Review: Sherpa iPad Case – Water Sherpa
Sherpa sent me their new Water Sherpa iPad2/New iPad carry case to check out and I just say overall it’s quite a nice case with only a couple of issues. As the name implies, the Water Sherpa is a waterproof case that protects the iPad from incidental water exposure. The case is not going to protect the iPad from a full drenching, but the front and back are going to be protected well from water.
The case is billed as a magnetic version that, in theory, should work like Apples Smart Case to wake the iPad and put it to sleep when the cover is opened or closed. However, the top cover doesn’t align properly to actually do either. The case manages to put the iPad to sleep once in a while, but it almost never wakes it up. It is necessary to put the iPad to sleep and wake it up manually. This sporadic feature also means that any little jostling might unintentionally wake up the iPad.
In it’s closed position, the case has a nice snap “belt” to keep the cover on while the iPad is being moved around. All of the Sherpa cases have loops along the “binder” to have a belt attached to them. The Water Sherpa comes with two belts in brown and olive green. I, however, didn’t use the the strap and have no comments on how it would behave.
The case only comes in one color, the olive. With the brown leather, the contrast is quite nice and the olive green is classy.
The iPad is held securely in place with pretty tough velcros once slid into its compartment and there are the requisite cut outs and holes to accommodate the home button, front and rear facing cameras. The rest of the button/access points (charger port, headphone jack, etc.) are accessible in between the elastic that holds the iPad in its sleeve.
The Water Sherpa gets a strong recommendation from me in its current state and would garner a even higher recommendation if the issues with the magnets could be fixed and made reliable. The Apple Smart Cover/Case’s cover always worked to do the necessary action of waking up or putting the iPad to sleep without having to second guess it.