Otterbox is great for listening to the consumer and tweaking their cases. The new rubber material change that was made between the iPhone 4 and 4S was perfect, less stretchy, more rugged, and much less of a dust magnet.
They are incorporating this new material in the Defender for the new iPad, along with other changes based on complaints. I have a feeling that the new Defender will be a solid case. I will be sure to post my video review when I receive the case tomorrow.
My alternate case will be either the Lexington (the gray is sharp with a white ipad!), or the updated Pixelskin HD (provided they incorporate a closure system that uses magnets and the close to sleep function.
They may listen to the complaints, but that still does not excuse the inferior design/quality of a product that costs as much as it does.
Seconds, after installing my IPad2 defender, I was emailing their customer service offering pictures, detailing my complaints. I did, and they offered a replacement..... of the same thing.
I did my best at biting my tongue, and asked the person on the other end, why would I want to replace a faulted design with a faulted design?
Eventually, a month later, their faulted design failed. The inner topside, plastic shell had a weak spot, in a corner near the home button. And they did replace that one, with pictures of the failure.
I have owned six different otterbox products over the years. Numerous family members have bought otterbox products, as well. This product, was flawed from jump, as compared to the many other products and lines that I have seen, felt, and dropped first hand.
I do hope that they have corrected the problems with this new case, but I will always be skeptical after the IPad2 defender case that was delivered to my door.