Review: Seidio Active case for the iPad 2 (part 1 of 2)

[remontoire]

Got the Active case from Seidio today and thought I'd post pics of it as well as some comments. Apologies in advance for my shoddy photography skills. I have a (somewhat-misapplied) Power Support HD Anti-Glare film on the iPad, BTW.

Packaging and instructions:

Front and back disassembled:

The silicone skin that goes on the iPad itself attracts a lot of lint, as expected, but nothing that wiping it down with a wet cloth won't fix for a while. It gives off a really chemical smell too; hopefully it's just some initial gassing that'll fade over time.

The skin fits very snugly around the iPad. I did notice it could've been cut better along one edge, but that was it.

The cutouts for the camera, etc are well-done in my opinion. The 3 indentations on the left and right sides are for your fingers when you're gripping the iPad.

Raised bumps have been added for the volume up/down and power switches.

Convertible mounting cover on the left, active skeleton frame on the right. Both seem to be made of rubberized plastic. There is a plastic cover over the center window in the skeleton frame, and a sticky blue film on top of it, which I haven't removed yet.

The pop-up stand in the mounting cover is covered with a thin layer of felt. When not in use, it's secured to the cover by two protruding metal nubs. The fit is so tight that I actually had to bend the cover backward to increase the space between the nubs and the holes in the stand in order to secure or use the stand.

Continued in the following post, since there's a limit of 20 pics per post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1168284/

 

[glen e]

Thanks for the in depth review - I know what it takes to post like this - sorry the case is not for me. Not sleek enuf. and has that "Japanese contraption" look to it...for some reason the Japanese cartoons come to mind.But certainly to each his own....

 

[remontoire]

Thanks for the in depth review - I know what it takes to post like this - sorry the case is not for me. Not sleek enuf. and has that "Japanese contraption" look to it...for some reason the Japanese cartoons come to mind.But certainly to each his own....

You're welcome. Yeah, it's definitely not sleek, but for my purposes, protection from drops is crucial.

 

[peter3]

Finally! Thank you so much for the pics!

 

[3goldens]

Thank you very much for these. I have been very curious about just how this case works.

I was considering this in addition to the s & Gum Drop to replace the Otter I currently have and am not very happy with.

I did call Seidio and inquire about it because I thought the specs on their site left out many of the details, which your thread cleared up nicely. They did tell me it was something like 30% lighter than the otter.

Interesting how it is all put together. Unlike the Otter, the gel here goes on first then surrounded by the hard case. Perhaps to allow for using the device with out the weight of the case?

I guess the part I don't like about that is the back is a little exposed there by the Apple. Not a huge concern, but I'm not sure how it would lay flat on a table for instance if that would make contact at that point.

The one thing the did better than Otter was the front cover, which has more viewable angles, and for those concerned with corners of that front cover not completely covering the screen, this one appears to do that.

Given you do have this space in between cover and screen you could easily experiment with using a small magnet on the inside positioned to make the cover "smart" utilizing the sleep/wake feature your new ipad has. I did this with the Otter and it worked terrifically.

I can't be 100% sure but it looks as thought the Otter protects the ports a little better than this one. Speaker there, is recessed with a plastic kind of barrier built into the hard shell.

None the less this has been very helpful for me!
Thanks so much!
I now will keep an eye out for the Gum Drop reviews sure to appear in the near future!