Mine also has a slight, but not unpleasant, smell. I think these days we're so used to leather smelling of absolutely nothing that we're a bit shocked when it actually smells of leather
It actually reminds me of the saddle room in a horse riding stable I used to go to. I forgot to mention the magnetic catch but it works well and doesn't appear to affect the screen in any way. In fact I think most of the cases out there have magnetic catches.
Considering the price I think it's a beautiful case though. Perhaps the only small improvement I'd add would be to have a small hole to attach a lanyard to.