Gelaskin review: Dark Horse style!
It's likely you've heard of GelaSkins before. They make stickers to cover a variety of gear. They are of a nice thickness with a slight texture, and removal won't hurt either your equipment or the GelaSkin itself (if you're careful).
Here's the latest project from the GelaSkin folks: They have partnered with Dark Horse Comics to release skins featuring art from Dark Horse titles. You may remember the announcement earlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con that these were coming; and now they are available for pre-order (the first wave is available next Friday). They're starting off properly, too: Buffy, Hellboy, Mr Toast, and Umbrella Academy to name a few. (NOTE: While GelaSkin makes skins for a variety of devices, the Dark Horse line is limited to 13"/15" laptops and iPhones.)
One of the things I have always loved about GelaSkins is the quality of the printing on them, and these skins are no different. I have laid my eyes and hands upon the iPhone varieties of the Buffy Season 8 #1 skin and the Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite skin, and they are beautiful in person. Add to that the coordinating wallpaper created to go with each skin, and now you have covered the front AND the back of your iPhone with something pretty cool.
As for application, another really nice thing about GelaSkins is that they aren't super adhesive right off the bat, so you get an opportunity to wiggle it into place before you press it down. I have applied a wide variety of adhesive protectors to a wide variety of devices and this definitely rates as one of the easiest.I had one fiddly corner at the curve in my iPhone, it peeled up easily so I could redo the corner and looks fine.
A warning, however: If you want to protect every micron of that plastic back from scratches, this isn't your solution. It does cover most of the back, but the top, bottom, and corners are exposed. Also if you are a dropper/kicker/thrower, this won't protect against any of that either. I will point out that it's a pretty slim sticker, my iPhone slid into my Griffin Clarifi case with the GelaSkin on it-snugly, and I had to be careful not to damage it-but it fit fine. So if you want to spruce up a clear case, or don't need case-level protection, these are a great looking option.
Dark Horse did a nice job of getting a variety of art out there in this first batch, and there will be more variety in the future: one artist Dark Horse has confirmed for future GelaSkins is Frank Miller. If you can't wait to get a little Dark Horse on your iPhone, they have a number of digital comics in the App Store right now. For a limited time, both Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1(iTunes) and Terminator: Death Valley #1(iTunes) are available for free. So should you want to set your iPhone or laptop apart from everyone else's, and you don't need the full protection of case or invisibleSHIELD this is a durable and stylish way to distinguish your gear.
