The DOS Guru

Forgive the crappy cameraphone pictures.  My camera is currently inoperable and I’m looking for a suitable replacement. This is more of a review than an unboxing.

At long last, my Clamcase is here.  Does it live up to the hype?

In short: no.  

After trying several iPad case solutions (my favorite was still the original black microfiber Apple case), I decided I wanted something sturdy with a keyboard.  I do a lot of writing and I liked being able to do so on an iPad due to it’s superior battery life, light weight, and instant-on nature. 

After receiving an email from Clamcase that these things were finally in stock, I bum-rushed the website and placed an order, fistful of money in hand.  The ordering process left a lot to be desired.  Spoiled by the fluid checkout workflow at Amazon, I found the Clamcase.com checkout process to be buggy, slow, and irritating.  

The case took an astounding 5 weeks to reach my door after I had placed my order.  I knew this up front but am currently disappointed that I had waited that long for something so underwhelming.  

The normally anticipated unboxing was a joke.  The packaging is cheap as you can see from the pictures - certainly not something you expect from a $150 keyboard bolted onto a plastic case. 

The pictures of the Clamcase on the company site make it look just like a tiny macbook - a macbook mini if you will.  A beautiful matte black macbook mini.

In reality, this is not the case (no pun intended).  The plastic is very durable, but low grade - a lot like what a cellphone holster would be made of.  Fairly easy to scratch.  Fitment is great and the hinge is stiff and solid.  From certain angles and lighting I can see how it can look like a baby macbook, but from most angles it looks like an iPad2 with a giant black plastic sheath. 

Another issue is that it is _heavy_.  With an iPad2 slotted in (which makes it top heavy as the screen half is heavier than the base), it weighs a bit more than a macbook air.  It’s also _thick_ - about as thick as my macbook pro. 

The keyboard spacing is a tad off.  I’m not sure how or why, but compared to every keyboard I’ve used (in multiple form factors), I just can’t quite train myself to type without copious amounts of typos on this keyboard. Perhaps I need to give myself time to adjust.  There are also several keys that are fairly useless and seem to clutter the keyboard layout.  The arrow keys which I thought would be ideal for me to play vintage Sierra games with in iDos (the dos box emulator for iOS) don’t work at all.  In fact, I can’t seem to find ANY app that supports the directional arrow keys. The BT pairing process is straightforward, except for two separate times when I had to repair for one reason or another.

It’s worthwhile to note that the keyboard itself is powered by it’s own battery, charged via the included mini-usb charging cable.  Holding down the Fn and command keys on the keyboard will flash an LED a certain number of times to indicate the amount of charge remaining.  After a solid day of use, the charge hasn’t budged. 

I think the concept is solid, but the actual execution failed to live up to the hype, the pretty product shots, and most importantly the $150 price tag.  I’m debating whether to keep this or to throw it on eBay and use my trusty imitation microfiber case and Apple BT keyboard combo instead.