Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are hundreds of iPad cases on the market. Some encase your iPad in military-grade armor, making me wonder whether iPad owners like to throw their tablets out fourth-floor windows or use them to beat the carpets. Reviewers are breathless about the ability of this case or that to keep your iPad intact even if you accidentally toss it out the window of your car on a freeway at rush hour. Other cases are designed for pure style. They come in dazzling colors, and hold your iPad at creative angles so you can read it while you do yoga. At the same time they assume that you'll treat your tablet like a delicate crystal flower, positioning it artfully in your zen-inspired office next to an orchid, whence it will never move. I bought my iPad with the idea that I'd travel with it, carry it to work, use it over lunch, read books on it on a plane. So I wanted a case that could offer some protection. On the other hand, if my plane goes down, I don't really need my iPad to survive to be handed to my wife with my ashes, and I don't make a habit of tossing $600 pieces of electronics about like a rectangular football. I'm willing to trade protection for some style. I paid enough for an elegant, artistic bit of technology that I don't want to wrap it in a cheap and ugly shroud of plastic, but I don't want to spend so much on a case that I can't afford some apps. And so I set an upper price limit of $50, which happens to be one dollar more than Apple charges for its own case, then went looking for the perfect case for me. Being a meat eater, I didn't care if it was made of dead animal hides, and in fact found that preferable; fake leather items have an unfortunate propensity to fall apart quickly. I wanted a cover that either looked like a nice book or a good leather folio. I found what I wanted in this Bear Motion leather case. As others have noted, this case looks even nicer in person than in its pictures. The colors are richer, deeper, more subdued. It has a nice weight to it, it's soft to the touch, it looks like it will stand up to some use. It feels solid when you use it as a stand. It fits my iPad3 like a glove, the cut-outs and holes all exactly where they should be, and the iPad neither moves around in the case nor had to be greased so that it could be forced in. The leather flap that holds it in tucks neatly and firmly behind the iPad, and it feels absolutely secure. Is this the perfect case for you? That depends. If you frequently fall down the stairs or are often struck by cars as you weave drunkenly across the street, it may not be. It's solid, but it's only leather, not padded titanium, and if it hits the concrete corner-first, I think there might be some damage. It supports your iPad only in landscape orientation, not portrait. It isn't sleek and massless. It definitely adds some weight and volume to your iPad, so if you favor form-fitting silk-cashmere blends and want to channel that minimalist Steve Jobs Zen, you probably won't like the aesthetics. I, on the other hand, favor tweed and like big leather wing-back chairs in libraries with oriental rugs on the floor and leather books in the bookcases. I have sufficient size and strength not to be wearied by holding an extra few ounces when I read. If I don't treat my iPad like a cheap paperback and take moderate care not to drop it, I think this case will protect it just fine. And if I remember to use leather conditioner and not leave it lying in the sun or rain, I think this case will last a lot longer than my iPad.