Protect your iPad: get a case

Protect your iPad

You’ve got your shiny new iPad, looking all nice and new and it then dawns on you that when you put it down on the side or on you desk: it’s going to get scratched. So you pick it up and put on top of a magazine… phew iPad protected. But then you decide you need to take it with you somewhere, say work to show it off, and you then realise you have no where to put it where it’ll be safe from harm during your journey. What do you?

Well the obvious answer is to get a case, but what type of case is the real question. Do you get a case that the iPad sits in all the time, a la the Apple iPad case, or do you go with a case just for travelling around? What about a silicone skin, like you may have for your iPhone?

I decided to go with a case just for travelling around with for a few reasons, but first I’ll tell you why I didn’t go for the others.

The Apple iPad Case

The Apple case and others like it are great for protecting your case when you go out and about and it (the Apple case) even has the added bonus of being able to turn the cover around to the back to give you an angled surface to view when sitting it flat. The problem I had with this case (and others like it) was that there have been reports that the cover is so tight on the iPad that you can’t easily take it out.

Flip the front over to give you an angle

The same goes for the silicone type cases / protectors. You can easily put it inside the case but once it’s in it isn’t that easy to take out. An added reason against the silicone case is they don’t protect the screen.

Silicone Case

Now, you may wonder why I would want to take it out of the case, after all it is to protect it it right? Well yes it is, but the iPad is a beautiful device and it is so much nicer to use when it’s not in a case. This is on word from my brother at this stage, I am getting an Apple case sent over to have a proper look at it, and I can assure you it is great to use with no case on, but if you have an iPhone or iPod touch then it is the same thing and you’ll know what I mean. I actually have a case on my iPhone and when I take it off, not very often, but when I do it feels and looks sooo much nicer. And when I do take it off I am tempted to leave it that way. I don’t because it is constantly in and out of my pocket, but the iPad is generally going to stay where it is, so I really only need a case for traveling.

The other reason, and quite a biggie, is that I wanted a case now and as they are not readily available here yet I would have been looking at paying a small fortune on TradeMe for an official Apple case or having to wait for one to be sent over. I don’t do waiting, so my only real option was to get a case that would fit the iPad but not specifically made for it.

So I wanted a case that would fit the iPad, have some kind of place for the USB cable and a cleaning cloth, look smart, and not be too bulky. I wanted something I could just throw the iPad into and then easily and quickly take it out when I wanted to use it. I could even use the case to sit the iPad onto when placing it on the side.

But which one do I get? Well the choice is fairly limited. The problem is the size, but knowing the iPad is roughly 10″ by 7″ I knew there must be a case out there as it is a similar size to some netbooks that are available.

STM Netbook case

I have an STM case for my MacBook and I am happy with it, so I thought the 10.2″ version of that would be good, but there was no room for cables (unless I put them in with the iPad itself), then whilst at Noel Leemings I spotted what looked to be the perfect case.

The Case

It’s a Logitech 10.2″ netbook sleeve, with a zip pocket on the front. Whilst in Noel Leemings I needed to see how well it would fit, so I took my iPad in with me (concealed in my larger STM case) and continued to try it out. Now I wanted to do this with the least fuss as possible, I didn’t really fancy standing in Noel Leemings having to show it to all the staff. Needless to say I manged to do it and it fitted really well.

Everything just fits

The pocket on the front is perfect for the USB cable, headphones and cleaning cloth. The case comes with a piece of padded foam on the inside, obviously just so it keeps it’s shape when it sitting in the shop, but it is fantastic for extra padding so I have left it there.

Extra padding

The best thing is it is only $40. Just the right price! It protects my iPad when I want to take it out and about, it works great as a rest for it when it’s on the side, it holds all my cables, cleaning cloth and even my T-Stick and it doesn’t look out of place as an iPad case.

So if you are looking for a case to use when you are out and about and don’t want to leave your iPad in the case when you are using it then I would highly recommend getting this.