Review: Cygnett Alumni iPad Case

Hi all, if you're getting a new iPad (or already bought one) and are deciding on a case for it, give this one a look over. I was given an iPad case about a month ago from Cygnett, and after some use, I'm now ready to write a review about it.

Here it is! Ta-da! As you can see, I cleaned up my front page a little bit...

I received the Alumni case, with the canvas exterior (which is nice and sturdy and doesn't scratch, although unlike leather/pleather, it's not gonna handle spills very well). There are four colors to choose from: Black, Jade, Cobalt, and Pink. The Jade looked like a fresh minty green to me on Cygnett's website so I chose that one, but it's actually more like a strong greenish turquoise, which is also nice, just not exactly what I had expected.

As you can see, the green looks much lighter on the photo from their website.

I currently have an iPad 2, which is shown in the photos. My husband's getting the new iPad, which we're still waiting for. I think I'll trade him mine.

A few things I noticed:

• This case is made to fit both the new iPad and the iPad 2.
• This case is very light, a little over 1 lb.
• I like the feel of the canvas fabric.
• It's cover has a magnetic closure, which keeps the case closed while giving it a clean look, however it can be opened easily (whether that's good or bad is up to you to decide).
• It supposedly has a "sleep/wake" function, which should put the iPad to sleep when you close the cover and turn it back on when you open it. This didn't work very well for me. I had to slam the cover shut pretty hard in order to put my iPad to sleep. If having a reliable "sleep/wake" function is important to you, this may not be the case you're looking for (unless the one you get is more reliable than mine).
• I like that it has a folder in the cover to keep my notes/scribbles/handouts and such.
• The buttons along the sides of the iPad are easy to reach.
• There's an opening in the back for the 2nd camera.
• It can stand on horizontally and vertically.

Here are a few photos showing where everything is:

The iPad slides in from this side. That little tab tucks into a sleeve and holds the iPad inside.

Standing horizontally.

Sleep button.

Volume buttons.

Charging port.

What it looks like in the case.

Description in the back.

Overall, I like this case and how it looks. I think this would be great for a young person who likes colorful things and who's probably going to stuff this into a crammed bag. I actually saw the Alumni case as well as other Cygnett cases at a huge discount on Zulily (a deals shopping site for moms and babies) over the weekend, but unfortunately it was only for a couple of days and was over by Sunday night so I couldn't post it here :( Oh well.

If you'd like to read about this canvas iPad case, you can check out the product page here. There's also a video there that describes how it works as well as the sleep/wake function. If you already have one of these, what did you think of it?