These days, smartphones are looking really good with their glass backs and metal frames. But with smartphone makers using glass for the front and back, it brings up a few issues. One being the fact that it is more fragile, as well as slippery. Luckily there are some nice cases available, including one from Incipio. This is their DualPro Shine. It’s one of their most popular lines of their cases that are made for pretty much every flagship smartphone out there. Incipio also has a number of other cases available for the Galaxy Note 5. All of which you can see here.
The DualPro Shine is a member of the DualPro family from Incipio. So the DualPro is basically a matte finish, with the Shine looking like brushed aluminum. Which looks really nice, and feels better in the hand, in my opinion. The DualPro Shine has two layers of protection here. So we have a soft layer that goes against your smartphone. This is to protect it from getting any scratches from the case. Which does appear to happen every once in a while. On the outer edge we have a hard case, that is actually two-toned on this model. So the edge is black with the back of it being gray. This is so that it can absorb impact when or if you drop your smartphone. Because it does have two layers, it is a bit bulky and makes your Galaxy Note 5 a bit thicker. But in the long run, you’d rather have a thicker phone than a broken one, right?
On the sides of the DualPro Shine, you have the hard part of the case on the left and right sides. With the soft layer visible on the top and bottom of the case. There are no cut outs here for the power button and volume rocker. But that’s not a problem, considering the soft layer of the DualPro Shine is over top of it, making it pretty easy to press when needed. There’s plenty of feedback there when you press the power or volume rocker on the right and left sides, respectively. So there’s no issue in using those with the Incipio DualPro Shine case installed. However, we do have cut outs for the microphone hole up top, as well as an assortment of cut outs on the bottom for the 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB port, speaker and S Pen silo. With the S Pen silo, it’s a bit tough to get the S Pen out. With it being a clicking mechanism this year, and how thick the case is, it can be tough the first few times to get the S Pen out. But after about 3 or 4 times, it shouldn’t be an issue though. Of course, on the back, there’s a nice large cut out for the camera and flash module. Because of how large the camera cut out is on the back, it doesn’t affect taking pictures on the Galaxy Note 5. You still get pretty amazing pictures, as you’d expect.
The front of the DualPro Shine for the Galaxy Note 5, you’ll notice there is a lip over the edge of the phone. This is to help protect that beautiful screen on the Galaxy Note 5. So this way when you drop your phone if it does land on the display, it won’t leave a mark, and the case will take all of the damage. However, because there is that lip there, it does make it a bit tricky to swipe in from the edge in certain apps. For example, in Gmail, trying to swipe in for the menu, I repeatedly was swiping away emails by mistake. An easy fix for this is to just tap the hamburger icon at the top corner to get into the slide-out menu.
Without a case, the Galaxy Note 5 is pretty big, but not that heavy. With the DualPro Shine, it does get bigger and heavier. In fact, it actually fell out of my pocket a couple of times when sitting at my desk. Not a huge issue as it just slid into the chair. But for those that might be sitting on the subway, this could be an issue. But it will still fit in your skinny jeans without any issues. While I would much rather use the Galaxy Note 5 without a case, simply because it is such a beautiful looking phone, and is much smaller and lighter, having a case on is needed. You don’t want to drop your phone and then hate yourself for not having a case on to protect the thing. Think about it, this case is a whole lot cheaper than having to replace your Galaxy Note 5.
Currently, Incipio has a number of cases available for the Galaxy Note 5. While we’re talking about the DualPro Shine here, we also have a few others we’ll be taking a look at in the coming days. The Incipio DualPro Shine isn’t exactly a cheap case off of Amazon, as it will set you back about $35, it is still one of our picks for the Galaxy Note 5. We’ve used it on many other smartphones, and it’s our go-to case. You just can’t go wrong with the Incipio DualPro Shine case for the Galaxy Note 5. Cases from Incipio are pretty high-quality, while we’ve had others fall apart after using them for a few months, that hasn’t happened with any of the cases we’ve been given for review or bought from Incipio. Which is definitely a great sign for those that will be keeping their Galaxy Note 5 for quite a while.
Incipio sells the DualPro Shine in a few colors including black, gunmetal and white/gray. To be specific, the model we have here is the black and gunmetal gray. The black is the inner layer with the gunmetal gray being the outer layer.
