Review: Some Nice Design Touches
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
The straps on the inside of this particular cover are positioned closer together than the actual size of a typical Kindle. This means you need to stretch them a fair bit to get them up around its corners, but it's not to the point of being outrageous. It doesn't at all feel like the bands are going to snap or give way, and there's actually a bit of extra room for stretch once they've settled into place.The upside of this is that it means that you can use the same cover for a variety of different devices. If you're going to spend this much on a cover, after all, it'd be nice to not have to toss it out every year if you continue updating your ereader. It should also allow you to switch brand, since Nooks and Kobos are about the same size as Kindles.I actually wouldn't be entirely shocked if there are a few brands of large-ish cell phones that would fit into it well enough, though I can't imagine why someone would want to do that other than being a little silly.Generally this case is rather pretty and has a couple of nice design touches.the channel across the front does a good job of giving the strap a clear place to sit when holding it shut, and the channel through the cover itself gives the hand-strap a clear place to sit without adding to the bulk (or pressing the strap into a device's screen, which has been an issue on some covers). The branding seems like just a little bit more than really necessary.I think the biggest disappointment here is the lack of the magnet feature to auto-sleep the device. It's not something I think _all_ paperwhite covers need to have, but it seems like a really strange thing to skip over given the price range.If you're definitely buying a Paperwhite, and you're planning to keep it for a couple of years (so that you're not too worried about compatibility of your cover with the next device you buy), it's kinda hard to justify this over the very nice official Kindle covers made specifically for the Paperwhite that do the auto-sleep and wake.The design on this one has been kind of growing on me. I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that it resembles the greys and whites color scheme of an eink reader, so it feels like it's "on theme". Overall, though, unless you're concerned about being able to use it for multiple devices, I don't really see this as being quite on par with the official Kindle offerings in terms of features. The slightly strained strap arrangement and the lack of a magnet put it a little behind.