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When I first read about the Griffin Clarifi, I wanted one immediately - but it wasn’t available in Singapore and I didn’t want to pay for shipping and all that from US. Stumbled across this posting in HWZ a while back and I was excited that the Clarifi was here!

In a nutshell version:

The Clarifi is an iPhone 3G case that has a built-in lens that slides over your iPhone’s camera lens to allow you to take close-up shots. It works and it is a wonderful and smart way to protect your iPhone while introducing new functionality to the camera. Get one if you are ever serious of snapping barcodes, QR codes, a magazine or anything within 10cm or so.

Long-winded version:

I went to not one, not two, not three but five shops before I found the Clarifi after a week or so of looking (not continuously of course)… the Clarifi was out of stock at every Epicentre and well every other Apple shop i went to. When I heard that there was a new Epicentre in Bugis, I went there and managed to - finally - pick up a Clarifi with a 10% discount at S$61. There was only one other left!

So what is the big deal about the Clarifi? Well if you have tried to use the iPhone camera for close-up shots of a pet, document or anything ‘macro’ - you will soon realise you simply can’t get a clear shot. The fixed focus lens is simply not meant for close-up shots. I did read of someone who actually took apart his iPhone just to adjust the lens but really that’s too much.

Enter the Clarifi. It is an iPhone case. No big deal right - but one that actually does one thing more than just protect your iPhone. It has a lens cover - with a macro lens within that actually slides over the iPhone’s camera lens to allow you to take macro shots!

Ingenius!

Does it work well? Take a look for yourself. Left pic without Clarifi, right pic with of course.

The case itself consists of two parts that slide together snugly to protect your iPhone. It does add some bulk to the iPhone but I am totally fine with it. The cutouts for the port, earphones, volume keys, sound toggle and power are all done nicely so you don’t need to struggle to access any buttons. My previous case was the Power Support Air Jacket which is nice but it did require you to use the very tip of your finger to slide the sound toggle and also started to wear out within a month’s usage.

One thing to note though - if you have an existing screen protector, be careful as you slide the Clarifi on. The fit is so snug that it will likely push/fold your screen protector and it will be hard to ‘bend’ your screen protector back after that. I took mine out after it was kinda folded.

The package comes with a screen protector and a little cloth for cleaning your iPhone as well. It retails for S$69 in Singapore.

This is my third case since I got the iPhone and I am quite sure I’d be sticking with this one for some time to come!