Today we give Griffin's first iPad 2 case a good looking at, and to say we were unimpressed would be doing a disservice to cases we've been unimpressed with. There are so many things wrong here that we hope we even remembered to cover (cue groans) them all. See us give the Elan Folio Slim a big, hairy eyeball right after the jump.
Right! Oh well.., it was only $39.99 (+ tax)...
To be fair, the design of this case is very similar to that of Apple's very own first-generation case, a case loved by some, maligned by others. At bighugenerd we fall into the former category. While we recognized its shortcomings, for at-home use the Apple case was hard to beat. It added very little bulk to the original iPad, and, most importantly - it protected the iPad from household scratches and scuffs by covering every side and corner. This is something we like to see in all iPad cases.
So, the Griffin Elan Folio Slim, then...
At first, glance, it looks quite well-made. But don't be fooled. The outer cover is made of some fake-leather-something material. The inside is a grey suede-like-something material. Who really knows what these cases are made of anymore?
The case has cutouts for the bottom dock connector, the front camera, rear camera, microphone, speaker, volume/power etc.
But Griffin made a rather significant design mistake. More on that in a bit...
The Case of the Problems with the Case
No, that's not a hair. It's one of numerous rogue threads I had to snip off the case. Not exactly what we had in mind for $39.99, with tax or otherwise.
But it doesn't get much better from there. The cutouts look like they were made on a Friday night, after one too many beers. Here's the camera cutout, for example. We figure you could fit roughly three iPad 2 camera lenses in that space.
I suppose it does still fulfill its purpose. It just does so without any grace whatsoever.
A more troubling fit/finish issue with the Elan Folio Slim is that with the iPad in it there's a huge gap between the glass and the material in portrait mode where all kinds of dust and crud quickly gathered for a party. Take a look.
You could fit a small family in between there! I even tried to! I failed, but I did find a piece of honey-wheat pretzel in there after a few days. The pretzel was yummy, so I suppose to put a positive spin on this: The Griffin Elan Folio Slim! With Food Storage Capabilities! Available now for $39.99!
No. Not convinced either.
The Design Flaw
So What's to Like?
So What's Not to Like?
Verdict:
We award the Griffin Elan Folio Slim a well-deserved two nerds.
PS As we were giving this away, we noticed a hole in the case for the iPad 2's speaker that wasn't even cut out properly. We snapped a quick picture with a phone. Oh dear, Griffin. Oh dear.