Duk Gear Phone Case Review

Earlier this year, Duk Gear sent me out a phone case for review. I used the case over the last few month for kayaking and canoeing. These are my impressions.

What is it?

The Duk Gear Waterproof Phone Case is a soft plastic phone case that floats. It holds an IPX8 certification which means that it can be submerged in depths greater than 1 meter. The manufacturer determines the distance, and Duk Gear says it is waterproof up to 65 feet. The plastic is touchscreen compatible. It has a clear plastic opening on the back for your phone’s camera. It comes with a carabiner and lanyard. Multiple colors are available. The case has a flip-lock-style closure system.

Duk Gear Phone Case Review

Duk sent me a XL phone case to use with my Pixel 6. I picked blue. To summarize: in it’s primary function — that is being waterproof and floating — it performed perfectly in the few months that I’ve used it. The phone was easy to get into the case and easy to take out. The closure system was easy to use. It seemed to work fine as a waterproof phone case. What more would you want?

You might want the finger print reader to work. It didn’t work for me no matter what I tried. Not a big deal. I just had to enter my password each time.

Because I use my phone for photography, I did have a few issues. The first was I like to start my camera by double clicking the power button. The case’s seam falls directly on the power button and often I had to attempt the click multiple times. I do wonder about the durability of double clicking on the seam over and over. Will it hurt the seam? During the months I tested, I didn’t have that durability issue. It seems like all phone cases have this seam, so I don’t know if there’s a way around it.

The second issue I had was that after the plastic got wet, the plastic over the camera wouldn’t bead the water off. This resulted in a blurry image. To prevent that I found I had to dry the plastic opening. My nylon drysuit wouldn’t dry it. In the end, I carried a microfiber cloth. I didn’t try putting 303 Spray on it or rubbing an onion on it like you might with a dive mask. Those solutions may help, but I just tried to not get the plastic wet.

Overall

Other than that, it worked, and it fit into my Stohlquist Descent life vest’s front pocket. I found that I always had it with me. The images below were taken with my Pixel 6 inside the Duk Gear phone case. You can get it on Amazon by clicking the link.