I’d like to thank the guys at BSE for their donation of the 1G and 2G skins – Especially Sherry for keeping me in contact all the way through the process. Excellent customer service from you guys, and you know I greatly appreciate it. Now here’s my side of the bargain:

Hey Guys and Gals.

Yesterday, I got my BSE order from… uh… BSE. This will be the fourth review of the HTiT case review series, and the first of the 2nd Generation cases. I got a 2G skin with my order – And I spent ages putting it on correctly and trying to make it look nice for you guys to make a decision.

Continue reading for the full in-depth review of both skins, including more photos and an installation help guide!

Here’s what you get when you order:

Two sheets of white paper, each one with a see-through sticker on. The compenents of the BSE are a full back piece, a full front piece, and a home button circle (very small, on the same sheet as the front piece). The promise (and theory) is, that this skin will protect your device from scratches and everyday wear by covering it with a protective film. Read below for the Installation help guide, or scroll down below for the review and photos.

Installation – Here’s what you’ll need:

• A bowl or tub of luke-warm water and a splash of washing-up liquid.
• Both your sheets of BSE.
• A shammy or lint-free cloth.
• A towel to work on.
• A flannel (or hand towel for non-British) to dab up the excess water.
• Credit card or hard, flat, card-like object.
• Optional: Toilet paper, a bathroom, and a lot of time and patience.

Start off by setting everything up where you can see it, and getting comfortable. If you want to work in the bathroom like I did, run the hot water on the bath and the sink so that steam is produced. This will help eliminate dust from the air and give you a better working environment. Now start with the front of your iPod, and rub it with your lint-free cloth to get rid of any dust on the front. If it helps, you can breathe on it or wet a cloth to wash the screen with beforehand – It’s going to get wet anyway.

When you’re ready to continue, pick up your front piece and remove it. Drop it in your soapy, warm water, and get your fingertips wet too to avoid smearing your film with fingerprints. After you’re sure that the piece is wet enough, remove it from the water with your wet fingers and squeegy some of the water off, so that it is still slightly wet but not dripping.

Drop it onto your iPod’s front – Anywhere. Now slide it around to get it in the exact place you want it. Check your sides, top and bottom and home button to ensure they aren’t obscured or overlapped. Now try and dry the water off the protector with your hand towel – Be careful though because your front piece will move around as it’s still wet. Also try and squeeze the water out from under the protector with a credit/top-up/debit/reward/gift card – Not too hard though because you’ll damage it like I did.

Now all you need to do is wait! It’ll dry in the position you left it in, so make sure it’s lined up and go watch TV for 20 minutes. When you come back, do the home button in the exact same way, but you can use tissue or toilet paper if you’re worried about water damage – Use the paper to soak up the excess water.

Now for the back. A little harder. Do the same for the front, line it up after you’re dropped it on and squeegy the water out – Be aware of the dock and headphone jack! Use toilet paper again to make sure you’re not pushing water INTO the dock. leave that dry with the sides still not curved yet. When you’re back from letting it dry, wet your fingers and wipe the sides to get them wet too, then try curling them around and holding them there.

If this doesn’t work after about an hour of trying, I recommend balancing your iPod on a podium-type thing with the screen face-down so that gravity will do the curling for you while you sleep. Remember that patience is needed throughout the process, and you even have to wait days afterwards to ensure all of the air bubbles are gone.

And that’s how you install it! Relatively easy. Now for the reivew:

Review

The BSE is a very simple, yet brilliant idea. For people like me that want to be able to see the beautiful shape and shiny back of their device – This is what we need for our protection. Rumours of an “orange peel effect” sometimes put people off buying one though, but trust me when I say it’s not bad at all. Infact, it’s so light that you hardly notice it. And when you do, you’ll love the way it looks.

Installation is easy when you get stuck in, but time and patience are required in order to succeed to the highest possible standard. The product is packaged with the environment in mind, and even protects the home button.

The corners are very sleek when you get them right. On the photo below, I’ve had to draw on a line to show you where the corner-joint is because it really is unnoticable. In terms of looks – I would definetly rate this highly – No extra bulk added; all the glory of your iPod and a nice effect in bright lights.

But to avoid being totally biased, there are some points I would like to add – Improvements and problems maybe?

The problem with the corners is that one or two do curl back up, and look unsightly. What’s worse is, if you always have your iPod in your pocket (like me), you’ll end up with lint and dust sticking to the exposed sticky parts of the device (The corners and around the protector on the front, and I’ve also noticed it happening around the home button). This was something I’d never though of, and I can imagine a build up of this lint being unsightly and possibly ruining the look of the case.

I’d always like a see through dock protector – Something like what SwitchEasy give you but see through so that it’s as unnoticable as the skin. Because dust and lint will get in there aswell.

But this skin is brilliant and a cheap alternative to the Zagg InvisibleShield.

My Verdict:

Looks: A solid 10/10. My only complaint would be the future build up of lint on the corners – But I’m sure I’ll think of a way to avoid this in the future and tell you lot.

Protection: 9/10. Won’t stop your iPod from impact if you dropped it, but you shiny back and gorgeous front won’t be haunted by a thousand, millions hair-scratches.

Feel: 9/10. Weird at first but I actually like it now. The skin gives your iPod far more grip to keep you safe in mind if you’re playing TTR and you need to enter Revenge Mode…

Price: 10/10. $8. What’s that in the UK? £4? For complete protection of your £180 iPod? Totally worth it.

Overall: 38/40. Brilliant price, looks, design, everything. This alternative to heavy, thick cases is worth the money, and you can always buy replacements for cheap if you need to! I give it:

Grade “A“

Get it from http://www.bestskinsever.com/ today, at the low price of just $7.99.

Coming soon:

Here’s some eye-candy for you all. These will be just 2 of the reviews I’ll be doing soon – Including an iFrogz case and BSE, both for the 1G market.