BodyGuardz Review — Mobile Skins & Protection Comparison (2012)

If you are looking for protection for your portable device, BodyGuardz covers pretty much any brand of device you can imagine.  From iPhone to Acer to Viewsonic, they have it all including tablets, smartphones, and mobile phones.  They even offer protection for Nintendo DS, e-readers, and GPS.

Upon arrival at the BodyGuardz website, you will find it clean, organized, and user-friendly with all of the appropriate headings to make product search and site navigation easy.  Once you dive in to the website, you'll see that BodyGuardz offers their own-branded clear skins, ScreenGuardz screen protectors, and solid armor cases for your devices.  For their screen protectors, you’ll find the option to go with a classic style or you can upgrade to a heavy-duty antiglare, or an ultra tough clear, or an interesting product that is a privacy screen guard which offer 4-way privacy screen that is clear when looking at it head on.

 Other items available for devices are product specific earjax ear buds and and micro-fiber cleaning cloths and cleaning solutions.  Finally, you'll find a BodyGuardz branded Powerbank which is a small portable accessory that allows the user to charge their device 3 to 4 times while travelling.  It's boast dual USB ports and is compatible with hundreds of devices.

Aside from offering as many devices as BodyGuardz does, which is unique in itself, on a clean, easy-to-use website, their products are top quality as they customize their own products.  Their screen guards are available in classic style, HD anti-glare and ultra-tough wet or dry applications.  The full body clear skins are available in wet or dry application.  BodyGuardz also offers a full-body carbon fiber armor that is one solid colour or you can get the armor with a customized art design called armor art.

The uniqueness lies not only in the volume of the products offered but also in the quality of the products.  Many market competitors including those on Ebay and Amazon offer standard skins and covers that simply cannot match the quality of the ones offered by BodyGuardz.  The competitors buy from a wholesaler and re-sell the products.  BodyGuardz manufactures their own products and are the only company that boasts the armor made of carbon fiber.   This is also the reason that they can offer a customized cut by request.

BodyGuardz also has how-to videos and directions on installing your device protectors that can be found underneath each product type.  They even have a video that shows how their product holds up.  A smartphone encased in carbon fiber armor is tied to the back of a go-kart and dragged for a few laps where it is then shown that the cell phone suffers no damage, not even a scratch, and only a few markings exist on the case.

The commitment BodyGuardz has for providing products that are high quality is unrivaled.  They offer 30 day satisfaction guarantees and a 20% re-curring customer discount.  It's quite clear that they stand way above the rest with device protectors both in product quality and customer satisfaction.  They also offer a lifetime guarantee option for all of their products.

One competitor is Zagg.com whose website is also clean, organized, and user-friendly.    They offer similar products to BodyGuardz and Zagg is also a manufacturer and reseller like BodyGuardz. One of BodyGuardz direct competitors for screen protectors is invisibleSHIELD which is what Zagg offers.  Zagg's invisibleSHIELD screen protectors are offered in one option, unlike BodyGuardz that offer a number of options for their screen protectors.   Zagg also offers a number of designed skins but do not offer a clear skin like BodyGuardz however, they do offer their own branded leather skins.  In terms of hard cases, you can find the iFrogz polycarbonate case from Zagg.  There is no video test to show the performance of the polycarbonate case offered by Zagg which is a negative strike as BodyGuardz shows the video on their carbon fiber cases that was summarized earlier in this review.  

Overall, Zagg.com has similar offerings to BodyGuardz but BodyGuardz has better product support right on the website.  BodyGuardz also has a better price point.  While BodyGuardz offers more protection options with their products, Zagg offers more designs on their skins and cases.

A second competitor of BodyGuardz is skinit.com.  Skinit offers a wide variety of device brands that they protect though they don't cover quite as many brands as BodyGuardz. The easy to use website shows an offering of protective skins but also designer skins for a whole slew of handheld devices from phones to calculators to external harddrives.  While Skinit does offer screen protectors and skins for the same types of devices as BodyGuardz, they don't offer the heavy-duty options or anti-glare options.  They also do not offer carbon fiber armor instead they offer a skin that "looks like" carbon fiber.  

