Summary:
Dreading the "I'm sorry sir, your $600.00 phone is broke and you must purchase a full-cost replacement", I purchased the Defender Otterbox. Keep in mind that I work in heavy construction and my phone is with me always--prior to the iPhone, I have broke at least 1 phone a year from dropping and/or dirt intrusion. I hessitated buying an iPhone for fear of damaging it. With this case, all of my worries are over. So far, I have dropped the phone several times on hard surfaces--once even in the mud. After a quick clean-up, the iPhone inside has always been imaculate.

Pros:
Awesome protection for an expensive phone. Case is well-designed and has proven itself to handle 10ft drops onto concrete with no damage to case or phone. All of the controls/buttons are covered and protected but still useable through the case. Keeps out virtually all dirt and dust--and momentary water such as rain drops.

Cons:
The belt clip is poorly designed and fairly worthless. It will only hold the phone "face-in". Attaching and removing from your belt is difficult because of a captive hook on the clip. Once on your belt, there is not an ergonomic position to rotate the phone to. This is because the holster's clip is not centered on the phone, but rather top mounted. Trying to find a comfortable position, ratcheting the holster to every position is difficult on a tall man--totally impossible with my small wife. Lastly, the holster does not securely retain the phone as well as I would like. It does not completely positively retain the phone and I have had it fall out several times. This is a big problem--as the Defender case is handles shocks and drops so well, it is virtually silent when the phone hits the ground--you may not know you even dropped it. Because of the bulk of the case, and that the charging/data port connector is recessed by about 1/4", docking stations will not work without the extremely difficult task of removing the case first. There are two solutions: made2dock makes a dock specifically for docking with the Defender case installed, and docking extenders are available to extend the charging/data port connector at the base to adapt to most other docks. Oil-slick looking screen: I absolutely hated the bubbles in the screen. Not just because of there appearance, but because they seemed to make the screen sluggish and non-responsive during use. After checking online for solutions, such as baby powder and wiping oil from my face, I found that ordering Apple's antiglare screen protector and installing it on the phone before putting it in the case solved this problem. This was the best permanent solution. Otterbox should include a similar device in the box with this case.