iPad cases. There are seemingly millions of them. It’s truly insane, just check google if you don’t believe me. Every once in a while though, a decent one floats to the top of the pile… Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those cases. That said, it’s not terrible for the type of case we are dealing with here.
The 5.11 tactical iPad case was a pretty cool thought. Im sure some engineer, sitting in his desk, dreaming about the old days, had an epiphany one day. He said, “you know what would be cool as hell? Let’s take a flac vest and wrap it around an iPad!”, and they got some good laughs about it. Then some out of touch executive saw the napkin he drew it on in the trash, loved the idea, and went with it.
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They went and built a flac vest for the iPad. Now, if you have ever worn one of these vests, you know that while they look good on paper they do not add much protection to your person, and can be rather cumbersome. For that reason, most people prefer not to wear them, even in environments that they would seem beneficial. All of these problems translate over to the iPad case pretty much to the letter, which is a problem as your iPad is not even remotely as resilient as your body. Will it cushion it from a fall? Sure. Protect it from a scratch while inside? Absolutely. But will it take a knife? Shrapnel? Bullets? A good swift kick? No. Not a chance in hell. A tactical case it really is not.
That being said, for what it is, it’s relativity nice. Its made of heavy duty 3M material and is lined on the inside with a very soft microfiber type fabric that does fairly well at keeping the screen of your device clean. The outside is adorned with MOLLY style webbing and can attach with ease to a go bag if needed. They also added some Velcro for name tapes, and a neat little business card holder under nether the upper flap.
Speaking of the flaps, you can open either the upper or side flap to retrieve your iPad from the case, both of which are secured by heavy duty Velcro.
It even has a nifty stylus holder on it, in case your into that sort of thing.
One major con to this case (and the only one if you don’t consider the tactical namesake), is that the only way the iPad fits in it is if you insert it stark naked. No cases or covers. Just as Steve intended. Meaning that when it’s not in the case, it is left unprotected. Even the smart cover makes it a little tight, but it’s still manageable.
All in all I give this case 2 and a half stars. Mainly because I believe they are mislabeling it a tactical case. It’s a cute case, but to call it tactical would lead you to believe it has more utility to it then just looking the part.
These cases are available from 5.11 on their website for less then $30.