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The Nest is a multi-purpose case that provides both hard-shell protection and becomes a stand for your phone.  It comes in two pieces, a larger top section and a smaller base which later doubles as a support.  It’s solidly built and adds plenty of grip to your phone.

Here’s how it works.  The case splits in two to allow fitment to the iPhone by just sliding the two pieces together, and it looks good once it’s on there.  The white colour looks good against a black iPhone and  you certainly feel as if the Nest would offer a good degree of shock protection.

There are cutouts for all the buttons and ports.  At the base the speakers are fine and the 30-pin connector fits perfectly with the case on, and it’s also acceptable for the volume and vibrate switch, although there was a little bit of flashing on our review model which doesn’t feel very nice.  However it’s the power button that suffers the most, with the cutout just not providing enough finger room to push it comfortably.  The camera lens hole also looks a little off-center too.

Along the sides there are some larger cuts in the side of the case, which again suffer from not looking all that great, with some jagged edges that could snag a pocket or the lining of a bag.  Their purpose is to hold the iPhone in landscape mode, or in portrait at either a 55 degree angle or a 70 degree angle.  One of these does require the refitting of the base section of the case.

The idea is great and the implementation is good too, but the build quality isn’t quite as good as we would have hoped for.  The 3G/3GS case cost $24.95, and you can also buy an iPod 2G version, both of which are available from www.nestcases.com.  We can’t help feeling that a product we looked at previously, the iBend, does the landscape viewing mode equally as well at a fraction of the price.