60Euro (approx £43.40)

http://www.pielframa.com/iPAQnaked.htm

Here you can see the three boxes in order:

• VAJA
• Covertec
• Piel Frama

To retain the excitement and pleasure of producing the review the boxes were all left unopened until all the cases had arrived - not easy to do, but I felt it was warranted to maintain a balanced viewpoint of the different products.

The VAJA box was the most intriguing, just look at the size of the box - massive compared to the others!

Once all the cases / holsters had arrived the great moment of opening the boxes occurred.

Looking at the back of the cases, the fastening mechanisms become evident as well as the spigots used for locating the belt clips on the VAJA and Piel Frama models.

Looking at the internal view of the cases, we can see the hard lines of the VAJA model, contrasting against the very soft leather used in the Covertec design and the slightly harder leather used for the Piel Frama case.

In Detail

Piel Frama

	The case appears to be well protected as the back panel and front flap are padded with foam and lined with a layer of ABS plastic which will give an adequate cushion for the iPAQ to sit against. All stitched edges that touch the iPAQ are well hidden and internalised to avoid marking the PDA in any way. The iPAQ sits snuggly within the case and there is ample access to all the buttons, soft reset hole and the power/sync connector. The top left hand side of the case is scalloped away to give access to the record button and the hinge is pierced to give access to the headphone socket when the case is closed. The side portions of the case covers almost the entire side of the iPAQ giving good side protection and all corners of the leather have been carefully rounded to avoid the case catching on any clothing when belt mounted.
	The only slight annoyances with the holster is that the I/O port on the base of the iPAQ is visible and it is possible dirt could enter through the hole in the base of the holster and that the thickness of the leather used in the construction prevents it being placed in the Sync Cradle. If you wish to use the cradle you must remove the iPAQ from the holster, trying to force it into position may damage the iPAQ or the cradle!
	When closed the iPAQ is held firmly with the flap having a certain amount of 'play' in it which will suit some users and not others. For those who use SD cards which may stick out above the iPAQ this clearance will be appreciated, but for those users who use standard cards the clearance may be a little too great and could allow dirt to enter on to of the iPAQ screen. However, this gap also gives reasonable access to the microphone on the iPAQ to ensure voice note recording when the case is closed.
	The Piel Frama case comes equipped with a number of storage slots contained within the flap. One large flap which could be used for money, two smaller slots which could contain business cards and two other slots which could hold two SD cards.

Covertec

	The Covertec case is internally lined with a thin U shaped metal plate in the front of the case, which serves to give added stability and ensures the iPAQ is gripped firmly. There also appears to be some padding within the flap itself, but this is no where near as generous as the padding used by Piel Frama. The inner lining of the case (and inner flap) is constructed of leather effect plastic backed with a vinyl weave. The juncture between the leather outer skin and inner plastic is visible with the stitched portion of the leather sitting on top of the plastic, this could in time mark the outer casing on the iPAQ. Access is granted to all buttons via the U shaped front of the case, and the power/sync connector and the soft reset switch are accessible via holes in the base of the cover. The case surround is however a little too close to the buttons and the calendar button is partially obscured. This cannot be easily resolved by bending the leather out of the way due to the stiffness of the internal metal support.
	The base back corners of the case are somewhat sharp and not rounded at all, but after a few days of use (in a pocket or briefcase) these corners do tend to become somewhat rounded and lose their sharp edges. Again with this case the I/O port on the base of the iPAQ it is visible giving a point of entry to foreign objects and the thickness of the casing prevents the iPAQ being placed in the Sync Cradle.
	The sides of the case only carry around half way up the sides of the iPAQ and although this gives good access to the record button, it does allow the iPAQ to suffer from side impacts. The case hinge is cut away to give access to the headphone port and also the microphone although this does remove some measure of corner protection.
	When closed the iPAQ is held firmly with the flap having minimal 'play'. The case again supports internal storage, in this instance one large business card or money flap (which is fitted with a push in flap which seems to function as extra screen protection) and three slots suitable for holding credit cards.

