Between the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst and the Ballistic Hydra if you're looking
for everyday protection
go with this case when compared between these two and if you're looking to go
snorkeling or do stuff underwater with your phone
definitely go with the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case
Real Usage. Real Reviews. Mobile Reviews -eh.ca
Hi its Aaron from Mobile Reviews - eh.ca
and today we're gonna do a comparison video between the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst and the ballistic Hydra
this name always gets me there's a survivor and there's a plus and there's
a catalyst
both in these cases the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst Case and the Ballistic Hydra Case
are waterproof as well as drop-able
now the waterproof passed the kinda normal mark of 6 feet
a Griffin Survivor + Catalyst is waterproof case up to 9 feet ballistic Hydra is waterproof up to
7 feet
depending on what you planning on doing with your phone in these cases if your
vacation by a lake or ocean these two cases may fit your
need now based on our Eh? rating system both these cases
scored a almost the same this was 3.6 Eh?'s out of 5
this was 3.5 Eh?'s out of 5 and on our scoring system we base things and design
protection and
usability or functionality of the case so we're gonna
step through those real quick in terms of weight and bulk the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
is a little thicker while the Ballistic Hydra is a little wider
and both are from are about the same height in terms of
well that height now you don't notice the bulkiness
of the ballistic Hydra because
you can access the entire party your phones even parts that are in
touch sensitive so
above the touchscreen the case allows you to see the whole thing so
you don't really notice that there is this plastic bumper around and the bumper
actually adds
nice grip-ability but because you are always carrying your phone or using
your phone through the finest part of the case you know really
notice the actual extra bulkiness now with the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case you can definitely feel that your phone is
encased in this hard polycarbonate
but t feels very very bulky. in terms of installation both of these cases are actually
very easy to install we did get caught up on the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
because
without reading the instruction manual you see all these latches and you pull
them all at once and you think
you gonna pull these two latches out at the same time, no you only suppose to pull one
at a time in order to uninstall to case
now in terms that ballistic Hydra they've got these things called
active latches and these active latches again easy to install in both these
cases
you know you pop your phone in and out of them in less than a minute
which is nice in terms the Build Quality the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case is a
little higher than the ballistic hydro
now the problem with the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst is that they will definitely show the wear
and tear so
there's not there's no rubber bumpers on this case and so if you were to drop in
on the ground like we have
your case is gonna get scuffed up so
you know over time you're you're gonna lose small small bits and pieces are
your case and
you know you have to drop it several thousand times to actually
wear through the entire polycarbonate but the outside is basically this hard
clear plastic and I just sucks and scratches like nobody's business so the
build quality
gets knocked down a few notches for the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
case now in terms of the ballistic hydra
the screen protector the more you wipe it so if you get stuff on the inside the
screen protector you take like a
microfibre cloth to wipe that you actually scratch the inside of the
screen protector so after a while looks like you know you've been
taken sandpaper on top of your screen protector which is a little annoying and
sometimes the fit, I don't think you hear that
that squeaky, that's all the pieces
don't stay tight together
you know the latches are nice and everything but it doesn't feel like the
entire case
is really really tight really really well put together we've gone through two of
these cases
and the first one was not waterproof it failed a lot of water tests in this one
kind of failed the first few then we figured out that you have to install it in a
certain way
and so the build quality is a little lower its lower than that Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case
from our opinion in terms of drop protection both these cases are
drop-able
I believe both of them are drop-able from about 6 feet now again the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
shows a lot to wear and tear so if you were to drop it on gravel
you're definitely gonna see some scuff marks
that's not the case with the ballistic Hydra because you've got this great
thing is kinda bumper thing goes all around the entire case and
most the time your drops going to fall on that bumper we did have one drop
that didn't fall on the rubbery parts and scuffed up the plastic
but again the phone is fine. one of the neat things to notice is that
the cases unusual requires to have the phone to sit
really really snug inside the case and they've got these bumpers that
have make a contact around the entire iphone ballistic has these little plastic
nobs the pop-up that's part of the shock absorption so the iphone
doesn't actually touch and improve the keys are in the screen protector kinda
sit on this layer
of air and thats kind of how ballistic does their drop protection
in terms of waterproofness both these cases well there is water resistant and
waterproofness both these cases are definitely water-resistant
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case is definitely waterproof
ballistic Hydra case, this is our second case and
I didn't water testing for the first few times on the second case and
