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Manufacturer: Vaja
Our good friends at Vaja Cases have kindly supplied us with one of their latest products, the 'ivolution Grip for Apple iPad' for us to take a look at and review. It's been a while since we last investigated a Vaja case and it'll be good to see if their reputation for producing a high quality product is still in place.
What impressed even before the case arrived was the customer service, within half an hour of the review request been made we had a response that a case was being dispatched to us and seconds later a dispatch confirmation e-mail giving the FedEx shipping details.
The case shipped from Vaja in Buenos Aires, Argentina, over to us in the UK in a total of five days (including a weekend) which is amazing, I've waited longer for UK shipping products to arrive!
On opening the FedEx packaging the Vaja product box was revealed as usual in the brightly coloured and striking packaging.
The outer sleeve is then slid away to reveal the rainbow coloured inner box.
Which was then finally opened to reveal the ivolution Grip itself.
The inner surface of the grip is covered in a thin white layer of leather which is embossed with the Vaja logo, and this is bonded with what looks like a high strength epoxy adhesive to the rest of the case.
As always from Vaja the product oozes quality with the Grip being manufactured from full grain cowhide leather which is in turn selected from the top ten percent of Argentina's leather, and it shows. Nowhere at all is there any defect, no scarring, no insect bites marks and no imperfections. The leather is premier quality as is always the case with Vaja.
The main body of the case is of thicker formed leather with what feels like a goodly layer of firm, yet soft, foam padding sandwiched between the inner face and the outer back surface which gives excellent protection to the back of the iPad.
Vaja always astound me with their case manufacturing process as the corner grips are made from the same piece of leather as the rest of the iGrip yet feel almost as if there is spring steel inside them - they are so strongly 'sprung'. This almost magical leather skill serves to create a strong yet supple gripper action that holds the iPad securely yet with do danger of marking or damage to the device.
The iPad is lowered down into the iGrip case and gently yet firmly firmly pushed slowly downwards into the casing. One can almost feel the leather stretching reluctantly open and then gratefully close back into position as it enfolds the iPad in it's grip.
Once enfolded within the iGrip the feel of the iPad is completely transformed. The back of the iPad which had felt slick, somewhat hard and fragile to the touch, is now much more robust and a joy to handle. The leather feels wonderfully soft and warm in your hands and you are much less concerned about handling the iPad, even putting it down on the desk is less of a worry as you know that the inherent padding will soak up a lot of impact shock loading. I did spend a fair bit of time just enjoying the pleasure of holding the iPad with it's new leather coating even prior to turning it on!
When in use the iPad is of course regularly rotated between landscape and portrait orientations and the added tactility of the leather gives greater confidence in handing the iPad as it is much less slippery and therefore less likely to be dropped! As well as looking impressive the iGrip gives both protection from impacts as well as less risk of losing your grip on the machine - with the iPad being an expensive gadget those are important points!
The iGrip is constructed so that easy access to all controls is given, with a recess in the grip on the right hand side to allow you access to the volume and rotation lock controls. The leather is nicely rounded at the edges and folded inwards on itself, there is no raw inner leather to be seen which ensures that there is no area to snag or catch or wear. This ensures that the iGrip will remain good looking for the life of the iPad.
Adjacent to controls is the metal Vaja logo which follows the diagonal lines of the recess and as always looks smooth and carefully designed. With Vaja even the logo fitment shows the quality of the design, and as an ex-design engineer these small points are important.
There is no recess on the left hand side of the iGrip where the SIM card slot is located (if you have a 3G iPad), this ensures that the slot is well protected against external hazards such as dust. Plus of course on a non-3G iPad there is no requirement for such a recess to be present. Therefore the left hand side of the machine is completely protected in leather.
In contrast to the sides of the iGrip both the top and bottom of the iPad are only partly protected, that is the rounded back itself is covered but the edging which holds the top face controls and the bottom facing speaker and external connection port are fully open.
This may minimise the protection offered to the device but it does ensure that the controls are easy to get to, that on the 3G model that the antenna is not obscured and that the sync cable can connect freely and the sound output from the speaker is clear.
It is however worth noting that once the iGrip is in place the iPad will not fit onto the official iPad Dock and to connect to your PC / Mac you can only use the sync cable. This same limitation also applies with the official Apple plastic / rubber case, so no great drawback.
Conclusion
Yet again Vaja have created another premier case from top quality leather using their own in house engineering techniques producing a superbly designed and elegant housing for the iPad. Not only is it stylish in the extreme, but serves to give the iPad much needed protection when both on the desk or in the hand. Once fitted it feels a natural part of the iPad and greatly enhances the tactile feel of it when handled.
The only drawback is that it is highly priced, at $100 per iGrip it's not cheap, but if you want the best quality leather produced by top leather craftsmen then the price is well worth paying.
Pros and Cons
Quality premier leather used Crafted by the best leather craftsmen Adds a good level or protection to the back / sides of the iPad Greatly enhances the handling of the iPad when in use Allows the sync cable to be used when in place
Minimal protection of the top / bottom of the iPad Prevents the use of the iPad DockFinal Thoughts
Some may comment that the iGrip offers no protection to the screen of the iPad and this is indeed true, but is of no detriment to Vaja as they have many other cases available for the iPad which offer such protection, both in 'flip up' and 'book' configurations. Some of these cases even include support for desk mounting the iPad at ergonomic working angles. [The Leather Agenda 2 being my favourite]. So feel free to check out their other iPad products at vajacases.com.
[Note: All images in this review have been processed by SnagIt from TechSmith]
