Review: Perfect for My Needs (Read on about odor)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2012
My best friend bought me a Kindle Fire for Christmas this year, and I needed a cover/case to go with it. I'm still looking for the perfect screen protector, but for now, the case is enough. She almost didn't buy it based on the reviews that talked about the smell of the product, since I'm on oxygen therapy and am very sensitive to smells. She chose to get it anyway, knowing she could send it back for me if the smell was too much to take. Well, I'm going to be honest, the smell was pretty strong and it definitely was odd. However, my son was the one who noticed that it really wasn't the case that smelled--it was the eco-friendly packing the case came in, a little brown recycled paper sack and with some brown papers wrapping it. But the papers themselves only had a trace of the odor - the cardboard wrapped around the case is what stank. So we took the case, sprayed some Febreze on it, and let it sit in the sunlight outside on the picnic table in the backyard for a little while with the fresh air and brought it back in and it was much, much better. I figured I'd give it a week before deciding. By the end of the week, the smell was nearly gone unless I put my nose right up next to it. We repeated the Febreze and leaving it outside again in the second week,and the smell is completely gone now.The packaging we finally threw away, even though I usually save electronics packaging in case something goes wrong and I need to send it back, but I figured by this point I'd be keeping the case, and the packaging smelled, so we tossed it.So now that the smell is gone, let's look at the feature - it's soft, plus interior and harder slick exterior. Not leather-like, but more plastic-like, but soft, just firm enough to provide some protection. There is a hand strap through the back of the case when it's zipped in the 'open' position, which makes reading at night in bed on the Kindle Fire really nice. You don't have to 'hold' it, but rather, just slide your hand through the strap and relax. The downside is, the strap's elastic stretches over time, and it loses its elasticity (it actually sort of 'tears' the elastic so it's not tight any more). It still works great for holding it at night, but it doesn't fit as tightly on the hand any more. The Kindle Fire fits in tightly. I had it fall out one time, and it was my fault for really knocking it around pretty rough while I was getting into my wheelchair. Other than that, it's stayed in really tightly and hasn't fallen out, but it's not so tight that it isn't easy to take out if you know how to do it. You just have to push it up and then out, instead of trying to 'pop' it out. There's a little trick to it, but it's easy once you figure it out.The two minor downsides that prevented a five-star review: 1) the zipper is made so you can zip it closed with the Kindle Fire inside, but they also will allow you to zip it 'open' with the case flipped over for reading and using. The problem is, the zipper tags for pulling it zipped and unzipped only go one direction, so when you're trying to zip it while it's 'open', you have to stick your fingers inside and feel around to grab the zipper tags to pull it. It would have been better if it had zipper tags on both sides of the zipper, for both open and closed zipping. 2) When it is zipped closed, there's a little pocket on the outside with a zipper to store things in, but the pocket is so 'tight' you can't fit anything in that pocket without risking damage to the Kindle Fire screen inside. For example, I once put a battery in it, a small double A batter, and it was such a tight fit, I worried the battery would crack the Kindle screen on the other side of the pocket. However, I do frequently slide my debit card inside the pocket and grab my Kindle to go somewhere and skip taking my wallet or purse, so it's good for that. But anything much thicker than a credit card or ID card and it's going to be a super-tight fit, so I'm not sure why there's a 'pocket' there at all.All said and done, I'm really happy with the case and glad I stuck with it when it smelled instead of returning it, but when/if this one ever wears out, I'll likely look for a different brand before deciding to purchase this one again. I'm not disappointed in it, but I do think they could have made it a bit better than it is.