Aura HD Alternative Cases for the Aura HD?

[glos]

So, I got 2 covers:
the first, this one
http://www.ebay.it/itm/BOOK-LEATHER-...b232968&_uhb=1

in black

I was pleased but the autosleep (it wasn't publicized though) wasn't working, the magnet was there though so I cut a square over it, on the "pocket". Anyway, it was doing its job after but overall it didn't look sturdy enough to properly protect my aura hd on my bag, so I wasn't actually taking it outside!
The styli, though, is great. I use it all the time when I'm home and my hands are dirty because I'm cooking or have cream on them. Really useful.


then a few days ago I got this one from amazon
http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00E...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Image exceeds guidelines for size - MODERATOR]

in blue.

I got this one and I'm a bit in love XD Its front is a lot sturdier, I'm now less anxious and taking my kobo outside with me. The back follows the kobo uneven back and it's very cool and hard, too. The autosleep functions perfectly and the magnet for the closure is great, too: not too strong that I have to tear apart the cover to open it and not too weak that it opens accidentally. The color is very nice and the kobo fits the cover perfectly. I didn't have to force it nor I'm afraid it can slip out. It is slightly more slippery than the first leather one, but not that much (and certainly not as much as the kobo itself). The quality was high, no weird materials stuck on it or anything.

I'm keeping this second one as my main cover and the first one as backup.

[guitarchitect]

Originally Posted by robko

You might want to be a little careful with that confidence of total protection. The cover will no doubt protect the screen from scratches and direct point pressure from an object on the screen, but you're likely to end up as one of those people who wake up one morning with a cracked substrate wondering why. Cases are great for direct screen contact protection, but they don't do a lot to protect from twisting of the screen which is the big killer of the glass substrate (IMHO) in an e-ink device. Cover's are great protection for tablet/phone etc, but e-ink is a little different.

Jeez, what do you think I'm going to do with the thing now that it's in a cover, slam it around and treat it with reckless abandon? I'm "likely" to end up wondering why I have a cracked screen, am i?

All I said was that the case itself will stand up to the abuse of getting shoved into a backpack - IE when I'm packing up for a trip, with a fancy Noreve case I'd probably want to put it in the dust bag and carefully place it in at the end... whereas with a case with a resilient surface, I can stick it where it will fit. I'm not treating a hemp case as if it's some magical kind of force field that will give a halo of protection to my e-reader.

[meson1]

I'm still waiting on Norêve for my bespoke leather case. It was supposedly dispatched on Monday. But DHL have been here today (Friday) and they had nothing for me. I cannot imagine it takes more than four days for a DHL Express package to get from St. Tropez to Lancashire in the UK.

I have a DHL tracking number, but that indicates that DHL haven't even collected it from their warehouse yet. I've sent an email to Norêve to try to find out what's going on.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by glos

The quality was high, no weird materials stuck on it or anything.

Glad to hear it!

I'm beginning to wonder whether our QC issues are with eBay sellers rather than the kinds of covers we chose. You had a bad experience with an eBay cover; I did, too. Next time, I'll try Amazon.

I'm still considering a Noreve cover in some beautiful shade of textured leather, but perhaps that's an extravagant accessory for an e-reader I might only use for the next two or three years -- though no more extravagant than the official cover.

Originally Posted by meson1

I'm still waiting on Norêve for my bespoke leather case. It was supposedly dispatched on Monday. But DHL have been here today (Friday) and they had nothing for me. I cannot imagine it takes more than four days for a DHL Express package to get from St. Tropez to Lancashire in the UK.

Be sure to post pictures once it arrives!

You mentioned that the color you picked was an attempted match with the Aura's shade of Espresso, but which kind of leather did you choose?

I find that texture can do a lot to compensate for minor differences in what fashion dogmatists tell us should be a uniform color. (Besides, my girlfriend, who's a painter and knows more about color than anyone else I've ever met, laughs at rules like that.)

