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As a company BodyGuardz is often remembered for their protective skins.  However, the company also makes some protective cases as well.  Today we’ll take a look at one of their newest offerings, the Shelter Case for the iPhone 4.  This hybrid style case comes in a wide range of stylish colors choices and is ready to offer heavy duty protection for either your Verizon or GSM iPhone 4.  We had a chance to preview the Shelter Case back in January at CES.  Since then the company has redesigned the case a few times and held back the release to insure what they’ve offered up is top notch.  So is it?

Read on for our full review.

The Shelter case is made up of a rigid, polycarbonate back combined with softer TPE sides.  The softness of the sides of the case make placing it on your phone easy and the stiff polycarbonate back protects it from bumps and bruises.  Each Shelter cases includes one of BodyGuardz’s ScreenGuardz HD Anti-Glare PET Screen Protector as well as a small cleaning cloth.

Did I mention the Shelter is available in plenty of color choices?  You can choose from Blue on White (seen in this review), Navy on White, Black on White, Green on Light Green, Royal on White, Pink on White, Pink on Purple, Black on Red or Black on Black.  With the wide range of color options to choose from there’s sure to be one that meets your preference.

The inside portion of the Shelter Case is etched with a pattern that almost resembles tire treads.  This is meant to help absorb any sort of potential impact your iPhone might experience if you were to drop your phone.  The little treads are raised to further help with the absorption of impact.

Although the sides of the Shelter are soft and flexible, the back plate of the case is not.  It’s very stiff and even the weight of this large, full jar of peanut butter doesn’t cause it to sag or droop in any way.

The Shelter case fits tightly.  If you’re using a full body skin on your iPhone 4 you’ll have to remove it if you plan to use this case.  I had no issues with screen shields though – those are fine which I have to admit sort of surprised me since the case fits so tightly.  Placing your phone into the case isn’t too much of a challenge.  The soft sides allow you to push and pull the case over and onto your phone.

Once it’s on your phone the Shelter case offers a nice amount of lay on the table protection.  This means if you were to place your phone down onto a flat surface, screen first, the case will raise the screen off the surface enough so that dust, dirt and other debris won’t come in contact with the screen.

The bottom of the case features three individual cutouts.  One for the main microphone, one for the thirty-pin dock connector and one for the iPhone 4′s speaker.  The design of the Shelter case also is meant to help enhance the sound coming from the iPhone’s speaker as well.  I’m not sure I’ve seen bottom cutouts on a case that are cut as precise as the Shelter case.  They’re simply perfect.  You won’t have issues with third party cables with this case either.  The thirty-pin connector cutout is recessed to allow for the use of non OEM cables.

Along the left side of the case you’ll find one cutout for the vibrate switch.  This is large enough so that it allows for use of either the CDMA or the GSM version of the iPhone 4.  The volume buttons get covered by the case and are replaced with a rocker style switch.  This offers a really decent amount of feedback when pressed, just enough so that you feel as though you’re pressing a real button.

On the top of the case you’ll find a single cutout for the headset jack and the secondary microphone.  The headset jack cutout is large enough to accommodate most brands of headphones.  The sleep/awake button gets covered by the case but like the volume buttons gets replaced with a new button.  This button offers similar feedback to that of the volume buttons.  Not a ton but enough that you get some when you press it and it feels as though you pressing the actual sleep/awake button.

The back of the case features a two-tone racing stripe look that’s really unique looking.  It’s nice to use a case that’s something other than plain black.

The cutout for the iPhone 4′s rear facing camera and flash is ample enough that you will not experience any issues with the flash washing out photographs.

The new BodyGuardz Shelter case is one of the more unique cases for the iPhone 4 that I’ve had a chance to test.  The use of both hard polycarbonate along with soft TPE makes for a case that not only provides a good deal of protection but one that’s easy to take on and off yet fits absolutely perfect when it’s on.  The case comes in a ton of color options and even includes a high quality screen shield, all for under $30.  If you’ve been looking for a new case for your iPhone and you want something that’s sleek and stylish yet ultra protective you’ll most definitely want to check out the BodyGuardz Shelter case.

You can learn more about the BodyGuardz Shelter case by visiting this page on the company’s web site.

MSRP:  $29.95

PROS:  Dual material protection, includes screen shield, nice amount of protection.

CONS:  Can’t be used with full body skin.