VAJA

	The holster from VAJA is of completely different construction to the other two cases, although it shares the same basic concept. Firstly, it uses glue to hold together the leather components and secondly, the leather has been hard tanned and moulded to suit more closely the lines of the iPAQ. The lack of stitching means that after years of use there is nothing to come unravelled, the only worry being that the glue used could perish with age and require reapplying. The hard tanning process gives the holster almost the look of a hard plastic although the lustre and smell of the leather clearly shows that this is not the case. When cradled in the holster the entire front and bottom of the iPAQ are visible to the user giving excellent access to all the buttons on the front of the machine and the power/sync port underneath. In fact, the inner edges of the case appear to follow lines similar to the standard iPAQ sleeves produced by Compaq (HP) making the body of the iPAQ look very similar to the standard sleeve.
	One very nice feature here is that the leather is moulded so as to cover the I/O port, giving a good level of protection against dust and other foreign objects. One bonus here is that due to the hard tanning process the thickness of the leather at the base of the holster has been reduced and this holster therefore does allow the iPAQ to be placed in the Active Sync cradle whist in the holster. Greater pressure is required for the first few insertions into the cradle but the casing soon 'wears in' allowing cradling to take place without any problems. The VAJA holster comes equipped with two moulded storage slots contained within the flap which will hold two SD cards.
	Unlike the other cases the record button is accessed via a pierced and moulded hole in the side of the case, which gives good protection but may be a little difficult to access for users with larger fingers. However the moulded shape does guide the thumb onto the button so this is not that great a problem.
	When the holster is closed both the headphone socket, IR port and the stylus are accessible on either side of the leather hinge. Here I would have preferred the headphone to be accessed via a piercing similar to that of the record button and the stylus to have been covered, it can be all too easy to lose a stylus if your machine suffers from 'loose stylus syndrome'. The total protection given by the moulded casing and the three layers of ABS plastic contained within the leather is a great bonus, the only disadvantages are that the speaker and microphone are completely covered. This can make alarms difficult to hear when the case is fully closed and it is difficult to make voice notes without access to the microphone.
	The other difficulty in making voice notes when the holster is closed is that the front flap is not cut away in the area in front of the record button resulting in the button being partially obscured. The lack of the cut away area together with the piercing around the record button render it impossible to press the record button to make voice notes when the case is closed.

Fastening Methods

The three cases / holsters use different fastening methods:

	The Piel Frama case uses a medium sized press-stud fasten which mates to a strap which emerges from the front cover of the case, travels underneath and round the the bottom of the holster and fastens at the lower back of the case. This is a traditional design of fasten and allows some side-ways drift of the flap when closed.
	The closure method used by Covertec is similar to the traditional design used by Piel Frama but the press-stud does not lock using the usual piece of spring steel found in a press-stud. Instead the two halves of the clasp are north and south orientated magnets which pull the two halves of the connector together. Again some side-ways drift is inherent within the design but this is limited by the magnets which resist movement. The only problem with this design is that the magnets could be made more forceful as a sharp sideways shock to the closure can effectively jar the magnets loose.
At first glance the VAJA case appears not to have any fastening method at all. However appearances can be deceiving, again magnets come into play. Small north and south orientated bar magnets have been fitted into the lip on the front edge of the holster and the mating piece internal to the front of the flap. This gives a surprisingly effective closure and the orientation of the design prevents any side-ways drift of the flap when closed. The lip on the front cover also engages on into a matching recess in the case body immediately below the sync/power port. To open the cover the lip must be lifted with slight hand pressure both against the resistance of the leather and the pull magnets before the holster can be opened.

Belt Clips

The VAJA and Piel Frama cases are available (VAJA as an extra) with a belt clip which is secured onto a spigot on the back of each case. Both types of belt clips mount in similar ways via a slot in the belt clip which engages onto the spigot and are released via pressing a release button which resides on the top of the clip when mounted on the belt.

Both belt clips are almost identical in construction excepting that the Piel Frama release button protrudes above the level of the clip whereas the VAJA button is sunk into the clip. The VAJA clip also has an extra return on the bottom of the grip plate giving the clip protection against upwards movements of the holster when locked onto the belt.

This serves to aid in avoiding situations where the case may be thrust against a car seat when entering a car. The steel springs used within the belt clips also vary in strength with the VAJA clip requiring at least triple the force of the Piel Frama clip to release the clip from the belt. According to VAJA the clip will withstand forces of 60g in all directions. Both clips support 360º rotation which ensures that the holster will move freely in all circumstances and is less likely to catch on things like car seat belts.

