iSkin Duo

The $50 iSkin Duo is an unusually nice silicone skin for the iPad. Its thin material—embedded, the company touts, with Microban antimicrobial protection—provides cushioning on the back and sides and is available in any of seven colors. The front edge is textured, making the case nicely grippy—it doesn’t feel like the tablet could slip out of your hand at any moment. Tactile, use-through button coverings leave the controls easy to press, and openings for the iPad’s headphone jack and dock-connector port provide ample room to plug in. Perhaps the nicest thing is that, for a silicone skin, the Duo is remarkably sleek—it doesn’t make the iPad feel bulky or over-wrapped. Unlike most other skins, the Duo wraps around to cover the iPad’s screen bezel, but because the Duo’s front edge is black, it looks just like the bezel and thus doesn’t make the screen feel smaller. The lower back of the Duo tapers down, making it thin enough to dock your iPad in, say, Apple’s iPad Keyboard Dock without having to remove the case. Can an iPad skin be cool? This one can.