Accessory Review: DODOcase for the Nexus 7

Hey all, as you all know there aren’t that many “official” accessories for the Nexus 7, yet. There is one company who is hoping to be a major name for the device, DODOcase. Their philosophy is simple: “manufacture things locally and help keep the art of book binding alive and well by adapting it to a world of [tablet users]“, but have they made things TOO simple?

I’ve had the case for a few days now and as my general impression, I’d say they may have…. overpriced the tablet. This is one of the few tablets that are made Smart, which means it includes a magnet inside that activates the sleep/wake function in the tablet. Also they allow you to slightly brand the tablet to make it more of your own, obviously for a price — a price that is also steep. Basically, for $35 – 45 I want more that just my initials and a magnet stuck to cardboard.

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Now for those still left, let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

Le Good:

For the first, and main, good point about this case is that it include magnets inside the case, the Smart function. This small magnet is located near the lower part of the spine in the front cover, yet there are also two magnets in the back cover, for what? I don’t know. Anywho, the magnet is good at the job it’s assigned, turning on and off the screen. The only time it gets annoying is when I forget about the magnet and press the power button effectively turning my device off >_<. For some reason though, I’m pretty sure this helps control battery usage on my tablet.

Another good character about this tablet is the availability that DODOcase gives you to customize your case: you can embroider a word on the outside of the case up to three-letter, in black or gold, and in two different sizes and/or you can change the color of the inside of the case (choosing either black, red, purple, or blue).This allows a great way to personalize your device, technically there are over 1200 hundreds ways you can customize this case. Just to let you all know though, embroidery is an extra 10$.

Lastly the design is all good about DODOcase. The case is very slim and minimal as you can tell, it also includes an elastic strap for you to hold the covers close to the device. The case has the look of a book, in case you need to fool anyone that your reading and not actually playing Angry Birds.

Le Horible

Now we’ve come to the dark side. First off, the case uses adhesives to hold your device in place. Now I don’t know about all of you, but having my tablet essentially glued to my case, is not an easy feeling. Although the adhesive is light and apparently reusable (haven’t fully tested that claim), adhesive does not scream sturdy.

Another design flaw for this case is the feel. It literally feels as though DODOcase took a piece of cardboard bent to correct shapes, glued on magnets and covered it in dyed paper. That’s not a good feeling. It just feels cheap and easily made to be massed produced, and I want my case to NOT be 1 in a  million.

Last but certainly not least is the price. For what I felt what cardboard and a magnet, they are charging $34.95 and that’s with no embroidering! That comes in at an extra $9.95!!! How insane, right? There are many more cases out there at less than half the price of DODOcase’s and do the same things.

Overall guys, this company attempts to do great wonders with this case, but fails unfortunately with doing too little and asking for too much. If you want  to look into getting this case for your Nexus 7 (they also sell cases for iPads, Kindle Fires and other E-readers and tablet) visit their site HERE. Otherwise, I’d call this a pass.