still kinda failed which was disappointing Agata when did it and then
her test for much more successful so I'm guessing you probably could put your
iphone in this and be okay with that but
between the first case in the second case we notice no physical difference
between
the case that was waterproof the case that wasn't so we can tell you what to
look for if your gonna buy this case so
in terms waterproof case well we knocked down a couple notches
so if you're looking for purely waterproof case then the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
is a case that you should get now in term of the screen protection
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case
the screen protector is a little thinner and it's very very tight so we actually
did drop in on his face and the screen did survive
which is nice but it doesn't feel like it's a very thick screen protector
whereas in the
Ballistic Hydra case got a very thick screen protector when compared to the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
now both of these screen protectors are plastic and so
they will get scratched up and what not but they will protector your iPhone
in terms of the functionality using your iphone inside these cases both of them have
some oddities to them with the Griffin Survivor + Catalyst
the name of this case is awful to say
one other things that the instruction manual just tell you is once you install your case
you have to depressurize your iphone some have to pop open
the bottom lash well as the headphone jack and the headphone jack
plug does come off but you can easily put it back on but
you have to depressurize iphone inside the case to allow the center to mind if you
if you don't do that then
nobody's going to hear you speak and you're barely gonna be able to hear
anybody
talk that really hampers the functionality of the iphone especially when you
use your iPhone
as an actual phone, now with that being said if you take in this on vacation you
probably not to be taken a lot of calls so that might be something
you can deal with I could not ok now
in terms that the ballistic Hydra there was on that person had a problem in
terms of having the case muffle the sound
through the bottom but the plastic part at the top here
where the earpiece mic is it doesn't sit completely flush on the iphone there's
something different about it and so it kinda vibrates and
decrease this echoing affect and you can barely hear the sounds like you're
talking on the phone from the nineteen fifties and sixties it
the audio quality from the earpiece mic is incredibly poor and that was
a really big knock a against this case in terms the screen usability the
ballistic hydra case
comes out on top only because there isn't anything covering like you have here at
the bottom of the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case you got this hard plastic thing the ballistic hydra is not
so
accessing the control center with iOS7 is a breeze
no accessing your daily summary from the talk is also breezing getting into camera
not a problem at all now you can do all those things with the
Griffin Survivor + Catalyst case as well and when the saving grace is that the lip
at the very bottom has a 45 degree angle so it doesn't come straight off the
phone it kinda has this
a little lift so getting to the bottom on the phone is quite easily so
you'll still be able to access your iOS7 Control Center fairly easily just
not as
easily as the ballistic Hydra in terms of your view-ability the ballistic Hydra
had well because all the scratches you can definitely see all the scratches
on the screen protector and so that notches is it down a few
the glare isn't bad but then you can definitely see that your screen
protectors very scratched up
now for the Griffin survivor + catalyst the glare coming up this case is
really really bad so you can have a light source but then who know the
reflection coming off the case it just kinda scatters all the late so you have
a very fine
you can I verify lights are shining on this case and then all of a sudden you
you know you can release your followed
both these cases have case and hence months which is nice the case in
enhancements for
thisGriffin survivor + catalyst is a waterproof plug as well as a wrist strap so
difficult snorkeling you're probably not going more than 10 feet the average
person is and i cant
go down to I'm really bad snorkelers but
you know you got tourist trap I and so you can be
don't do anything with her hands and you can definitely snorkel with this case
now the Ballistic Hydra doesn't have anything for your wrist loop so you're
probably not going to be taking the snorkeling
but it does come with a belt clip and that belt clip is much
much more usable than the other ballistic belt clip that we had so
they're kinda meant I don't know I would say they're meant for different things
but
if you're going and doing a lot of water sports like on the water snorkeling or
not
the Griffin survivor + catalyst is the case to get
lastly I'll talk about is the price and both these cases their price to book the
same so on the web sites to between seventy
an eighty dollars per case so you know
these aren't cheap cases but they will get the job done so if any questions
about these cases leave them in the comments section below
find us on Google+ Twitter as well as Facebook
I am Aaron_The_ho (twitter) and I'm a review at Mobile Reviews - eh.ca
everything that we review is based on are using it for at least one to three
weeks so we actually go through the
purses /a using the entire case during their daily lives to see
which ones work and which ones don't so
give it a thumbs up
we've also got other comparison videos for waterproof cases we've got ones for
their Lifeproof Nuud vs Griffin Survivor + Catalyst and the Ballistic Hydra
Hydra as well as some other ones I
went to a lot of comparison videos between cases
so find those in the annations the comments that were no comments in the
description section below or find them on the annotations on the screen
up thank you for watching
bye