[guitarchitect]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

I find that texture can do a lot to compensate for minor differences in what fashion dogmatists tell us should be a uniform color. (Besides, my girlfriend, who's a painter and knows more about color than anyone else I've ever met, laughs at rules like that.)

There aren't any rules in fashion - only opinions.

[meson1]

It's the Châtaigne Couture from the Ambition Selection. Actually, I've just discovered THIS BLOG ENTRY HERE in which the guy has reviewed a case for the Kobo Aura HD in the very colour and style I've ordered!! It looks lighter in his pics than other pics of the same colour I've seen.

But also, now I have an Espresso Aura HD, I find that it's much darker (almost black) than images appeared to show.

[Edit] Finally!! Dispatched today. I imagine I should get it on Monday.

[SWCaffeinated]

Originally Posted by meson1

The only other cover that I've come across in brown that looks anything close to decent quality (in pics at least) is this Natural Hemp one. Handy if you're looking for an animal friendly one too (if that's your thing).

But I wanted the look and feel of a traditional leather bound book, hence the choice to go with Noreve. I've gone with a dark brown full grain leather which should get better with use as a patina builds up to give it character. To my mind another good choice would have been a beige/cream cover which would contrast nicely with the Espresso brown of the device. The only drawback of that might be that as a patina builds up, it could just make cream look dirty rather than adding character, but I could be wrong.

So you could either go for colours that tone with brown, but that contrast like beiges and creams. Alternatively other pale versions of colours like pink, blue or green should go with brown and look more contemporary.

Thinking about it, my going for dark brown and trying to match the espresso probably wasn't a smart move. It could just end up looking like it's trying to match, failing and therefore look wrong, but never mind, I'll see how it turns out. It's a shame they don't do a rich burgundy; that would work too; and I like burgundy.

I wanted to comment on that Kobo hemp cover. I actually have that one for my Kobo Mini and it's very nice. Very sturdy-feeling, fits well, and seems well made. It's better than a leather cheapo I got from ebay. As I often have sweaty palms, I find it particularly nice because it doesn't slip at all.

[meson1]

And here's a link to another page for an iPad Mini case with the same colour and style leather as I've ordered for my Aura HD. Lots of pics to look at on this page though. The leather looks darker.

[robko]

Originally Posted by guitarchitect

Jeez, what do you think I'm going to do with the thing now that it's in a cover, slam it around and treat it with reckless abandon? I'm "likely" to end up wondering why I have a cracked screen, am i?

All I said was that the case itself will stand up to the abuse of getting shoved into a backpack - IE when I'm packing up for a trip, with a fancy Noreve case I'd probably want to put it in the dust bag and carefully place it in at the end... whereas with a case with a resilient surface, I can stick it where it will fit. I'm not treating a hemp case as if it's some magical kind of force field that will give a halo of protection to my e-reader.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply you were going to mistreat it in any way. You've bought a case for it, so obviously you're trying to protect your device. But if you can grab two diagonally opposite corners of the cover and flex it, it's not going to protect the glass substrate from cracking. Most people don't realize that. If you search on here you'll find pics of teardowns of various kobo devcies and see the piece of glass that I'm talking about. The glass substrate is a paper thin (almost literally) piece of glass that is part of the e-ink display (this isn't the surface of the device, but buried in the middle of it) and is typically what breaks and kills a screen. It doesn't take a lot of force to flex a paper thin piece of glass (a la e-ink) whereas the thicker glass on fronts of phones/tablets aren't likely to flex and break that way.

[RobertJSawyer]

The blue sleep case that Clos likes above looks great; on the Italian Amazon site, it's rated 5 stars based on 26 reviews.. Several vendors on eBay seem to have the same case, and in a variety of colors, and they ship worldwide:

eBay listing -- less than US$10, including shipping from China.

I'm ordering one in brown.

