please record a video of the process. Then upload it to youtube and share it with us. Thanks.

The entire process that I used is described in detail in the first post of this thread.
There is also the possibility to use a nail file (there are some guys who did that and the results are quite nice as well).

Guys,
This looks fantastic. Perhaps even better than stock. I've got a 1/4" scratch, so not quite ready to take the plunge...but certainly thinking about it.
-Doc

I should probably post this here also. I managed to ding up my watch pretty badly crashing my skateboard, and a user suggested I try this method. I did it a little differently by finishing with a 3000 grit and using metal polish cream on the exposed metal to give it a nice shine. Here are before and after pictures.

The metal polish is definitely adding a nice touch. Thanks for the info.
// sent from my phone //

[Q] Advice wanted for opening my NookHD?

I'm preping to open my nook to make sure the battery cable isn't loose. There's this gummy stuff when I got a corner of the case up, but when I looked at the newpower99 battery replacement video it makes no mention of applying double sided tape or the like when reassemblin.
Basically I don't want to end up with a front plate that'll constantly fall off.

I'm pretty sure there's another video that does mention double-sided tape. If you check your office supply stores or well stocked hardware stores, there are two flavors. One of them being "permanent." Either will work if the surface is clean enough. That's going to be the trick. Almost anything that will remove the old adhesive, will also interfere with the new adhesive (Duh). I'd use a minimal amount of Goo Gone on the end of a cotton swab, followed by as many swabs of clear water as necessary. People often use alcohol, and alcohol usually leaves a film but does a poor job of removing the old adhesive.
P.S. I wonder why they felt it necessary to show us the removal and re-installation of all those screws!