Because my handheld case doubles as my wallet, I had to have a case the day I bought the LifeDrive, so I settled for Palm's leather flip-style case. It was a great disappointment. There are nowhere near enough pockets, the slots for the SD cards are very loose and insecure, in fact one of them is only half-depth, and I never felt comfortable with the restraint system the case uses to retain the handheld. Then along came Proporta, with a LifeDrive version of their popular Alu-Leather case shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Proporta's Alu-Leather case for the Palm LifeDrive. Click picture for a larger image.

What is Alu-Leather?
So you're wondering what Alu-Leather means, right? It is Proporta's combination of a typical leather handheld case with an aluminum (or aluminium for our friends in the UK, where Proporta is located) insert in the cover that provides a stiff, armored form to protect your fragile handheld screen.

As you can see from Figure B, the Palm case only has one pocket and uses a loose "sleeve" to retain the handheld.

FIGURE B

Palm's LifeDrive case is less than it could be. Click picture for a larger image.

But the Proporta case, shown from two views in Figure C, has ample space for business and credit cards, a sleeve just for your ID, SD card slots that actually hold the cards, and a plastic retention clip that grips the handheld to keep it secure.

FIGURE C

Proporta's Alu-Leather LifeDrive case is all that it can be. Click picture for a larger image.

In the figure above, you can see the Proporta logo on the aluminum plate in the cutout. Proporta's case also comes with a removable belt clip. Simply remove the screw that you can see in Figure A, and screw in the knob for the clip. In addition to the flip-style, Proporta also offers the Alu-Leather case in a book-style, wherein the fold is on the long side of the handheld rather than on the short side.

In conclusion
To sum it up, the Proporta Alu-Leather LifeDrive case, available in both a flip-style and a book-style, is far superior to the Palm-branded case. Not only does it offer more features, but also more security in the form of a more secure handheld restraint and an aluminum insert to protect your screen. All this, combined with the removable belt clip and butter-soft leather with contrast stitching earns the Proporta Alu-Leather LifeDrive case 4 out of 5 plugs.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

OUR RATING: 2 of 5

James Booth is the Senior Editor at ZATZ Publishing. In addition to writing for Computing Unplugged and Connected Photographer, he's the author of Do-It-Yourself Wedding Photography. A self-taught photographer, James also dabbles in digital graphics and has learned to be a PC and handheld specialist through personal trial and error. James can be reached at jbooth@zatz.com.