[Galaxy Tab S Accessories] slack04:
I received this case from Roocase for evaluation and wanted to share here. As you'll see, the review is not entirely positive. I asked the Roocase people if I could post in a public forum and they said "yes" without even seeing the review. To me this is a good sign of a company that cares what its customers think, and isn't afraid of negative feedback. I haven't changed the review, and while I still think that this case is probably a "don't buy" I will certainly consider Roocase the next time I'm in the market for a tablet case.

I tried to give as critical a review as possible. To me, when a product is titled “executive” it receives an additional layer of scrutiny, especially for an image-conscious businessperson whom might be a target consumer. Thus this review considers of particular importance the looks and usefulness as a business tool.

Here is an Amazon link to the case: http://amzn.to/1Vy5AGv

I received the portfolio in a nondescript cardboard box that was adequately sized to protect the case. The packaging was simple, which is a positive in my mind. I’m not a fan of big unrecyclable plastic boxes. That said, a product called “executive” should probably have a slightly more premium-looking packaging. I suggest reviewing the images, fonts, and content of the current packaging to something matching other, more modern designs.

The exterior leather is adequately solid and the stitching is tight enough to give a premium feel. The only error in the stitching is where the binding strip overlaps itself on the bottom corner at the fold. The error here is small and will probably not be a point of failure, so I’m not overly concerned. The interior stitching left something to be desired. On the inside left, the card slots and pockets have a little too much give, leaving a “pouch” look. Probably useful if one plans to keep a lot of papers in there, but it doesn’t look great when empty. The stitching around the inner tablet was not perfect, but that’s just being nitpicky.

The zipper is tight but the zipper handles are annoyingly large and there is absolutely no reason to use a double-ended zipper since they both need to be completely retracted to open the case. The handles have a small point on both sides of the base that causes the zipper to catch; every second or third time I used them they got momentarily stuck. That said, they feel solid; I’m not concerned that they will break any time soon. Another annoyance is that the zippers hang out even when completely retracted; holding the case against your stomach you end up with the zipper sticking into you (this would be solved by using a single-ended zipper, BTW). Finally, when completely closed the zippers sort of clatter together, not a big deal, but annoying. Besides these points, the zipper looks and feels good and did not have any problem closing the case, even when filled with materials.

The Roocase logo is attractive and nicely embossed in a good place on the cover. I appreciate that you understated the logo and hope you (and everyone else!) will continue to do so. I would not have had a problem with a second logo in the same place on the back, or an embossed logo on the interior.

The pockets on the inside left are adequate, though I personally do not think I’d use them much. They are too small to fit a standard sheet of paper (though this is the size of the tablet, not the case). The credit card/business card holders are of an appropriate depth and held tight to even a single card. The windowed pocket is similarly good, though I don’t see myself using it for anything. It might make sense to have more specific pockets, such as for a particular size of notebook. For me, I’d probably forgo the pockets altogether, or make a single pocket in which a (smaller) notepad could be hung horizontally.

The sides and spine are a perfect combination of rigid and thick and work well for both protecting the device and preventing objects held in the case from impacting on the screen. The overall feel in the hand is satisfying, though, considering the weight of the tablet is so low, it might be nicer to have a little less weight in the case.

The interior tablet holder is, unfortunately, where this case fails. There are several problems. First, the enclosure looks and feels cheap, both with and without the tablet. I personally hate tablet cases that cover the bezel; on the tab s 10.5, one of the more important gestures (swipe in from the right) is actually hindered by the case, which is unacceptable. The interior case should have used the hard plastic/metal corner compression style. As it is, the interior case looks and feels like strapping a bit of cardboard with some loose plastic on the front to an expensive tablet. The Velcro slipped under the bottom of the tablet causes a slight lift, bulging the bottom end of the tablet out. This means that when placed flat on a surface the bottom middle pushed up just enough that the whole thing wobbles when touched, even when using the small integrated lifting mechanism.

The faux leather hangs loosely around the screen no matter how tightly I pushed the Velcro attachment. The exterior case may be leather, but the inner case is clearly not. Pressing buttons on the tablet on the top and side is hindered, though this is a relatively minor nuisance. The port for the charger cable is accessible, but the 3.5mm headset jack is close; my best headphones have a square-ish connector that can’t be turned while the case is on. Both front and back cameras are fine, as is the light sensor. The fingerprint sensor, home button, and two capacitive buttons are fine, but the bezel-covering looks the worst here, sticking up from the screen. The case I received is slightly different than the one pictured on Amazon; they've (smartly) removed the strip of leather above the home/capacitive buttons.

The hand strap is tight and nicely recessed; the material touching the back of my hand was OK but should have been better; if I’m going to hold this thing with a hand strap for any amount of time the material should be a bit less abrasive. The small lifting mechanism on the back is also a nice touch, it worked well and gave the tablet a small lift when placed flat on a table. That said, I’d never use this case alone, and the rest of the case is intended to prop the tablet up already, so I don’t see when I’d be using this. The small lift also is placed just behind the button attachment (discussed below) so that it cannot be comfortably extended or replaced while buttoned in the case. This might actually have been a useful mode for the case; I briefly used it like this and found that it held the top of the case open fine, and provided some top-down privacy on the screen. I think certain business users might have actually liked such a feature.

Beside the bezel-covering faux leather, the single worst feature of this case is the button clasp that attaches the inner case to the outer. When the inner case is placed flat on a surface, the button always touches first, though not excessively. When attaching to the outer case, the button must be pressed very hard; this required placing pressure on the middle of the screen. I did not enjoy doing this. I assume the tablet can handle it, but I won’t be doing it again for fear of damaging the screen or the electronics.

When attached in the full case, the case works well in both landscape and portrait. While more options for angles are always nice, I think the angle you get is pretty good. I found it odd that, when used, the logo is on the table; I don’t like logos, but I’d think Roocase might!

The pen/stylus was a nice though unnecessary addition. It works about as well as most styli, and feels acceptable in the hand, if a little small. The tip feels very cheap. I did notice that it has both black and blue ink pens, but unfortunately you can’t tell which until you start writing. A perfectly good free add-on; nobody is buying this case for the pen/stylus.

The outer case is solid and I’d be confident that my tablet would survive a significant fall so long as the zippers were closed. However, if the zippers were open or if only using the inner case I’m sure that even a small fall would result in disaster. The bezel-covering inner case doesn’t even cover the lower corners of the tablet, which hangs out just enough to be the first thing that would impact in a fall. It becomes difficult, with this description, to even call the inner case a “case.”

In summary, the case looks nice from the outside, though the zippers are a bit annoying. The outer case is sturdy, tough, and would provide exceptional protection from both falls and pressure applied to the exterior. The interior pockets are fine, but I don’t see them being particularly useful given the application and size. Using the tablet propped up was stable in both tablet and portrait orientation, and the angle of the screen was good. The inner case feels cheap, particularly the loosely-fitting bezel-covering faux leather, which made an expensive tablet look cheap and negatively affected both my ability to use swipe gestures on the screen and the 3.5mm audio connector, and caused the tablet to wobble when placed without the outer case on a flat surface. The button clasp is also unacceptable, as connecting it required putting pressure in the middle of the screen. Both of these things would need to be corrected for me to be able to recommend this case to anyone. As it is, I am unlikely to use this case, which is a shame, considering that from the outside it is very nice looking and clearly would provide a lot of protection.