Bookarmor hard case

[GreyCat]

Since getting the first reports of broken screens I have wanted a hard case for my Gen 3. Lately I have done some long distance business trips and have again felt the need for a hard case to better protect my Gen 3 when it is in the pocket of the seat in front of me. I have worried that if I or another passenger should accidentally put a knee in the wrong place the screen might break.

A few weeks ago I was surfing and came across the Bookarmor from Omniscience which really seemed to fit the bill. The Bookarmor has of course been mentioned on this site before. I have just bought an Opus so I decided to buy a Bookarmor for each of my readers. I bought one Delta 6 cover for my Gen 3 and a Delta 5 for my Opus directly from http://www.extremeinkjet.com/, but they are also available from Ebay and Amazon. More pictures and descriptions are available here: http://www.ecaddycase.com/. I asked Omniscience if all the Delta 6 editions are identical and received the following answer: Delta 6's are different for some models like the Nook. The Nook has an indented curved back-the floor the Bookarmor has the receiver part of ClickLock raised up 1/16" and it runs vertical (Other delta 6's have horizontal Clicklock base).

First impression of the cover is that it’s sturdy and heavy. The weight of the cover is approximately 310 grams for the Delta 6 and 340 grams for the Delta 5 (yes, the smaller one is heavier).

To fasten the reader to the cover you attach strips to the back of the reader that connects to the cover in a similar way to Velcro (note that the vendor says to avoid getting Velcro onto the Clicklock system as apparently it is not possible to remove…). You have to press the reader onto the cover and especially for the Gen 3 it seems there is some deflection in the reader during this operation, I’m a bit unsure if it’s really good for the reader to be (slightly) bent like that. The Opus does not seem to have this problem, probably because the reader is smaller and more compact. Also when in the cover I cannot attach the USB cable for any of the readers without fear of damaging the reader or remove the SD card from the Gen 3.

I placed the bottom strip on the Gen 3 on the battery cover so it wouldn’t interfere if I wanted to change the battery (which I have never done) and after fastening and unfastening it to the cover a few times I discovered that the battery cover had opened on the side without the screw which I guess proves the point about there being some deflection.

When it comes to fit I think the cover is a bit big, it could have been a bit smaller and still have fit the reader well. I tried to fit the Gen 3 to the Delta 5 but the cover is not high enough.

I tried to see if the strips interfere with the “normal” cover and found that for the Opus I see no problem with using the cover that came with the reader with the strips attached. For the Gen 3 my impression was the strips causes the reader to be slightly suspended in the cover and it seemed less protected, I do not think I will use the original cover for the Gen 3 with the strips attached. I have tried to take some pictures to show how the strips look from the edge when in the original cover. On the Gen 3 picture from the side you can see that the cover is bulging slightly at the front.

All in all my first impression is that the Bookarmor is sturdy and the reader is well protected when placed in the cover. For the Gen 3 I am a bit unsure as the reader is probably well protected in the cover but might be damaged when fastened/unfastened which it must be to be charged or loaded with more books…

Some of the pictures are a bit fuzzy, but I hope they can be useful anyway.

EDIT: After using the Bookarmor cover with my Gen 3 for a few days I realised the cover is really exactly what I have been looking for. Since I worried about damaging my Gen 3 taking it in and out of the cover I started looking for a USB cable that I could connect without removing the Gen 3 from the cover. It didn't take me much googling to find a cable with a down angled mini-B connection and the problem was solved. I am very pleased with the cover and feel that my liseuse is much better protected than before.