Windows Phone Accessory Review: Ballistic Shell Gel Case

By George Ponder
last updated

Ballistic Shell Gel Case for the Nokia Lumia 900

We've cover a handful of two piece, shell cases for the Nokia Lumia 900 from the Otterbox Defender to the CaseMate Tough Case. Now we can add the Ballistic Shell Gel case to the mix.

The Ballistic Shell Gel is your typical two piece design with a rubber case that wraps around your Nokia Lumia 900 and a harder shell that wraps around the rubber portion. The Ballistic Shell Gel case does offer a decent amount of protection but also adds a bit of bulk to the Lumia 900. The trade off may not appeal to everyone but all in all, the Ballistic Shell Gel is not too shabby of a case.

Ballistic Shell Gel Case

The inner layer of the Ballistic case is soft silicone that wraps around your Lumia 900. The camera, headphone jack, camera, speaker on the Lumia 900 are exposed. The side buttons on the Windows Phone are covered by rubber extensions. The buttons remain functional and responsive.

Ballistic Shell Gel side view

The outer shell wraps around the silicone inner layer and is made of impact resistant polycarbonate. The shell leaves the corners of the rubber sleeve exposed to help protected the phone from drops. Speaking of which, the rubber corners are built up a bit and when you lay the Lumia 900 face down, the beefy corners prevent the screen from touching the surface.

Ballistic Shell Gel back

As far as fit and feel is concerned, the Ballistic Shell Gel does add a bit of heft to your Lumia 900. Compared to the Otterbox series, the Ballistic case falls somewhere between the Commuter (opens in new tab) and Defender (opens in new tab). With the Ballistic Shell Gel, the Lumia looses a good bit of its pocketability (unless you're talking jacket pocket or maybe a large back pocket) but you've got a decent amount of protection.  The only downside with construction is that the rubber can be a bit of a dust and lint magnet.

The Ballistic Shell Gel case is a well made, durable, skin case that does offer a decent amount of protection to your Lumia 900. The outer shell is solid and the rubber interior layer had a bit of bounce to it. The trade off is that while the Ballistic Shell Gel does offer protection from drops, scrapes and dings it adds a bit of bulk to the Windows Phone.

You can find the Ballistic Shell Gel at Ballistic's website (opens in new tab) for $34.99.

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

19 Comments
  • "The Ballistic Shell Gel is too shabby of a case." Not too shabby?
  • I saw that too. Except for a few of the writers, it appears that nobody is proofreading anything. Even a journalist should know the difference between "loose" and "lose", "compliment" and "complement", and some of the other recurring errors tech news in general.
  • Seriously this what you're both going to focus on out everything that comes out of this site?? Please. Get if your high horse and enjoy the great information that this site provides.
  • *off not if. Sorry, I couldn't resist :P
  • Lol!
  • I agree with them. It can get very annoying reading articles with these kinds of mistakes. It seems all internet based "journalists" need editors.
  • This particular error creates a misleading impression of the author's review. Because of it, his opening statement is that the phone case is too shabby, I.e. It sucks. Since this isn't what he describes within the article and is the opposite of what he intended to say, it is only polite to point it out so that he can fix it. To play on your metaphor of my high horse, maybe you should lift yourself up from the filthy gutter and stop acting like grammar, spelling and the like are so insignificant.
  • "recurring errors tech news in general". Pot. Kettle.
  • Except they aren't a paid published author. Apples. Oranges. Higher expectations.
  • Yea, it sucks that all this free information isn't perfect.  *facepalm*
  • Thanks for picking it up... corrected.
  • No problem. I enjoyed the article. I was wondering, since you referred to the other two gel hard cases, if you had a preference of the three? Maybe a follow up article weighing the pros and cons of the three and picking a best of?
  • I'll see what I can work up.  Thanks for the suggestion.
  • Really wish they made more cases like this for the Lumia 710, I know it's no where near as popular but the Bodyglove case is the only decent quality case and even that one only lasted about three months for me. Hopefully the 820 will have better support unless T-Mobile gets the 920 cross my fingers.
  • Ballistic doesn't have the name that otterbox does, but we demo it to customers by throwing our personal phones (wrapped in a ballistic case) 15+ feet across the store. We've never managed to break a screen. The only ballistic case I don't like is for the iPhone; it's not the same design as the others.
  • thats an ugly shell :\
  • I love it! my Mozart is all battered and bruised and this is the perfect solution for me when I get my 920! Thanks so much for reviewing it. I had no idea such a thing existed.
    Man I love this site!
  • Realistically, this should be called the "Super Clumsy" case :P
  • I personally love this case! Definitely going to be my next pickup. Hopefully they are working on the Lumia 920 case as that is my next phone.