Expert's Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The $25 XtremeMac Tuffwrap Plus is a marriage between a silicone skin and a hard candy, er, plastic shell. The transparent shield slips on over the front of the silicone skin, leaving an opening for the Click Wheel (itself covered by the skin), and covering the screen completely. Ridges on the case’s sides make it easy to grip, and the bottom of the case is left open to access the hold switch, dock-connector port, and headphone jack. XtremeMac also includes a carabiner clip that threads through the back of the case.
While the Tuffwrap Plus gets high marks for its protective features, it suffers somewhat on the accessibility front. The Click Wheel covering doesn’t have any marks to let you find the controls by touch, and I had problems getting the scrolling functionality to work smoothly through the skin (it would just drop out sometimes). Also, the plastic cover seems to scuff easily, and those scuffs can make it difficult to see the screen. Still, the Tuffwrap is a a good balance between silicone skin and hardshell protection, if not quite as full-featured as iSkin’ Duo case for the same iPod model.–Dan Moren