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by Patrick Lenz.
Original Post: Review: Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio
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After my 16-months-old son had managed to shatter my new iPad Air within a mere couple of days of it shipping to my doorstep, I had to up the ante to protect the replacement from suffering the same fate.
I looked at several offerings, ranging from the official Apple iPad Smart Case, over a variety of sleeves, all the way through the (usually fabuluous) DODOcase options. In the end, I was drawn to Logitech's newest folio-style case with a built-in keyboard: The Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio. (Yes, that is quite a mouthful.)
The FabricSkin combines a fairly protective case with an innovative and very flat, yet full-size keyboard that doesn't add a lot of bulk to the otherwise petite shape of the iPad Air, resulting in only a few compromises.
Tech Specs
Putting the iPad Air into the FabricSkin is very straightforward. You simply clip its top and bottom edges on the righthand side into the plastic housing. The power button disappears into the housing, but can still be operated through a little flap. Since it's right on the edge of the case, this adds a nice layer of protection.
The volume up/down and mute switch aren't covered by any additional means, but since they're seated recessed from the outer rim of the case I'm not worried too much.
On the back of the case there is an opening for the iPad camera. Using it while the iPad is in its case, however, means that either you're flying blind or the keyboard flap is dangling around at the bottom while you're taking pictures, making it ever so slightly more ludicrous than taking pictures with your iPad in the first place.
The power button underneath the plastic housing clips.
Once clipped into the FabricSkin, built-in magnets will wake and sleep the iPad with the opening and closing of the flap, respectively.
You can use the iPad in one of two orientations: Either with the keyboard folded flat on its back in either horizontal or vertical orientation, which is great for reading or watching videos (consumption mode, if you will) or with the built-in keyboard out front, which is only available in horizontal orientation. Magnets hold the iPad in a perfect angle for working with the keyboard and also trigger the wake and sleep of the keyboard itself, hence the lack of a dedicated power button anywhere on the case.
The outer shell of the case is rubbery and fairly easy to clean. It has a great grip to it and won't let your iPad slide off of even the most slippery of surfaces.
The Keyboard
Logitech sells a lot of keyboards for iPads and has been successful at that for quite some time. With this one, though, they introduced a keyboard made out of a water-repellant material that is built right into the top flap.
The keys themselves are regularly sized and shaped and arranged in the typical QWERTY-layout. They do depress like on a regular laptop keyboard, with a slight reduction in tactile feedback. The rubbery finish takes a moment to get accustomed to, but works very well after some practice time.
In the top row of the keyboard you get iOS special keys (activated with the Fn-key) to get to the homescreen, toggle the on-screen keyboard, control playback and volume, lock the screen, and start dictation. If you work with a remote shell app like Panic's Prompt, you will notice the missing escape key, though.
The other drawback of the keyboard layout is the compression of the leftmost column of keys, namely the tab and capslock keys, onto their right neighbor, the Q and A keys, respectively. It feels weird not to have another key next to Q and A and if you're used to tab through web-forms, for example, you will miss the tab key a lot. Additionally, the arrangement of the numeric row of keys is ever so slightly shifted to the right, so I keep hitting the home button instead of 1 all the time, which has been a major annoyance in day-to-day usage.
Close-up of some of the letters on the keyboard.
While we're on the subject of drawbacks, I'd like to point out that I sometimes wish for the keyboard to operate properly even if the iPad isn't sitting in its magnetically enforced spot on top of it. If you're sitting on the couch with your legs pulled up, the usual angle doesn't make sense at all. It would make much more sense to operate the case folded fully open, with iPad and keyboard in a straight line, not unlike the Upright Mode of the GroovBoard. But that won't work with the FabricSkin.
Charging
I haven't charged my FabricSkin even once beyond the initial charge when I received it. According to Logitech, it should be good for up to 3 months on a single charge, given about 2 hours of daily use.
If you do have to charge it, there's a micro-USB jack at the bottom that can be powered with the included USB cable.
The charging port and iPad Lightning port
The last minor annoyance I'd like to talk about is the little Logitech flag that sticks out the top right of the case (bottom left of the keyboard in horizontal orientation). I don't know who on earth thought it would be great to put it there, or on the case at all for that matter. It's in the way most of the time and I'm very close to simply cutting it off.
Conclusion
Other than the mentioned annoyances, I'm very happy with this case and have used it extensively over the past 4 weeks. The battery lifetime is outstanding, the protection (yet to be toddler-proven) is sufficient, and the typing quality is great. It wakes and sleeps both the iPad and the keyboard quickly and reliably (including the necessary pairing process, hiding the on-screen keyboard) and doesn't bulk up the iPad Air too much.
The Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio is available for $150 from Logitech's Online Store or from Amazon. It ships in Urban Grey, Carbon Black, and Mars Red Orange. I opted for the Urban Grey because I didn't like the colored insides of the other options.
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