The spigots in the holster bodies vary in construction, the Piel Frama spigot is made from plastic and the belt clip when pushed into position deforms the soft leather of the case allowing the clip to slide into position. This results in the 360º movement being slightly impaired, the clip can not be spun round by hand. The VAJA spigot is constructed from a single piece of plated solid brass and is fitted to the back of the case between two thick layers of ABS. As the spigot sits proud of the hard leather casing the belt clip is free to rotate and can easily be spun by hand this reduces even further the possibility of catching the case against any objects.

It is also worth mentioning that the VAJA spigot is also machined on two sides reducing the width of the spigot column and this fits through the reduced area of the belt clip keyway. This means that the VAJA holster has to be fitted to or removed from the clip at a 90º angle, another added security measure, as if the belt clip lock fails the holster cannot just pop out of the clip.

Detail of VAJA spigot construction

Unfortunately no details are available from Piel Frama at this time as to how their spigot is locked into position, it seems to use a similar method to that of VAJA to hold the plastic locking piece in position within the leather.

The only critique I have of both the belt clips is the choice of material used in their construction and of the spring steel locking system. As an engineer I would prefer a 'deluxe' design to be made which used brass or steel instead of the heavy duty ABS plastic and instead of the clip, had a solid machined slotted fasten through which the belt had to be threaded. I know this would be more expensive to produce but would ensure that the belt fasten could never come adrift from the belt under any circumstances. Engineers can dream though......

Customisation

The VAJA and Piel Frama cases come in a variety of colours and styles.

VAJA offer the greatest range of customisation with many varying colours and styles of leather. The four pictures shown here are only some typical examples of what is available, the full range may be viewed on the VAJA web site here. Only the top ten percent of all the Argentine's leather hides are chosen to be used in the VAJA manufacturing process. All leather is selected for its tactile quality, strength, character and grain. Products are made individually one at a time in their factories by skilled craftsmen who maintain the highest quality standards in the leather industry throughout each of the processes involved - almost fifty!

Piel Frama offer their cases in variants of black and tan colouration; black, tan, and black and tan. A luxury range of cases is also available using 'ostrich' and 'crocodile' effect cowskin leather. The cases are handmade by experienced Piel Frama leather craftsmen in 1ª quality cow-skin, they ensure it has passed strict quality controls through all the different manufacturing processes.

• Customisation via leather colour and texture available
• Triple ABS padded front & back
• Allows the iPAQ to be synchronized in the cradle whist in the holster
• Slotted belt spigot gives additional security.
• I/O port hidden from view
• The draw-string bag is a useful accessory store
• Hard leather construction
• Total moulded protection
• Access to reset button
• IR port available when closed
• Suitable for 3100, 3600, 3700, 3800 & 3900 series iPAQ's
• Optional removable belt clip
• Brass belt clip spigot with 'free' 360º movement
• Magnetic closure

• Access to reset button
• Protective flap between card slots and PDA screen
• Magnetic closure

• Foam padded front & back with internal ABS protection
• Soft leather lining
• Access to reset button
• Good Access to record button
• Removable belt clip provided as standard
• Leather soft and pliable - nice to hold in the hand
• 360º belt clip movement
• Access to reset button

• Record button obscured by front cover
• Only storage space for 2 SD cards
• Poor access to speaker can reduce sound volume
• Poor access to microphone results in poor voice recordings when the holster is closed
• Stylus free to drop out of the silo

• Does not allow synchronization using the Active Sync cradle while the iPAQ is in the case
• No belt clip
• Not 100% leather construction
• 'Rough' internal joints
• Sharp edged external corners
• Poor headphone socket / corner protection
• Sides do not fully cover the iPAQ
• Minimal internal padding
• I/O port visible
• No dedicated access to microphone

• Does not allow synchronization using the Active Sync cradle while the iPAQ is in the holster
• I/O port visible
• No dedicated access to microphone
• Flap clearance could be reduced to minimize dirt ingress to the screen.

•  Resolve the issues with the obscured record button by relieving the leather front cover.
• Add piercings in the front cover above the speaker and microphone

• The addition of a belt clip would enhance the design

•  Create a Piel Frama logo for the case either embossed in the leather or as a metal tag.
• Reduce the clearance underneath the front cover