MacCase for iBook
Company: Kusuma Enterprises, Inc.
Price: $54.95
http://www.jambags.com
Back in November, I did a review of a similar product, Active Bag. In that review, I mentioned a few shortcomings of that product, and was looking forward to looking at similar product to find one that met all the criteria of what I consider a good notebook (and iBook) carrying bag.
The MacCase line of bags has some nice features. They are very lightweight, open up all the way to allow easy use of an iBook without taking it out of the case, a clear plastic “window” which will allow the Apple logo of your iBook to show through, and some inside room for storage.
The MacCase line comes in all the colors the current line of iBooks come in, so you can find one to match your iBook. They also now carry a “Stealth” bag, which is all black. For this review, I had the Blueberry MacCase.
I love to be able to use my notebook without taking it out of my carrying case. The MacCase opens up easily to let you do just that. The bag is made of very sturdy material, and feels very durable. The clear plastic window on the bag is nice if you want to advertise what’s inside the bag, but there is very little protection there for you computer. The MacCase does ship with a small padded cloth that you can use to hide and fill that window, however. Which I liked, as I don’t really like to advertise what is in my bag. Maybe if I am walking the showroom floor at Macworld Expo, but not for everyday transportation of my computer.
The MacCase also comes with a very comfortable carrying strap, which sports metal clasps to connect to your bag, and the strap is both adjustable and comes with a comfortable padded shoulder cushion, something the ActiveBag lacked.
The MacCase is small. With an iBook inside, the inside pockets are barely large enough to hold anything. Worse yet, if you put something in one of the interior pockets, there is no flap to cloth those pockets, so you do take the risk of, say, a zip disk rubbing against the top of your iBook.
The outside pocket does have a flap, and shuts via a Velcro strip. This pocket would be good for a magazine or some papers, but not much else.
Weatherproof wise, the MacCase scores high points. For this review, I put some paper in the bag, closed it up, and let it sit in the shower for five minutes, which I figure is about as much rain as anyone may be carrying their iBook in. The MacCase came through, the papers stayed dry. The bag itself dried out in a short amount of time, though the straps stayed wet longer.
One major flaw with the MacCase is its carrying handle. It looks good, but I found it really needs more stitches to hold it to the bag itself. I laid the bag on the floor, and when I went to pick it up, my dog was laying on it. He would not budge. So I thought I would just slide the case out from under him, as he don’t weigh much and the straps look very sturdy. The strap stitches pulled right out with only minimal effort, which tells me that Kusuma Enterprises may want to think about doubling up on some stitches there. Those stitches are the main pressure points of the bag, and they are sub par. (For the record, my dog has a nasty habit of laying on my computer bags, which I think is an attempt to keep me at home. I have pulled out many computer bags out from underneath his slumbering body, and had none of the stitch problems ripping out as I did with the MacCase)
All in all, the MacCase is a decent carrying case if all you want to carry is the iBook. It is on the small and compact size, so you may want to look into another, larger bag with more room if you want to take some other gear along with you.
MacMice Rating: 3 out of 5
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