Just about six months ago I got my ClamCase for the iPad 1 that I had. I searched and read reviews on so many bluetooth keyboards and cases for the iPad 1 and the ClamCase was the one that fit my needs the best. I had an apple bluetooth keyboard but having the keyboard separate from the iPad didn’t work for me. Often I have the iPad on my lap and none of the cases with built-in keyboards looked as if they would hold up. The ClamCase did! It was wonderful.
The one thing that kept bugging me is that I was totally using my iPad like a touch screen laptop. It was no longer a tablet but I was really okay with it because I guess I really wanted a touch screen laptop-type machine. It was the only way I considered typing full blogs on my iPad and made replying and commenting to people much easier.
Yet six months later I have taken my iPad out its ClamCase and I’m using it like a tablet again. Why? Well, maybe part of it is that I miss having a light, thin tablet to use. Sure, it’s not as thin and light as the iPad 2 but I don’t foresee myself getting one of those anytime soon! No, the reason I put my ClamCase aside is much more disappointing. Six months ago and up until one month ago the bluetooth keyboard that comes with the ClamCase worked so well that I think I only charged it twice in the five months that I first owned it. I enjoyed typing anytime I wanted to just by hitting any key and waiting a few seconds. Then, about a month ago I was shocked when the keyboard was dead. I charged it like I had done twice before and used it. To my complete dismay it was dead again the next morning. So I charged it again. You guessed it, the charge only lasted the day if even that long. Right there my ClamCase was rendered a pain in the butt. I like to spend a little while in the morning reading and either tweeting or commenting on blogs from my RSS feed. So I either have to charge my ClamCase overnight, like I do my iPad and iPhone, or I won’t be able to use it in the morning. Too much of a bother now! Ugh.
I’ve searched to see if this is a problem others are having but I can’t find any mention of it. So do I have a faulty ClamCase? I don’t want to contact ClamCase and send it in or pay to have it fixed (it comes with a 120 day warranty, which is over for me). This is a bummer because I really enjoyed using it. Sadly too it’s not all that easy to pop in and out of the case part so I either keep it in the case or out. I gotta be in the mood to fight a bit to get it out mostly. Putting it back ain’t so bad really.
As a keyboard the clamcase is wonderful. It works very well (as long as the battery lasts!).
This view was also quite nice. It was great for movie viewing on your laptop or table top or desk top.
This view I didn’t use as much but it worked well when I tried it.
This view is one that I really wanted to use to have my “tablet” back. But alas since I used the keyboard a lot this view is very difficult to make work because the keyboard is active! Holding it this way you can’t help but push all sorts of keys wreaking from minor havoc to major havoc depending on what you were doing.
So if my ClamCase is just faulty then I can recommend it. Just make sure you want a laptop more than a tablet. Without the regular, long lasting battery though it becomes too much of a problem.
