iLounge

Company: Boomwave

Website: www.Theboomwave.com

Models: Twist

Price: $45

Compatible: iPad 2

Boomwave Twist for iPad 2

By Nick Guy

Accessories Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Category: Headphones and Earphones - iPhone Wired, Cases - iPad

The outer cover of Twist is either black, red, or purple with a star pattern, or simply plain black. It opens up to reveal a frame that covers most of the tablet’s bezel, with scoops for the front camera and Home Button. Your iPad 2 slides in from the top. Unfortunately, there is no flap or other mechanism to cover this opening, leaving the entire top edge exposed. Coverage along the edges is also rather limited, with elastic bands holding the shell together intermittently: two along both the left and bottom edges, and three on the right. All of the ports and buttons are exposed, and so is a bunch of other metal on the iPad 2’s body.

There is an overly large hole for the rear camera, with a correlating cutout in the corner of the back cover. We were thankful for the feature, but not thrilled with the clumsily large implementation. Also included with Boomwave is a removable elastic band, which is handy for keeping the folio shut. Since it must be taken off to access the iPad 2, the band can be lost; we would have preferred that it be integrated into the case so that it cannot be misplaced.

Along both the left and bottom edges of the frame are long, narrow pieces of hook Velcro; the entire inside of the cover is lined with loops. This allows you to stand the iPad 2 up at virtually any angle in landscape or portrait orientation, as the Velcro holds it in place. The entire inner shell rotates 360 degrees so that you can get it into position. Here, Boomwave has actually come up with a pretty good solution, better than limiting users to only three or four possible angles.

Twist is a case that feels as if it was done about half right. The case’s dual layer construction makes it too thick, and the edges simply don’t provide enough protection. But the use of Velcro turns out to be a bright spot—actually pretty cool and totally functional. Overall, Twist could really stand to be improved in most of its specifics; while it’s a distinctive-looking case, and has a little novelty in execution, there are too many similarly priced, more protective options out there for this model to receive a general recommendation. It’s worthy of a limited recommendation to users who are interested in something different, and willing to compromise a little in protection to get it.