SGP's Folio.S case looks nice on your iPad, but fails to impress with its usability

SGP’s $92 Folio.S case is made from genuine leather and is designed specifically for the new iPad. You can pick up the Folio.S in either brown or dark brown leather, and it has a nice, polished look to it.

The Folio.S has a rigid front and back cover, with suede lining the inside, giving the case the ability to absorb the day-to-day bumps and scratches your iPad would normally accrue. Keep in mind, this added protection does come at the cost of doubling the thickness of your iPad, and making it a bit heavier than I’d like. The inside of the cover has two groves, which can be used to prop the iPad up at roughly 45-degrees and 25-degrees in landscape orientation. The spine can also be used as a prop, if you want just a slight tilt. The case doesn’t offer any way to stand the iPad up in portrait orientation.

Even though the iPad 2 fits in the case just fine, the case’s magnets won’t wake and sleep the iPad 2 properly. Also worth noting, when you fold the cover in back of the iPad, I found that occasionally the magnets would still trip an iPad 2 in and out of sleep.

Getting your iPad in and out of the Folio.S is fairly easy—just slide it in the side at the spine and secure it with a flap of leather you tuck under the iPad. None of the inputs are obstructed by the case, but it does make the volume buttons and orientation toggle a bit more difficult to switch.

Apart from a sleek design and high-quality materials, the SPG Folio.S isn’t anything special, and I would avoid it if you have an iPad 2 and want to take advantage of the magnetic Sleep/Wake feature.

[Albert Filice is a Macworld intern.]