Because skinit doesn't just specialize in phone/tablet/gaming systems protection as they offer protection for just about any mobile device, it leaves you wanting more after using BodyGuardz.  BodyGuardz focus and commitment is clearly on phones and tablets so they offer great product support without ever having to contact anyone.  They also offer superior products for comparable devices. Both Skinit and BodyGuardz offer customizable protectors but skinit does offer a greater variety of customizable art designs for protectors using categories such as sports, photography, and humor and so on.

A third competitor of BodyGuardz is GelaSkins.  GelaSkins produces screen protectors and skins but do not offer a product that is comparable to BodyGuardz armor.  Gelaskins seems to focus on the hottest devices as they offer just over 100 devices which is far less than what BodyGuardz protects.  Their offerings include phones, tablets, e-readers, portable gamin systems, and laptops.  They offer a 3M screen protector and skin and like Skinit, don't offer different variations of their screen protectors.  

The advantage of BodyGuardz over GelaSkins is the number of devices protection is offered for, the availability of carbon fiber armor that can be customized to armor art, and the level of product support for users without having to send an email or make a phone call.  The one advantage Gelaskins offers over BodyGuardz is that if consumers are interested in different skin designs they have a huge selection of customizable options right on the website.

BodyGuardz pricing is better than or comparable to their rivals products.  Impressive considering the product quality and the level of product support that is offered by BodyGuardz.

BodyGuardz Classic clear screen protector for the iPhone 4 is priced at $9.95 and it comes with a squeegee and five protectors.  Zagg's price point is 14.99 for their similar screen protector.  Gelaskins comparable film is $12.95 that includes a micro-fiber cleaning cloth while Skinits price point is $14.99 and includes a micro-fiber cleaning cloth as well.

BodyGuardz offers their standard full body clear skin and for the iPhone 4 it is $19.95 and includes 2 complete skin sets. Zagg does not offer a clear skin, but their solid black full body skin is priced at $19.99 and comes with one skin.  Neither Gelaskins nor Skinit offers a clear full body skin that I could find.  Gelaskins has a template of pre-designed skins that start at $14.99 for one skin while Skinit offers custom designed skins that start at $28.99 for the single skin.

BodyGuardz is the only company that offers the real carbon fiber armor that is customizable.  If you go with the one that is non-customizable for iPhone 4 it is $19.95.  If you choose to add an art design to your armor it is an additional $14.95.  Zagg offers their solid colored  polycarbonate case called the Luxe Lean and it is priced at $24.95.

BodyGuardz also offers returning customers a 20% discount on any product they have available.

Internet reviews are completely positive.  Even if a reviewer prefers another product they still speak very highly of BodyGuardz.

"So you just shelled out half a grand for a brand new iPad, and you’re still looking for a way to keep it in pristine condition without having to buy an ugly case? The body and screen protectors from BODYGUARDZ are exactly what you need.

For the record, I’m a huge fan of this type of shielding, you can’t find more discreet than that, and it does an amazing job at keeping scratches away from your favorite gadget. I’ve used BODYGUARDZ as well as invisibleSHIELD products on my MacBooks for years, and to this day they still look great."  

"There are a few reasons I chose Bodyguardz and why I'm a big fan of their product.

For one, if you don't like bulky protectors that change the look of your gadget, BodyGuardz are among the thinnest and most invisible (no "orange peel effect" like other so-called invisible options) available. It's very difficult to tell that there's anything on there. And yet, the protection is solid. The bodyguardz film is the same material that protects the front of your car from the onslaught of rocks and other projectiles. Something tells me your ipod or phone or whatever you're protecting isn't going to be traveling 45 mph; so it can handle whatever you get into.

It's also nice to know that they offer a lifetime guarantee."