Written by on Friday, July 14, 2006

Review: Vaja Case for Wizard/Apache

Sony is a company that makes products which are sleek, good looking, and overall desirable. Apple is another company that follows along this same path, but alters one important section of their product appearance, the box. Nearly all of its products are displayed in ingeniously designed cases so that the user holds a feeling of richness when first opening an Apple product. When the Vaja case arrived I thought I was mistakenly shipped a product by Apple. The subtle attractive design of the box, coupled with the white color and slide out box, made the overall product feel ten times more expensive.

Upon opening the box the entire room was filled with the smell of fine leather. Further researching on their site, Vajacases.com, I found this interesting little blurb about their leather. Vaja uses the top natural leather available in order to produce the highest quality cases. Read more about their leather here…

Anyways, about the box.

As you see in the photos above, the case comes in a very nice package. Before we look at the case itself, I’d like to mention this one extra thing that came in the box.

A pack of cards with photos on them.

And a card that says how every Vaja Case is different due to the natural leather.

Anyways, that aside, just how is the case?
At first glance the leather felt soft, but hard enough to protect the device from a few bumps here and there. The grain is easily seen from nearly any angle. This case is a pouch case with a belt loop. Since every case is individually made, customization options vary from belt loops, to personalization, logos, colors, and designs. This is truely a case that you can make yours.
Now more on the individual features of this wonderful smelling case.

The flap is held together by two magnets with three card slots in-between. Two of the card slots are able to hold SD cards quite well and the card slot in the middle is able to hold miniSD card’s perfectly. I found it very handy to carry a spare miniSD – SD Adaptor and an extra 1GB sd card for my camera in this case. The one issue that I did have with this case was that the magnetic closure system didn’t shut as easily. I had to actually look down, find the buttons, and push down on them to close the flap. I believe after a few months of use this problem will go away, but initially it was very difficult for me to close this flap. While this may seem like a small issue, my HTC Apache has actually flown the coop once when I thought the flap was closed, but instead the magnets were only touching each other and the buttons didn’t shut fully. At least I tested the drop capability of my device and I can rate it at 5 feet onto hardwood with no problems

The belt loop itself is quite different than what I usually see on cases. Normally there is a belt "clip" where you can clip it onto a belt and take it off easily. Vaja did something completely different. Instead of clipping it onto your belt, you have to actually loop your belt through this case. A boon of this design is that you won’t lose your case, but on the other hand you wouldn’t be able to take your case off as easily as you would with a belt clip. It would look mighty awkward if you undid your belt as you walked into a meeting just to take off your Vaja case.

Vaja makes this case look, feel, and smell expensive. Every stitch, curve, and cutout is done perfectly. Apart from that small complaint about where the flap wouldn’t initially close easily, I really have nothing to complain about this case. I could see this case as a day to day case for many Apache/Wizard users. I guess the only requirement would be that you would have to wear a belt or have very large pockets to accommodate the Apache/Wizard and the Vaja Case.

Specs: