Review ZeroChroma Vario-SC Case/Stand for iPad 2,3 and 4G Review

This is a very nice iPad case/stand. It may not be for everyone since it does not have an attached cover to protect the screen but it will work in conjunction with an Apple Smart Cover.

The material used for the case is TPU or thermoplastic polyurethane. It's in between hard plastic and soft silicone. It's quite light in weight.

The killer feature in this case is the stand. It has a stand built in to the back of the case that is nearly completely flush with the back. The stand easily flips out and then will rotate 360 degrees and provide 11 clickable angles in either portrait or landscape orientation. This allows you to use it for facetime chats, then easily twist it to reorient the iPad for watching video. Or you can nearly lay it flat for typing emails.

Not only that, the stand can also be used as a handle for holding the iPad. Very useful to use it this way when standing.

Now that I"ve been using the case/stand for a few days I can offer some observations. First of all the touted 11 positions is technically correct but in practice you will not successfully be able to use the iPad in all 11 positions. For instance when the iPad is in landscape position at the nearly flat position, all it takes is barely a touch to cause the stand to collapse. The weight of the iPad plus your light touch is all it takes for that to happen. Unfortunately that is the position you are supposed to be in to have a more useable angle for using the onscreen keyboard. I have also had the stand collapse on me when in portrait position and then touching the screen to navigate webpages or when using apps that require touch response. So you do have to be light with the touches in certain positions or it will not hold the position and likely will collapse flat. I do fear that over time wear and tear of the mechanical aspects of the stand will cause it to not hold the iPad as reliably as it does being brand new. Time will tell I guess and I will update my review as necessary.

I also must comment on the fact that the rotation of the stand is not exactly smooth. It is sort of "grabby" as you try to rotate from landscape to portrait and sometimes takes me a couple of tries to get the thing to click into the 90 or 180 degree position.

In spite of these issues, the stand has a great design. It's really ingenious that such a useful stand could fold so flat when not in use to make it almost invisible when it's flipped in. And the rubber tip on the end of the stand helps it from slipping although I have had it slip when the stand decides to fall flat.

When used in conjunction with an Apple Smart Cover, you can use this on your lap. It's great. But the downside when using a smart cover is that it can only be used effectively in the landscape position. When in portrait position you really need to remove the smart cover which is easy to do since it's magnetic and just requires a little tug to remove it.

I like this unique and well-designed case/stand and just hope that the mechanism doesn't totally lose it's ability to hold the iPad up at sharper angles as it gets more broken in.

I was provided a complimentary sample from ZeroChroma for testing and review. If you have any questions please leave me a comment and if I can answer I will.
Review from Mr Erb.Thanks for watching.