Griffin Reveal case for iPhone 5/5s review

Sometimes it's good to go bare — or as bare as possible without leaving yourself exposed. I'm not talking about clothing, I'm talking about your iPhone case. For those of us with a desire to expose our phones without exposing them to the elements, Griffin has the Reveal.

The Reveal is a one-piece case design that's open on the front. A colored bezel surrounds the edge of the phone — Griffin makes them in a variety of colors to suit your taste — and the back is clear, so you can let your gold, Space Grey or silver-backed iPhone 5s shine through.

The Reveal is made of a single piece of transparent polycarbonate, about 1.6 mm in thickness, so it adds barely measurable heft to your device. The back has a cutout for the camera and flash.

The edge bumper is rubber, giving you some nice grip, and there are cutouts for the hold switch, speaker, headphone jack and Lightning connector. The Lightning connector cutout is large enough even to accommodate the bulkier connectors on some third-party cables that I've seen interfere with some case designs.

The bumper also has nubs over the iPhone's volume up and down and power buttons, molded with enough precision that you still feel a satisfying click when you press them.

The downside to the Reveal's clear design is that it shows off scuffs and marks a little too easily. One afternoon in my pants pocket and resting on tabletops, and I was already seeing some marks that wouldn't buff out with cleaner.

The good

• Slim, lightweight case
• Clear back protection to show off your iPhone's color
• Grippy rubber bezel

The bad

• No glass protection
• Transparent design shows scuffs and marks

The bottom line

Not everyone wants or needs a case that's going to totally obscure the phone it's protecting. Griffin's Reveal is designed to specifically show your phone off, with a splash of eye-catching color around it.

• $17.95 - Buy now