Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Review: Incase Book Jacket for iPad 2

I occasionally put reviews up here on my blog about products that I think are well designed and that will probably be useful for a lot of people to read.  Since millions of people own iPads, and many of them probably want a good case for their shiny new purchase, I thought this would be a good topic for a review.

We recently got an iPad 2, and with the swapping from person to person and location to location that this great device is going to end up seeing because everyone wants to use it all the time, my thoughts turned to getting a good case for it right after I walked out of the Apple store.

You'll discover that the Apple Smart Cover is really quite silly after you spend some time checking it out.  First, it offers very little actual protection for the iPad.  If you drop your iPad with a Smart Cover on, the iPad is going to get damaged.  It's as simple as that.  Second, it's clumsy.  It flops around when it's open, it unfolds when you're trying to use it as a stand, etc.  Third, it scratches the back of the iPad in the spot where the magnets attach, if you care about such things.  Fourth, the price of $40 is a complete rip-off.

So...After eliminating the Apple Smart Cover, I went to the local giant electronics store (near me, that's Best Buy) to check out the myriad of iPad 2 cases they have.  I was in the market for:
  1. A case made of high quality material
  2. A case that's compact
  3. A case that would protect the iPad well but also give access to all of the buttons
  4. A case that's comfortable to hold.  I didn't want to have to take the iPad in and out of the case just to use it.
I quickly eliminated most of the cases at the store because after brief examination it was clear that they didn't meet the four essential criteria above.  Some of them were flimsy pieces of junk, others protected the back but not the front, others were far too bulky, etc.

Then I saw the Incase Book Jacket for iPad 2.  Perfect!  This case is priced around $50, but that seems to be about average for the better quality book-style cases for the iPad.  The Book Jacket completely protects the front, back, and edges of the iPad.  The iPad securely fits into the right side of the case and a velcro tab holds it very securely in place.  Perfect.

More than offering simple protection though, the case is also versatile.  It can be opened and held like a book, or the cover can be folded back to make it easier to hold.  Depending on how you fold the cover, you also get some other different functionality.  You can fold it and use the handy built-in strap to create a working angle to type on.  You can flip the cover over the other way and prop the iPad up at one of three different viewing angles for movies, TV shows, or reading.  Photos of all of these positions are available at this link on the Incase website.

This is all contained in a thin, well built, suede lined book jacket that adds (relatively speaking) very little additional thickness to the iPad for what this case is.

After owning this case for several months, it still looks as good as new and I still think it's great......and that's the sign of a good product.  If you're shopping for a case for your iPad and you want a nice book style design, definitely check out the Incase Book Jacket.  If you don't like this case, they also make lots of other cases for the full line of Apple products.  Good luck with your shopping!
 

1 comment:

  1. Thanx for the write up john. i'm going to give this thing a try because the last one that i bought fell apart after just a few months of heavy use. thanx.

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