I have never joined a forum for something that I am not super passionate about. I also very rarely write reviews. I however feel highly obligated to at least warn a couple people about this case and my experience with Griffin.
I ordered this case a couple months ago. It came with a tear in the hand strap. The tear didn't make it unusable, but it drastically jeopardized the integrity of the strap. Basically, if you look at the image in the original post, the part where the hand strap loops back around into that dark grey clasp is where it had a tear (right where it hooks into the clasp). Keep in mind that the product arrived at my doorstep in this way. This was not done by me, or by the shipping company, as this was more likely a manufacturing defect. The tear was a very clean cut line that almost looked as if someone took a razor and sliced the hole open a bit to enlarge it.
Anyway, I contacted Griffin about this problem. I told them about my predicament and even sent them a picture of the oddly torn hand strap. Their advice? For me to pay for shipping and to ship the whole case back to them. Once again... they WANTED ME TO PAY for the shipping of THEIR defective product. After they inspected the strap, they said they would send me a new one if they deemed it defective... which it very clearly was. They also said that there would be a delay and I would be without a case for almost 2 weeks. I told them that it was only the strap that was defective and I didn't need to send the whole case (I work in a hospital and wanted to use the case). I also didn't want to pay the shipping for something that was their burden to bear, but they weren't having any of that.
Finally, in the end I decided to just return the case and the stylus I purchased with it. I cannot justify giving business to a company that does not deserve it. After paying over 90$ for the case and stylus, I had to pay an additional 8 dollars to ship the products back to them for my refund. So in the end, it cost me 8 dollars to deal with the whole Griffin debacle. Needless to say, the whole experience was a very poor one. The customer service was a shame.
This is just my 2 cents, but I would say Griffin is a company to avoid.
As for the actual case itself, it would have been fairly decent for hospital use. The major drawback is that it covers the speaker port with almost an airtight seal. This is very bad for the speaker, because if it starts making noises, it can cause damage to the cone due to lack of air movement (which causes a back pressure, or negative pressure, or something... my physics is rusty). So if you manage to get one of these cases in working condition and decide to keep it, make sure you mute your iPad while it is in the case. (of course my primary advice is to boycott this company, but it seems to be the only option for body substance isolation for your iPad)
Daniel
