The Treegloo case is in the category of Moleskine style cases. Other cases in these categories include DODOcase, Pad and Quill, and Portenzo to name a few. The only one that I had seen before getting the Treegloo case was the Pad and Quill. A few friends of mine had got their Pad and Quill after they were lucky enough to get an iPad 2 early, and they love their cases. After seeing the build quality of their cases I was anxious to see how the Treegloo would turn out as well. I went with the Treegloo instead of the Pad and Quill was because of the lower price and good online reviews. It took a long time to get the case, but so far I’m impressed.
I never get into specifications too much in my reviews because you can read that yourself. What I can say so far is that the build quality is really good. Compared to the Pad and Quill, I do believe it is thicker but the thickness gives it a bit more substance. The leather outside doesn’t seem as tightly wrapped but they may be by design. The little bit of give in the leather wrapping gives it a little bit of a padded feel. Also, the little bit of give makes it easy to fold the flap back without any reservations. It is a smart cover, so as you open the flap, the iPad wakes up from sleep. One of the things that I liked about the Apple Smart Cover is that it allowed you to stand the iPad up on a table. The Treegloo allows you also to stand it up by using the front cover flap as a stand.
The Delays
Getting the case was a different story. With any of these Moleskine style cases, these cases ship anywhere between 7 days to 6 weeks from your order, depending on the company you order it from and the options you put into the case. In my case, my April 28th and received it May 26th. The main issue I had with the whole process was the slow response from customer service and the lack alerts when there were delays. They originally said 7-14 days but that soon got delayed and delayed. Their original response was this.
Sincerest apologies for the overdue response and delay in shipment. We are small team that has been inundated with orders and our production queue has run longer than expected.
My biggest issue with this statement was, if they were inundated with orders, then they should really invest some money into their customer service. They said that they would hopefully send it out the following week. When that time came and went, there was no update. The short version of the story is, it seemed like only when I contacted them via email and twitter / facebook, then they would respond. Eventually, I did get the case and I am overall happy with the product. I will say, the experience has made me not trust whatever their customer service says. That maybe a little too rough but that’s just my experience.
What I liked:
- Build quality
- Doesn’t announce that you have an iPad to everyone
- Easy to stand the iPad up.
What I didn’t like:
- More bulky that some competitors
- Difficult to put in headphones into audio jack
- Customer Service
- Delivery time.
Despite the customer service issues and the long shipping times, I would definitely recommend the case. Going back to my two considerations of choosing a case… how I was going to use the iPad and where I am going to take it. The iPad is mainly being used as a consumption device and not as a production device. This means that I didn’t need a case where I can type using the iPad easier. The places I’m taking the iPad is to church meetings and coffee shop. I didn’t want a case that would announce that I had an iPad. This case meets these two criteria.