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Incipio [Performance] Series, Level 1 thru Level 5, iPhone Case Review
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May 30, 2025
With not one but five different categories of cases, Incipio boldly goes where no other vendor has gone with its new Performance line of shock protecting iPhone cases. Five different levels of protection! For real. In this video Dave Taylor -- of http://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ - explores how they stack up, what's different between them and whether they're worth your time and money.
View Video Transcript
0:10
hi Dave tail here and this time I want
0:13
to look at iPhone cases again yeah I
0:15
look at them all the time but incipio
0:17
sent me this amazing array of cases that
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they have now and it's kind of fun what
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they have is they have what they call
0:23
their square bracket performance square
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bracket series and they actually range
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from one through five and the idea is
0:32
that like level one is a lightweight
0:34
drop protection it's just sort of your
0:36
generic case all the way up to level
0:38
five which is let me get this right
0:40
the ultimate drop protection so I wanted
0:44
to show you them real quick I'm not
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gonna put them all on my phone because
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frankly this would be like a 45 minute
0:49
video but they're really nice they've
0:52
done a really nice job so this is the
0:54
level one this is your basic case and it
0:57
does have some impact protection but
1:00
it's really just sort of a flexible
1:01
rubber case and like all of them you you
1:04
know line up the buttons on your phone
1:06
with the holes and such on the case slip
1:10
it in and I would say Bob's your uncle
1:13
but you're probably not gonna understand
1:15
that but slip it in and I have a nice if
1:17
somewhat fairly pedestrian looking case
1:21
now you can see perhaps there are some
1:24
like in sets and out sets and stuff and
1:27
there's ridges on the side the case
1:29
isn't quite square it actually bends
1:32
outward so lots of drop protection when
1:37
I do that I always wonder it's just the
1:39
time my phone's gonna break luckily it
1:41
didn't so that's level one and let's see
1:45
so level one is a lightweight drop
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protection it's $24.99 and I'm gonna be
1:52
completely confused if I don't organize
1:54
this a little bit here's level 2 and
1:57
level 2 and level 1 actually are to me
2:00
visually indistinguishable which is why
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they need to have like a little tiny
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number on here or something so I can
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tell what's what so level 2 basically
2:11
looks the same the difference is it's
2:12
more stiff
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you saw in the first one it was very
2:14
flexible this one's stiffer so there's
2:17
more impact protection this one they
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called their dual layer drop protection
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one and this one's $29.99 this is level
2:24
two told you I can put them all on my
2:26
phone let's see now we go to level three
2:30
and level three is superior drop
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protection and this is the first one of
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the series where they actually have some
2:41
color so here you can see the edge in
2:45
set is blue and it is again that sort of
2:48
stiff thing it's even more stiff and if
2:52
I put my phone in now you'll see the
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visual appearance is essentially the
2:57
same you know I have to say they're not
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gonna win any points for aesthetics but
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at least that little blue stripe does
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make it a little more visually
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interesting and it's definitely tougher
3:08
and harder and you'll note that things
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like on the side here they've covered up
3:13
the volume buttons and they've just
3:15
marked on the rubber what it is so you
3:18
can use it same with the on/off on this
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side so the power switch is the only
3:22
exposed button actually and of course on
3:25
the bottom we have access to the ports
3:27
so this is the level three so my phone
3:31
out of it there we go and then working
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our way up sorry the incipio Performance
3:38
Series level three with superior drop
3:41
protection is 39.99 now this is a level
3:45
4 so level 4 this one I love this one
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because of the product naming this is
3:50
ultra rugged drop protection and it
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includes a and I'm gonna read this on my
3:55
note to get it right Komal co-molded
3:58
Plex Tony 'm poly carbonate what's Plex
4:03
Tony 'm turns out it's a word that they
4:05
made up and they've trademarked so
4:07
incipio yes you are the only company
4:10
that has plex tony 'm iphone cases
4:12
because it's your word be that as it may
4:16
the level for on the level 5 kick it up
4:19
a notch because in addition to having
4:21
the case that honestly plex tone IAM or
4:24
not looks a whole heck of a lot like the
4:27
level
4:27
three all right with the blue on the
4:29
side and everything it's actually
4:32
slightly more flexible but it also comes
4:34
with a holster so if you like to put it
4:36
on your belt you nerds out there you
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know who you are
4:40
then it actually works out pretty nicely
4:42
and as they say is you want to not do it
4:45
where your phone screen is facing
4:47
outward but for protection you want to
4:48
do it where your phone screens facing
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inward so I have to say I've never worn
4:53
my phone on my belt but I suppose there
4:55
could be some benefit to that it does
4:57
slide in and out very easily which is
4:59
nice and it's a nice looking case you
5:03
know even if you don't want to do that
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one of the things I really like is that
5:06
on these even if you have the one that
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comes with the belt clip and the holster
5:12
and all this stuff it doesn't leave you
5:14
with all this like annoying holes or
5:16
ridges or anything on the edge of the
5:19
actual phone case so it becomes
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something that's really easy to work
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with and this is actually a pretty nice
5:25
looking phone case and then if we go up
5:28
to the level five this is their top
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level of protection oh I'm sorry
5:32
the level four is forty four ninety-nine
5:35
and that includes plexitone iam hey you
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a Plex tone even your iPhone case
5:40
probably not okay and level five
5:43
curiously not with Plex tone iam is
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again the same sort of thing this is
5:48
called the ultimate drop protection if I
5:50
can pull it out and you can tell the
5:52
difference immediately because it has a
5:53
red stripe instead of a blue stripe so
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there's your main difference and again
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it comes with the holster that's easy to
5:59
slide out and it is actually a little
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thicker but the idea with this is that
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it actually has a front surface too so
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unlike all the other cases so like
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here's the four for example is the four
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is just an edge case right like a bumper
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case sort of thing when you get to the
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five it actually has a surface so now
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it's a little trickier to figure out how
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to put the phone in I'm not going to
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demonstrate that in the interest of time
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but it does give you even more
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protection and it has a plastic cover
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that actually goes over the screen of
6:31
your phone so if you're in more
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industrial situations or if you have a
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child that you have given a very
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expensive phone to and want it to live
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this could be a really great
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so the five with ultimate drop
6:43
protection is 49.99 and again that also
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includes the holster so I have to say of
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the whole series the one that I like the
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best and this might be somewhat
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middle-of-the-road of me is the level
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three I don't use holsters so I don't
6:59
really need to have all that additional
7:00
material and this one it's easy to put
7:04
on it has that nice little blue stripe
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so there's something visually
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interesting going on and it's a pretty
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nice phone case so this is the incipio
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Performance Series going from one to
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five and prices to match and I like them
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I wish they did a little bit more with
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their color but hey you know little blue
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racing stripe it's kind of like just a
7:27
low-key phone case and for sure whatever
7:32
phone you have and they have them for
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things other than the iPhone 6 and 6s
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whatever kind of smartphone you have I
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think putting it in some sort of a sleek
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little case to help it survive is
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incredibly smart these are very
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expensive devices and I really don't
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understand why more people don't do that
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oh well this is Dave Taylor and I'll see
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you in my next video
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