Editors Note: This review was conducted and compiled by Alex Maxham and Nathan Harbin together.
dbrand was established 11.11.11 and since then have become the go to brand for skinning your popular electronics. They have been producing skins for the Apple iPhone and iPad for all of their existence, and I can tell you from experience that those were some great skins. More recently though, dbrand has started producing for Android devices including the Samsung Galaxy S3, the LG Nexus 4, and ASUS Nexus 7. dbrand has been awesome enough to send us a few skins for the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7, so head on past the break for our first impressions of these sweet looking, or as dbrand puts it, boss vinyl skins.
One of the coolest things that dbrand is doing is with their shipping. While it might take a little longer to get your product from the Canadian company, it is well worth the wait and with a $3.00 flat-rate to anywhere in the world. I feel that dbrand is doing it right there. I received mine in just about 5 business days from when I got the shipping email, and the packaging was gorgeous for the Nexus skins that I got. It showcased the new skins perfectly and gave you a clear view of the beauty that would soon adorn the back glass.
Editor’s Note 2: dbrand recently contacted us after we received our review units to inform us that their shipping has now changed from 7-14 days to 2-5 days. So good news on the shipping side.
Inside the packaging were the vinyl skins and dbrand branding showing you how to get to the page that will walk you through the installation. Although the installation of the skin is pretty simple, I would recommend that you hit that page up just to make sure you get the gist of it.
Installation is pretty much just pressing the skin into place, but make sure not to apply pressure until you have the skin lined up just the way you want it, because once you stick it, it is stuck and you will have to peel it all the way off to reposition the skin.
Once the skin is on, it looks brilliant. I tried out both the white leather and the dark titanium. The white leather version looks very slick and classy, but I instantly fell in love with the styling of the titanium model. It just looks insanely brilliant and, in my opinion improves on the premium look and feel of the Nexus 4. In the two-days that I have had the titanium model installed, I’ve been asked about my phone at least a half-dozen times from people wondering about the phone’s model. It is almost absurd to think that it is the phone’s protection that is making it look this great, but dbrand has definitely gotten this right. The feel, and the fit are premium, beyond any skin that I have seen for the Nexus 4. Believe me, I have been through a few, and they usually do not stay on my phone for more than a day or so just because I love the premium feel of the Nexus 4 and just can’t stand anything taking away from that. The dbrand skin definitely does not take away anything from the phone’s design and does not look tacked on at all. There was obviously a whole lot of thought that went into making this skin fit perfectly to the back glass, and when applied correctly, you really can’t tell where the glass ends and skin begins. That is how it is supposed to be. This is a skin done right.
Alex’s Thoughts
I’ve already tried out BodyGuardz skin which you can check out that review here. Comparing the dbrand skins to the BodyGuardz skin, dbrand is much easier to install. The BodyGuardz skin came with many different pieces because it covers the sides of the device as well. Which lining them all up perfectly takes quite a while. But it does come with a screen protector as well. The dbrand skin is just one piece. Although it is a bit difficult to line up these skins with the Nexus logo on both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7, it’s still much easier than installing the BodyGuardz skin.
The skin for the Nexus 7 is a bit different, as it covers the front as well as the back. Which is meant to provide the most protection and style. I received the titanium versions for both the Nexus 4 and 7. The lighter one for the Nexus 4 and the darker one for the Nexus 7.
Overall I really like the skins that dbrand has. They are available in a ton of different colors and styles. They are available for a variety of different devices, as Nathan elaborated on in the beginning of this review. The Nexus 4 skin that I received was around $9 and the Nexus 7 one was around $20. So they might be a bit pricey, but they are well worth it. Now what I really like about dbrand is their slogan which is “We are the boss of vinyl skins”. That is just awesome, and I’d have to agree with them.
Head on over to dbrand.com to get your very own skin! If you are already sporting one of dbrand’s skins, let us know in the comments below how you’re liking them.
Giveaway
Time for the good stuff. dbrand was nice enough to give us a Black Carbon Fibre skin for the Nexus 4 to giveaway. So here are the rules, you’ll need to have a Nexus 4, and live in the US. And here’s how you can enter:
- Like us on Facebook
- Share this post on Facebook (extra entries)
- Follow us on Twitter
- Tweet about this post on Twitter (extra entries)
- +1 our Google+ page, might as well circle us as well.
- Leave a comment below
- Post your unique link given in the punchtab widget below to other sites for additional entries as well.
The giveaway is going to run until April 7th and end at 11pm. I’ll then run the punchtab and choose a winner, and once you get an email from Punchtab you’ll have 24 hours to reply with your address or you forfeit your prize.
Good luck!