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ZooGue New iPad Leather Case Genius review

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I’ve been using a couple of iPad cases for the past few weeks. One of them – the CueTab iPad case – I’ve already told you about; now, I’m ready to tell you about the second.

ZooGue isn’t a very well-known brand of accessories, but as I’ve already told you in my CueTab review, brand recognition isn’t important. What is important is that a company makes a good product. Did ZooGue succeed with its New iPad Leather Case Genius? I’ll answer that question – if you keep reading the review.

Packaging

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Even before you take it out of its bag, the Leather Case Genius (which is what I’ll be referring to it as for the rest of this review) lets you know that it’s a quality product. The bag isn’t made of a chintzy plastic; it’s a plastic of the heftier variety, which gives it the quality feeling that a $49.99 price tag should. Inside the packaging is where the case resides – along with its plentiful instructions that tell you what the case can be used for and how to use those features. The case itself is filled with foam to prevent its flattening during shipment. I’m happy to report that the foam did its job and my review unit arrived at my house completely unscathed.

Design and Quality

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As its name implies, the Leather Case Genius is made with leather surrounding the outside and the perimeter. It feels great and is a joy to hold. The inside, meanwhile, is made out of a grey fabric. This material looks good, too; but it collects dust, lint, and other small, dirty things far too easily. This problem will become more apparent when I discuss the functionality later in my review.

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This flap holds the iPad in place while it’s in the case. It doesn’t seem that important at first, but the flap is pretty strong and does a very nice job of keeping the iPad from wobbling around. This cuts down on the possibility of screen scratches from junk that may accumulate on the inside of the cover.

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This is the front of the case. The logo is in the lower right-hand corner of the case (provided that you’re holding it with the hand strap near the top) and is surrounded by leather which is itself surrounded on either side with velcro. In my experiences, the velcro does like to hitch a ride on fabrics that are near to it. If you lay it across your shirt or on the floor, be ready to pull with more force than you’d generally use to pick up your iPad.

This also doubles as the screen cover. As you know, I prefer cases with screen covers to ones without. That’s for a couple of reasons: the most important is obviously screen protection, but I also like that screen covers can take advantage of the iPad’s magnetic wake/sleep feature. The Leather Case Genius does just that and it works flawlessly.

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This is the top of the case – when the case is open. To your left (which is the iPad’s right) is a cutout for the sleep/wake button; the middle, a cutout for the 3G/LTE antenna; and the right, a cutout for the 3.5mm headphone jack.

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Here are the iPad’s volume controls. Again, there’s another cutout so they can easily be accessed while the case is on.

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This is the bottom of the iPad. There are two cutouts here: one for the 30-pin connector and another for the speaker. Even with the cutout for the speaker, though, the sound is a bit muffled; it’s still loud and clear, just not as much as an unblocked speaker.

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There is also a nice little cutout for the front-facing camera. It’s worth a mention because, although it looks flimsy, it isn’t.

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The same goes for the home button and its cutout, as well.

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Finally, here’s the back of the case. That flap is a part of what makes the ZooGue such a compelling product, so let’s get into that next.

Functionality

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There are plenty of cases that include stands to prop up the iPad and make it more comfortable to use. But most (if not all) of them have a finite number of positions that the stand can go into; as you watched in the video, it’s very much a different story for the Leather Case Genius. As long as there is velcro underneath the flap on the back of the case, you can set the iPad in that exact position and use it.

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Unfortunately, this is the part of my review where I have to complain. As you can see in this picture, the front of the cover flips over to the back so the flap can attach to it and make the awesome stand. This causes a problem: the grey material on the inside of the cover is left exposed to whatever surface you set it on. It’s also a huge dust and lint magnet, so not only does it look ugly after a while, it also poses a threat to your iPad’s screen in the form of scratches.

It would’ve been very hard to remedy this problem and keep the same type of stand and functionality that the case offers. All I can say to you so you can prevent screen scratches and the buildup of lint and dust is this: make sure you’re setting it on a clean surface! You won’t have to worry about those aforementioned problems if you make sure that you don’t set it on anything questionable. I usually set mine on my jeans; as long as I wipe them off beforehand, I have no doubt that my iPad will be fine if I shut the cover quickly and go on my merry way.

Conclusion

ZooGue might not have a lot of brand loyalty at this point, but the company has certainly won me over with this case. I love the virtually infinite number of positions that it can stand up in and the build quality, even if the design can be flawed on certain surfaces. Overall, I can’t recommend this case enough – especially since it has a price tag of only $49.99. That may seem a bit steep at first, but considering that it’s made out of leather, does a fantastic job of protecting the iPad, and is one of the very few cases that offers this functionality, I’d say that $49.99 is a pretty good bargain.

Interested in picking up your own ZooGue new iPad Leather Case Genius? Head on over to the company’s website where you can pick one up for $49.99.

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Calob Horton

Calob Horton is an associate editor at Pocketables. He loves all technology, no matter which company it comes from. This unbiased view of the tech world allows him to choose the products that best fit his personal needs and tastes: a Microsoft Surface Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and a third-gen iPad.Google+ | Twitter | More posts by Calob | Subscribe to Calob's posts

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