The folks at RadTech have been extra nice to me, so I feel obligated to repost the review of IceCreme I wrote for them. The following review was rescued from the Google cache of my site. Thank you Google!
The good folks at RadTech have sent me yet another one of their products for review: IceCreme M, a polishing system for your iPod.
With day-to-day use, your iPod’s plastic and metallic surfaces can accumulate little scratches and swirls from sliding it in and out of the holster, carrying it in your pocket, or accidents and bad luck. After a while any iPod that’s been removed from it’s original packaging is bound to gather these imperfections. RadTech provides a safe way to smooth out your iPod’s face and restore it to something like original condition.
My iPod is about nine months old and I’ve gone out of my way to take good care of it, but somehow it managed to get a light scratch across the screen and some other marks where I’ve slid it in and out of the belt clip every day. Time to put Ice Creme to the test.
It may sound like an exaggeration to a call polishing compound a “system,” but RadTech ships more than just the compound with their product. They provide three different compounds labeled A, B, and M. Compound A is a relatively coarse substance meant to grind out the deeper scratches while B is a more liquid-like substance meant to affix the final polish and shine to your favorite music player. Neither A or B is intended for the metallic back of the iPod - that’s what M is for. M is another liquid-like polisher with a fruity smell that’s meant only for the metal, and even then RadTech recommends that you don’t overdo it. While deep scratches in the metal can be improved, RadTech says, using too harsh a compound can actually polish through the chrome plating. In addition to the three bottles of compound, RadTech included four 3×3 inch cloths seemingly made of the same Optex fabric as their ScreenSaveRz product and a sheet of concise, readable instructions. And let me tell you how nice it is to get understandable instructions written in clear English these days!
So how did IceCreme do with my mild scratches and scrapes? Pretty well, actually. I used the A compound as instructed, applying a good amount of pressure to the scratch which was my primary target. I’d say I got rid of 95% of the scratch, to the point where it wasn’t really all that visible unless I tilted it under the light just right. But after that point, it seemed that no matter how much more I polished, I couldn’t get rid of that last little bit. Perhaps those were the especially deep parts of the scratch. I also rubbed compound A onto other parts of the iPod front using a little less pressure than I did over the scratch. I stopped polishing with A after about 15 minutes. RadTech recommends as much as 30 minutes for a good scouring, but my arm was getting tired!
I used a clean cloth to wipe off the A residue and noticed something - my iPod seemed to be much more swirled than when I started. I felt a few seconds of panic, thinking something was wrong with my polishing technique. Compound B still awaited use though, and I realized there was no reason to panic until I was done with the entire process.
On to compound B! I pulled yet another clean cloth from the RadTech-provided stack and put a few drops of B on it and started my tired arm circling over the iPod’s face. The swirling that had worried me a few minutes before went away pretty quickly. There was honestly a certain reflection, dare I say shine, emitted from my iPod after I used B. In my opinion it worked as advertised after just a few minutes.
Next came M. The metal back of my iPod wasn’t particularly damaged, but since B did such a good job of shining up the front I figured M couldn’t hurt the back. Not even two minutes of applying M to the metal shined it right up - almost as clear as the minute I removed it from the box.
Maybe I didn’t polish long enough or maybe it’s just a fact of life, but there is a certain amount of very light swirl I just can’t remove from the face. It’s only visible when you hold it up to the light at a certain angle so it doesn’t detract from the iPod’s immediate appearance. And that’s really the only downside I’ve found about the whole thing. The entire IceCreme system worked as RadTech advertised and the inclusion of polishing cloths and clear instructions made things that much easier. That’s what being a Mac user is all about - functionality and ease.
To my knowledge, RadTech doesn’t recommend using IceCreme to polish other plastic objects, but I wondered whether their product could be useful polishing similar plastics like my wireless mouse or the face of my Sony Ericcson T610 cell phone. When I’m feeling particularly adventurous I’ll give one or both of those a try. Until then, using IceCreme on non-iPod surfaces is at your own risk.
Your iPod is a several hundred dollar investment, and if you’re going to buy the Mercedes of music players, you might as well spend the time to keep it in tip-top shape. Take pride in the nice stuff you own!
RadTech’s IceCreme
$19.94 - $24.95
RadTech
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