[glos]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

The blue sleep case that Clos likes above looks great; on the Italian Amazon site, it's rated 5 stars based on 26 reviews.. Several vendors on eBay seem to have the same case, and in a variety of colors, and they ship worldwide:

eBay listing -- less than US$10, including shipping from China.

I'm ordering one in brown.

It's probably on other amazons sites, too.
The reason I used amazon instead of ebay is: I don't have a ebay account, I needed to add something to my amazon order to make it free, usually takes 4 weeks for things from china to reach me and I wanted it now XD and I'd read here reports from Prestidigitweeze & others buying it from ebay (I think!) and being unsatisfied.
It appears the quality differs depending on the vendor? I mean they all look the same, but some buyers, like me, are totally impressed and satisfied, others have units with glue stuck on it or where the aura doesn't fit well.
see: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ze#post2594181
there have been a few comments on this thread about this type of cover

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Glad to hear it!

I'm beginning to wonder whether our QC issues are with eBay sellers rather than the kinds of covers we chose. You had a bad experience with an eBay cover; I did, too. Next time, I'll try Amazon.

yes I'm glad too XD
well the other ebay cover wasn't that bad, in the end (also it was cheap), I was using it, the main problem for me was that it was too soft
Yeah I'm starting to think they differ, I was a bit anxious when I ordered, because I remembered your experience, but seeing all those 5 stars review, I said, ok, I'll try, it's amazon here in my country, if I don't like it I'll send it back.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by glos

I was a bit anxious when I ordered, because I remembered your experience, but seeing all those 5 stars review, I said, ok, I'll try, it's amazon here in my country, if I don't like it I'll send it back.

Exactly.

Amazon's return process tends to be painless, especially when the words fulfilled by Amazon appear on the product page. Whereas the rep from Chinese Smile wanted photographs to verify the issue, expected me to pay for shipping after the pictures were sent and wouldn't send a new cover until mine had been returned. That's a long time for an e-reader to remain coverless.

[meson1]

Got it!. Can't take pictures right now as I'm at work. I won't have much time later either because I'll be out for the evening.

However, I can give a few first impressions: very plush, very high quality, smells gorgeous, nice to the touch.

It holds the reader very firmly; quite a tight fit; no fear of it falling out. It takes an effort to remove the device from the case, but I don't fear that I'm going to break the Aura HD in doing so.

Its heavy though - at 225g (almost 8oz) it's almost as heavy as the Aura HD itself so those who value a lightweight device might not like it, because you're almost doubling the weight. I suspect it's because underneath all that leather is a chassis fabricated from metal. That also makes the case feel solid and well crafted. It sure feels like good protection, but I'm not going to take it for granted given what robko has said.

Also it isn't automatically putting the device to sleep. Norêve's website said its supposed to. Having played with it, there is a magnet somewhere in the cover (the compass app in my phone detects it), but my Aura HD doesn't seem to be responding to it. I've checked the settings in preferences and auto-sleep is enabled. So I suspect it might be a fault with the reader, but I'm loathed to send my Aura back.

The Ambition Châtaigne Couture colour is darker than shown here and not as dark as shown here, but it does work with the Espresso. Pictures now posted further down in this post here.

Overall, I'm impressed and pleased.

[graycyn]

Thanks for posting. The weight thing might bother me, I'll have to think about that. Otherwise it sounds great! Too bad it doesn't seem to be waking the reader, that's a feature I really like, since I often have to set my reader down to go do something.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Thanks for the detailed posting, meson1. Since very few people have bought that case, and pictures are hard to come by, would it be possible for you to post a few photos now that your schedule's a bit less hectic?

Also:

Have you contacted Noreve about the magnet issue? I've never heard of the sleep/wake function failing to work when a case with a magnet's involved. If you live anywhere near other MR members, perhaps you can test one of our cases to see whether your Aura HD works with it, or else get the cheaper Chinese case for testing and see whether that one works. I'd be shocked if it didn't.

Whatever the case -- as it were -- it sounds as though someone should reimburse you or replace a bit of faulty kit.