After several weeks of testing I am ready to name the king of the Palm Pre belt clip holster’s. First of all let me explain that I work in a building that requires business casual dress. So simply carrying the Pre in my pocket was not acceptable (huge bulge). Therefore, I began my quest to find the perfect belt clip holster.

I did have some basic requirements. It had to be black, rotatable, slim, and have access to the audio port. The first one i tried was the Seido Spring Clip Holster with audio port access that can be bought here:

At first, I opened the packaging and took out the holster and the first thought popping into my head was high quality. It felt very solid and was made from a material that seemed to be a plastic/rubber hybrid. The swivel was solid and doesn’t moved unless you force it to move with strong hand twists. The spring clip had a medium strength “grabbiness”. Under the spring clip was a small protruding clip about 1cm long which I guess is there to help guide the Pre into place. The holster had a nice felt layer on the inside which is supposed to protect your screen from scratches. However, 90% of the Palm Pre users will have a scratch resistance shield on their screen so the felt layer may not matter much.

I found that the Pre would only go into the holster if the screen was facing inwards. I also found that the Pre does not seat perfectly in this holster. The Pre wants to slide open when inserting into the holster and even when you push down on the spring clip it never goes perfectly closed. I found a fix for this. I simply cut off the 1cm long protruding piece of plastic on the top underneath the spring clip. I am not sure why this was deemed necessary for the holster by Seido. I found it a huge nuisance. After removing the 1cm long protruding piece of plastic with wire cutters I was able to get the Pre into the holster flush. It was also easier to remove the Pre from the holster with that piece gone.

This holster allows for easy one handed entry and removal of the Pre. It does take some skill but not much. Unfortunately, after two weeks with this holster the spring clip got stuck underneath the 1cm long protruding piece of plastic that i removed 90% of and while trying to get the spring clip unstuck i ripped it off. Holster dead. (UPDATE: Seidio read this review and contacted me. They were more than willing to replace my broken holster.)

Instead of ordering it again (its a little high priced) I decided to try another. This time my requirement was that it be a dead simple holster that was cheap. I also needed it to allow the Pre to face outward and inward. I found one made by Optimum Holster that can be found here:

This holster was dead simple and dead cheap. When I got it, it did feel a little cheap but I was happy enough considering the price. It has no clip mechanism. It relies on the elasticity of the plastic clip on the top to hold the Pre in place. It also allows the Pre to be facing outward in the holster.

The holster mad for easy easy Pre entry. Removal was more difficult than the Seido holster. In most cases you will need two hands, but after a while in certain situations I could remove it with one hand. The real plus for this case is that you can put it in inwards or outwards. There are situations where you want to see notifications without removing the Pre from the holster. Simply put it in the holster facing outwards for those situations. I found this a HUGE plus for the holster. The other huge bonus for this holster was that it was much slimmer and sleeker than the Seido. The clip on the top part of the Seido protrudes too far and your arm can hit it at time. But this Optimum case is perfectly flush with the face of your Pre so my arm never hit it once. I love this holster.

I have been using it for several weeks now and I feel totally comfortable claiming it the best Palm Pre holster in the world (currently). This holster definitely gets the L337Tech stamp of approval.

-L337Tech