iPad Case Review

We love this case from Incase

The Incase Con­vert­ible Book Jacket for iPad is a sturdy faux-leather port­fo­lio case that excels at prop­ping up the iPad at var­i­ous angles in land­scape ori­en­ta­tion. It’s an attrac­tive prod­uct that feels sturdy, looks classy, and def­i­nitely pro­tects the iPad, but it’s got some severe lim­i­ta­tions too. (See our first look of the Incase Con­vert­ible Book Jacket.)

The Con­vert­ible Book Jacket trans­forms your iPad into a faux-leather folio, one that could just as eas­ily be hold­ing a super-thick notepad. The case looks classy, though that’s off­set by the Incase logo dis­played promi­nently on the front. An elas­tic band keeps the folio closed; flip open the rigid front cover and you have access to the iPad’s screen, as well as all its switches and ports.

Slid­ing the iPad into and out of the case’s hold­ing frame is a lit­tle awk­ward, though I improved with prac­tice. (Once your iPad is in the frame, you can eas­ily plug in a dock-connector cable, but the case pre­cludes you from using an iPad dock.)

The front cover extends slightly under­neath the case, cre­at­ing an extra hinge that lets you pivot the iPad around and rest it on one of three grooves on the back of the cover. That’s the “con­vert­ible” part of the case—this act turns the case into an adjustable iPad stand with three angled posi­tions. If you plan on using the iPad fre­quently in land­scape ori­en­ta­tion on a flat sur­face, per­haps paired with a Blue­tooth key­board, the Con­vert­ible Book Jacket will posi­tion it perfectly.

Unfor­tu­nately, the case adds a lot of bulk to the iPad, espe­cially when it comes to thick­ness. The extra hinge in the front flap that allows the case to con­vert also makes it awk­ward to hold on that side—for exam­ple, when you’re try­ing to view the iPad in por­trait orientation.

This case looks pro­fes­sional and is well-designed for land­scape ori­en­ta­tion on a flat sur­face. If you’ll pri­mar­ily use your iPad in pro­fes­sional set­tings and on a table­top paired with a Blue­tooth key­board, it will fit your lifestyle per­fectly. But its added thick­ness and bulk means you’ll prob­a­bly want to remove your iPad from the case if you just want to curl up on the bed with a good e-book.