Biologic Bike Mount Plus for iPhone 5

The Biologic Bike Mount Plus for iPhone 5 will protect your precious phone from all weathers and even being dropped on the floor, but it's fiddly to get in and out of its mount.

The first thing you notice when pickup the Biologic case is that it is a substantial piece of kit. It's certainly looks ruggedised and it's not small. Initial impressions are that it's pretty well thought out, it seems pretty well thought out. There is a cam action fastener on each of the long sides of the case, with some good size finger pulls underneath the case that make it easy to open even with gloves on. Flip open the lid and you reveal the compartment in which the phone is placed.

At this point it's perhaps worth mentioning that the case will add an extra 9mm to the width of your phone and an extra 24mm to the length. Like I said, it's a substantial piece of kit.

Inside the case there is an rubber gasket that goes round the perimeter of the case and gives you the feeling that it will provide a good degree of weather protection. Inside the hard shell there is a silicone liner which would seem to add additional sealing and some shock protection to the phone. The reason the case is so much longer than the phone is that it's possible to connect your charger and headphone cable to the phone while it's in the case and still have some degree of weather sealing.

Once your precious iPhone is in the case, the lid closed and the cam clips done up, operating the phone is easy. The clear plastic cover which allows you to operate the phone is quite thin, providing you a good degree of visibility without any noticeable reduction in sensitivity.

As far as the case is concerned, so far so good.

Moving onto the mount for the bike. The mount has a straightforward plastic jubilee clip type arrangement to attach to the bike. You can use the supplied Allen key to tighten up the plastic band around the handlebars or stem (don't do it up too tight as you will strip the head on the plastic worm screw).

I wasn't a great fan of the mount itself; in comparison to the case it seems a bit of an afterthought. The case connects to the mount with a bit of a slot and push arrangement. Then you have to fiddle around underneath the case to try and get the securing screw in the hole and done up. Not easy with gloves on. If you don't get the screw in right, the mount will fall off.

I wasn't planning on testing the drop protection offered by the case but in faffing around trying to screw the case to the mount I did drop the phone from handlebar height onto the concrete floor of my garage. I'm pleased to report that the case does indeed offer good drop protection to the phone. In all it probably took about ten minutes to fit the mount the first time round. Ten minutes isn't ages but other mounting systems like the Quadlock and RokForm can be taken on or off the bike in less than a minute.

Once the case is connected to the mount and screwed up properly it does feel secure. The mount allows the case to rotate through 360° with a nice 'clicky' feel allowing the phone to operate in landscape or portrait mode.

Out on the road I used the mount on a couple of 40-mile rides, mainly using the phone as a sat-nav. You do feel secure that what ever the weather may throw at you, your phone is going to be safe. I was caught in a couple of rainstorms but was never worried about my phone getting wet.

The sensitive screen cover really helped when actually using the phone. Switching apps and pinch zooming in and out on the maps was as responsive as usual. The home button worked well if you press confidently enough.

All that weather proofing comes at a cost however: you can't hear the phone ring. Stopping the water getting in means the sound can't easily get out and I did miss a couple of calls.

The case as it stands at the moment is one of the best I've seen for protecting your phone from the weather. With your iPhone secured inside you feel confident that it's safe in the event of a substantial downpour. The trade-off is that you are unlikely to use it on a daily basis as a standard phone case: it's just too big. Charging your phone whilst not on the bike would also be tricky. You can fit a charging lead in the bottom but you're unlikely to do so when at home or in the office, it's just far easier to take the phone out of the case.

If you are looking for a seriously water resistant case then the BioLogic is great. I can forgive it for being big as it seems to do a good job of keeping my phone secure and dry when the weather gets bad. You can always slip it into a different case when off the bike. It's just a shame about the mount. The Quadlock and RokForm mounting systems are a league apart from the Biologic. Your friends will be half a mile down the road by the time you've finished faffing with that screw.

Verdict

Great a protecting your phone in all weathers but the mount is too fiddly