Review: Pad & Quill’s Graduate Edition for iPad mini is another book-style case for the shelf

If you’re looking to disguise your iPad mini as a book (and really, who isn’t? The market is flooded with book-style folio cases) Pad & Quill’s $55 Graduate Edition Case for iPad mini should do the trick. This sturdy folio case features a wooden interior frame and is covered in cloth that’s designed to wear and develop an “old book patina,” according to the company. The case comes in a variety of two-color combinations, including cayenne red and slate gray, navy blue and praline cream, and plum purple and slate gray.

The Graduate Edition looks like most of the other book-style cases we’ve seen: it’s got two-tone binding, a layered wooden frame that vaguely resembles book pages, and an elastic band to keep the front cover shut while your mini is inside. The wooden frame, which has rubber strips at each corner to secure your device, has four cutouts for the Sleep/Wake button, orientation-lock/mute switch, headphone jack, and one for the bottom speakers and Lightning port. There’s also a cutout for the rear-facing camera.

Unlike some of the other book-style cases we’ve reviewed (such as XHiBT’s Inspiria case for iPad mini), the Graduate Edition case has a few extra nifty features. These include a magnet in the cover that utilizes the mini’s magnetic Sleep/Wake feature, a small pocket inside the front cover for holding papers, and a ribbon-style “bookmark” that goes behind your mini to make removal easy. The magnetic cover and the inside pocket work fine, but the ribbon bookmark seems to be more of a cute gimmick than anything—it didn’t help me pop the mini out at all. On the plus side, this means the rubberized strips in the frames’ corners hold the iPad mini securely in place.

Bottom line

If you’re looking for a book-style cover, this one is pretty darn good. It’s not perfect, however—the main issue I had was with the cutout for the Sleep/Wake button. I found it to be a little misplaced, which made it difficult to completely power the mini on and off. The cover’s magnetic Sleep/Wake feature worked fine, so waking up the display and putting it back to sleep was no problem, but this still seems like a pretty serious oversight. I also found the overall look of this book-bound case to be a little boring compared to others. But if your style is a bit subtler, this might be just the case for you.