It’s finally mine, after waiting for so long. I have it, in-fact I’m typing on it right now, like a portable miniature laptop, and its cool…
Why the wait?
I’m in the UK, and Clam cases are not available in the UK, so I had to get Tammy, my business partner to bring it back from her recent wedding trip back there. In a world of global trade, I really think restricting the product to the US, was a big big mistake. Sure the shipping logistics are harder, but the opportunity is so much better.
Why the Clamcase?
I’m a touch typist, and for the love of god (i have no love of god incase your wondering), I was not able to get on with the onscreen touch keyboard. After some research, apparently its because as a touch typist, force feedback is important to help you realise where your fingers are, and obviously being a touch screen, this didn’t help much. Plus I didn’t fancy the idea of typing with one finger or thumb on one hand when holding it, kinda like how old people or kids type. So I decided I needed something better, something like this clamcase…
First Impressions.
Well I first saw a picture of it in its packing whilst still in the US, and it looked great, looked like it was an official apple product. When it got to the UK, a few days after Tammy got bak because of lost bagging – my impressions to start with were, oh, its not as nice as I had hoped. The keys were fiddly to press, I also didn’t have my ipad on me at the time, and the whole thing felt a little weak where the ipad would go… so no, I wasn’t so impressed. At that time I hooked up the bluetooth keyboard to my Macbook Pro, to play about with it, but I admittedly kept hitting the wrong keys and was infinitely frustrated.
Later..
Later I got it home and stuck my ipad in, instantly it felt much more robust, and I started to type this review. It did take some getting used to, but I am now able too touch type on this keyboard, almost as well as my normal keyboard. I guess it was just quite a change. I do find myself not using all of my fingers on one of my hands to type, (right hand), but all my fingers on the left hand, mainly as there isn’t too much room for both hands, so I guess that was the conversion, but I can type pretty fast, probably about 60/70 words a minute. One advantage is the auto correct for when I do get words wrong, it actually is pretty good most of the time.
Things to know
It is infinitely easier to type on than the touch screen keyboard, however when placing it on your lap, the weight is not distributed correctly, and if you let go of the keyboard for a second, it will topple backwards, and if your not careful, hurtle towards the ground, possibly causing you some damage depending on height.
Secondly, it is pretty heavy, its not something that concerns me a whole lot, I knew it wouldn’t exactly be lighter… but, it is noticeably heavy – I believe the case itself, and the keyboard actually exceed or are close to the actual weight of the ipad. Although it will fall backwards on your lap – most likely due to viewing angle, it will not fall back whilst using it on a flat surface, due to the pretty robust hinge.
Viewing from any angle is pretty over rated in my opinion. Yes you can turn the screen back on itself where, but if you accidentally hit the keyboard on the underside then it will activate again, and if you hit another key you end up writing something – pretty annoying. It does work ok, and I guess if I was on a train or plane, it would be pretty hand to watch the media. When turning the case fully back on itself, so you can use it like a tablet again, I found myself continuously holding it fully closed as there was an annoying gap between the keyboard, and again a struggle not to hit the keys again. This was so frustrating, that too a point, I would advice if you want to use it like a normal tablet, remove it from the case.
Final Thoughts.
I do like the clamcase, and when you compare it to any of the others, certainly the ones available in the UK, its the best. However, I was suitably disappointed with the design quality. Some of my keys appear wonky…
Would I recommend it? If you cannot touch type on the on screen touch keyboard, to the point you find you don’t use your ipad much. Then yes, get one. You will use your ipad infinitely more. However if you are quite happy with it, don’t.
The build quality needs to be improved, otherwise they will end up with some disappointed customers who will not be repeat ones with their ipad 2 cases…
Overall rating 5/10
