I’ve owned and iPod Touch for several months now.  I spent the first couple of weeks I owned it searching for the perfect case for it.  I saw the thin skins that ripple every time you touch them and I saw the clunky hard sided plastic cases.  The whole appeal to the iPod Touch for me was the fact that it is so small and sleek.  Yes, I want to protect it but no, I don’t want it to feel twice as bulky as it really is.  Then I found the Tech21 iBand.  At first, it looks like just a rubber ring.  It’s not the cheapest case at $25 but I have to say it’s well worth the price.  When you put this on your iPod touch 2nd or 3rd gen, it feels well protected.  It’s molded perfectly to the dimensions of the iPod Touch so it fits well and does not feel like it will ever come loose on it’s own.  If you set it on the table facing up or down, the iPod itself doesn’t touch the table.  If you happen to drop it on a flat surface, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be protected.

The case itself doesn’t add much weight to the ipod.  It only weighs 15.5 grams which is nearly nothing considering the iPod itself weighs 108 grams.  Over the time I’ve had the case, I have found it to be very durable.  It has one edge that has a bit of wear on it but that wear hasn’t spread or spiraled out of control like it would with other materials.

While I can’t think of any ways to improve the case, I do have a couple of gripes about it.  First off, it makes the power and volume buttons fairly hard to use.  The converse of that is that you won’t be pressing them by accident any time soon.  Secondly, some headphones may not fit through the hole as it sits.  The Apple ones work flawlessly though so it’s not a big deal to me.  Third, when I plug in my sync cable, a small part of the front rubber near the brand name sometimes catches on the connector.  Again, not really a big deal to me.  Last one that might be a deal killer for many folks…  It won’t dock while in the case with ANY docks that I have seen available.  This has been a little disappointing to me but I’ve learned to live with it.  If you were REALLY concerned, you could always roll your own cheaptastic iPod Touch dock.  The bottom line is that the Tech21 iBand is the best iPod case I could find.