Most of us have heard stories about people whose lives were miraculously saved when a bullet that was aimed at them was stopped by something either on their person or in their pocket – a medallion or cross around the neck, a heavy belt buckle, or the like. We all love stories like that, even the ones that require the person doing the shooting to be a poor marksman (who aims for a belt buckle?).
Well, now, for the low, low price of $650, you can give yourself a bit more of a fighting chance if you’re ever fired on by an extremely well-armed but unskilled assailant. A Japanese company called Marudai Corp has designed a bulletproof iPhone case. Well, they claim it’s bulletproof, anyway. In fact, they claim it will stop anything up to a .50 caliber bullet – the kind fired by Agent Smith’s Desert Eagle in the image above.
How, you may ask, do they accomplish this? How do they make an iPhone case that will stop a bullet? Some sort of Batman-esque Kevlar armor? Nope. They do it the old-fashioned way: with an inch of steel. The case comes in two main parts: an aluminum front panel (available in either black or white!), and an inch-thick steel plate on the back. Check out some images from their website below:
Now, unfortunately there’s no actual evidence that this monster will stop a bullet. Marudai did not see their way clear to posting a video of the case in action, and since I have neither an extra $650 nor a Desert Eagle (more’s the pity), I can’t verify it either. That being the case, should you happen to wind up getting one of these things, you might want to be careful trusting your life to it.
Of course, even if the thing can stop a bullet, it would take a very special set of circumstances for it to do so in the real world. For one thing, you’d have to contrive to get shot in whatever pocket you were carrying your phone in, and you’d have to make sure you were carrying it with the screen facing toward you, and not toward the bullet. Before that, though, you’d have to find pants with a pocket that will hold a 5-inch by 3-inch by 1.5 inch block of steel and iPhone that weighs over four a half pounds.
Should you wish to buy one of these cases – or even just take a look at it for yourself – you can find more information on Marudai’s website (Google Translation). The price is listed as ¥52,500 ($650).