Review & Giveaway: STM Bags Jacket for iPad

STM Bags is a company based out of Australia, with offices in nearly ever corner of the world, that is based on protecting your digital cargo. Founded in 1998 just outside of Sydney, Australia in the famous Bondi Beach suburb, their mission remains to come up with a more comfortable, secure and stylish means of transporting your portable electronics. They offer a lineup of various iPad Bags and other accessories, such as the Jacket for iPad.

In a previous review, we gave STM Bags’ Org Board a fairly unfavorable critique. The Jacket for iPad, on the other hand, is a tremendously better designed product that far outdoes the quality of the Org Board. The Jacket for iPad is minimally packaged with recyclable materials as part of STM Bags’ commitment to minimizing their impact on the environment. Read on to find out just how much better the Jacket for iPad is in our in-depth review. Plus, leave a comment (continental US residents only), and you’re entered into a giveaway to win your very own Jacket for iPad!

iFans.com, in collaboration with STM Bags, are proud to announce our giveaway of one STM Bags Jacket for iPad. To enter, simply leave a comment (reply) on this review! One lucky random winner will be drawn out of all comments received. For full details, please read the rules below. Good luck!

You must be a resident of the continental United States.You must be a registered user of the iFans.com community.You must not be a staff member, of a paid or volunteer position, on the iFans.com community.There is no age requirement to enter this giveaway.One winner will be chosen by random number sequence.You do not need to own an iPad to enter this giveaway.Entry Deadline: 11 March 2011, 11:59 PM EST (GMT – 5:00)Failure to claim or acknowledge your prize within 3 days (72 hours) will result in forfeiture of the prize and a subsequent redraw.

STM Bags has specifically designed the Jacket to fit the iPad. The exterior of this iPad Bag is made of water-resistant, dotted nylon with a padded, high density sponge backing. You can get your Jacket in black with a teal accent (as shown), in chocolate with an orange accent, or in a limited edition pink color. All three color choices have nice load bearing stitching across the front of the bag. It has a shoulder strap that can be adjusted or removed entirely by unhooking its durable clips. After some slight adjustments, the strap rested very comfortably on my shoulder. Depending on how tall you are, the Jacket should rest nicely alongside your waist. There is a “quick grab” handle on the side of the carrying case if you choose to remove the shoulder strap.

Weighing just under half a pound, the Jacket is very lightweight and has a slim profile. Unlike some of their other products, the STM Bags logo is professional-looking and unobtrusive. There is a main zippered pocket with a soft brushed polyester lining for your iPad. There are also three additional pockets that each have their own various purposes:

Back “Slip” Pocket (teal nylon lining): Can be used to store paperwork and other larger itemsFront Zippered Pocket (teal nylon lining): Can be used to store cables, headphones, and other medium sized itemsFront “Slider” Pocket (teal soft polyester lining): Specifically designed as a holster for your iPhone, iPod, or other portable devices

This carrying case is beneficial for students, business professionals, and world travelers. You can bring your iPad and its peripherals with you in one slim and light jacket. If you want, you could also drop this carrying case into another bag. Despite being designed specifically for the iPad, this carrying case could also be used with a Samsung Galaxy Tab or many other similarly-sized tablets. It is a very functional and multipurpose carrying case with a designer style.

This jacket provides full protection for your iPad. The soft polyester lining ensures that your iPad will remain free of scratches, dents, or other wear and tear. This soft lining can also be used to clear fingerprints and other smudges off of the screen.

The zippered pocket ensures that your iPad won’t fall out of the carrying case when you’re on-the-go. The majority of the carrying case is made of padded nylon with a sponge backing which absorbs shocks and protects against impact damage from drops. If you’re still paranoid, the carrying case has enough leisure room to store an encased iPad.

STM Bags products, including the Jacket, can be found at online and offline retailers such as Altrec and RadTech. The Jacket retails at a very reasonable price of $24.95†. Most of these online retailers provide free shipping on orders of a certain dollar amount. At this price, including the costs of shipping, this is still a very good value for this carrying case!

STM Bags’ Jacket carrying case for iPad combines function and style into one. If our previous review of the STM Bags Org Board gave you a bad first impression of the company, perhaps the Jacket will make you think otherwise. The best thing about this carrying case is that it will be compatible with the upcoming, and highly rumored, second-generation iPad. Kudos to that! Also consider looking into other iPad accessories by STM Bags such as the Glove sleeve and the Scout shoulder bag. If you have a laptop, check out their Laptop Bags. All STM Bags products are backed by a limited product lifetime warranty.

† All prices are in US currency unless stated otherwise.
This review was written by the iFans.com Review Team. Overall scores are rounded to the nearest half or full star.
Thanks to Adam at STM Bags for the review sample.

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