Over the last year I have been using my PDA mostly for outdoor navigation activities (geocaching, hiking, greenlaning) all of which could at any moment kill an expensive PDA by scratching, crushing, drowning and dropping. So far it has been lucky in its lack of decent protection.

Although my purchase of a slimline 'ebay special' metal case with hinged cover and foam lining has taken a lot of the abuse during this period it doesn't stop the worry when in dusty, wet and muddy conditions. Also I have used cheap stick on (another ebay special) clear plastic screentectors which have helped a lot.

This year with the plan of getting back into doing a lot more geocaching I decided to protect my £££ investment with an otterbox 1900.

Some may ask why I also need an otterbox whilst inside a landrover... this is why...

That was after recently getting stuck for 4 hours in a bog. My PDA in its old metal case can be seen attached to the dash. The mud splashing PDA screen and the dust after it dried is when I first thought that I really need to sort better protection.

This otterbox seems like it is going to do the job well, time will tell.

Couple of issues I have noted already:

My pda has its power button on the top left so would have to open top to use that. This is something I was aware of already via the otterbox model 'compatibility chart'.
If only the ear phone plug was on that side I could have used that to access power button with the stylus.
Opening the top to power on/off would be a right pain. I installed a freeware that allows me to power the unit down from a virtual button via the screen. Pressing one of the hardware application buttons on the front of the screen powers the unit back on (by default). So this effectively negates the need to ever use the hardware power button. So this is a none issue now.

The next thing is the BIG reduction in audio output levels now that the PDA is cocooned within the case. I might have a problem hearing TOM-TOM voice directions over the landrover engine noise, will have to put this to test. Pulling out the large rubber bung that allow base access to PDA charger port helps allow some of the sound out. None of the 'independent' reviews I read mentioned sound level reduction, which is a failing.