Since the introduction of the iPad 2 Apple discontinued their folio case and instead introduced the Smart Cover. This case from HardCandy shares a huge amount of resemblance with Apple’s old folio iPad case.
This comes in three colors red, white and black, I have the red. The whole exterior of the case is covered in a Nubuck material which I really like. The case is very slim to keep the real profile of your iPad 2, the front is much thicker than the back but the back holds the iPad which keeps it sturdy. The Nubuck gives great grip and feels nice to hold when in use. On the left of the inside it is totally covered in Nubuck and near the bottom we have a place to put business cards but on the opposing side we have a really nice felt material for where the iPad sits.
To get the iPad in the case you slide it through a flap, the flap is then tucked under the iPad to keep it secure and it definitely does just that. The case doesn’t cover the bezel so when using the iPad you don’t loose any of the experience when in the Candy Convertible.
In terms of functionality all the buttons are awful but the ports and the rear camera are fine. The cutouts for the volume rockers, the sleep/ wake button and mute switch or orientation lock are way off. The cutouts are far to high covering the buttons and switches slightly making them difficult to use. The back of the iPad 2 features it's speaker, this case has many little holes cut out within the case for the speaker. This muffles the audio and means that your ultimate experience of sound from your iPad is damaged. I question whether it would have just been better to cut out where the speaker is within the case? These little annoyances are such a shame for a such superb case.
The case goes into two viewing angles. One for typing which worked really well and was the perfect height for my hands and the other viewing angle is upright for watching video or looking at a photo slide show ect.
The protection of this case is great for putting in your bag or leaving on a surface. Big drops and bumps I'm not so sure how well this case will perform. It’s definitely good protection all round though.
One little thing I'd like to see added to this case would be as you shut and open it that should trigger sleep and wake just like the Smart Cover.
Overall I think the Candy Convertible looks really stylish, the material used feels great in the hand and keeps the iPad 2's really thin profile, the black, white and red colors look very cool, the viewing angles work well and the protection is also pretty good. The cutouts for the buttons is bad and the way the case handles the speaker isn't much better. For those who loved the Official Apple iPad 1 case and would like that for their iPad 2 then this is what you should be looking at.
