Thursday, August 22, 2002
Vaja's Custom Cases
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 11:01 PM
Vaja is known in the Pocket PC industry as being a high-end case manufacturer – their cases are unparalleled in beauty, and also unparalleled in price.
Vaja now offers you the ability to tweak the features of your case with many options for colour, material, features - and even a logo! <!>
The Case You’ve Always Wanted
Un-published PocketPC.com article originally written April 25th, 2002.
Vaja pulls out all the stops with their beautiful custom-made cases
Device Requirements
Vaja offers the custom cases for iPAQs (3600, 3700, and 3800 series), HP Jornada 56x, and Casio E-200 Pocket PCs. The case reviewed here was designed for a 3600 series iPAQ, and is dubbed the “804/801 - Custom Sync-able iPAQ case”.
What’s Hot
As if Vaja cases weren’t unique enough already, you now have the ability to custom-make your own cases with a dizzying array of options.
Where to Buy
Cases can be purchased online directly from Vaja Cases. The particular case I had was around US $154 with the options I selected. If you pick the most expensive of everything, and get a custom logo on the case, you’ll pay a staggering US $205.40 plus shipping. Expensive? Yes. Unique? Absolutely – you’ll be the only person around with a case like it.
A word about Vaja quality
If you haven’t seen a Vaja-brand case in person, you might not appreciate how truly magnificent the craftsmanship is.
Creating your custom case
First, you need to decide what kind of leather you want the case to be. With some other case manufacturers, your choice is “black” or “black”. That’s not a bad thing, but more choice is always better, right? Vaja has a mind-boggling array of leathers and colours as shown in Figure 1 – twenty-two different choices, all varying in price from no additional charge up to US $19 extra.
Figure 1: 22 different leather and colour choices
Figure 2 shows a larger view of some of the choices – from left to right, the leathers below are Blue Nubuk, Reddish Brown Buffalo, and Vitelino Ice. Vaja leather is always smooth and soft, and I’ve yet to see any case with a significant flaw in it.
Figure 2: Three sample case colours and leathers
Figure 3: My custom case for review – what a beauty!
After you’ve chosen the leather, the closure mechanism is next: magnetic or snap? The review unit I had (Figure 3) used a snap closure, and it’s something Vaja recommends if you’re going to carry credit cards in the card slots. Since I designed this case with the idea of being a wallet, I opted for the snap closure (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Snap closure and money pocket
The inside of this case houses two credit card slots on each inner face of the money pocket (Figure 4). Additionally, there are two card slots on the outer face of the money pocket, and there are two slots beneath the card slots on the inner face. Bottom line: there are eight distinct slots for cards.
The cover of the case is the classic cushioned cover – it’s not very thick, so I’d advise getting the cushioned cover vs. their slim cover that doesn’t offer any cushioning. Other choices include whether or not you want the UltraClip belt clip, if you need extras and if you need a hole in the top for headphones.
The ultimate in personalization
The final decision is the best one of all: personalization. For US $15, you can get it personalized with your name, company name, slogan, etc. For $50 you can get your company logo on there! As Figure 5 shows, I have Pocket PC Thoughts on it. The image is a little difficult to make out because of the dark leather and the fact that the logo is just plain text (I’ve since acquired a better logo). There are better examples of Vaja logo work on their web site, and keep in mind that the personalization will take an extra seven days. You can submit a logo in several graphical formats and Vaja will reproduce it on the case.
Figure 5: Personalization with a custom logo
That’s it! You’re done your custom case! I was very pleased with the custom case I designed – it had all the same quality of a normal Vaja case, with the added benefit of being exactly what I wanted it to be.
Gotchas
As always with Vaja cases, the only negative is price. They’re not inexpensive cases, but as with all things in life, you get what you pay for.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the best Pocket PC cases around, and one that you can tweak to your own liking, look no further than Vaja – but remember to bring your wallet!
Vaja now offers you the ability to tweak the features of your case with many options for colour, material, features - and even a logo! <!>
The Case You’ve Always Wanted
Un-published PocketPC.com article originally written April 25th, 2002.
Vaja pulls out all the stops with their beautiful custom-made cases
Device Requirements
Vaja offers the custom cases for iPAQs (3600, 3700, and 3800 series), HP Jornada 56x, and Casio E-200 Pocket PCs. The case reviewed here was designed for a 3600 series iPAQ, and is dubbed the “804/801 - Custom Sync-able iPAQ case”.
What’s Hot
As if Vaja cases weren’t unique enough already, you now have the ability to custom-make your own cases with a dizzying array of options.
Where to Buy
Cases can be purchased online directly from Vaja Cases. The particular case I had was around US $154 with the options I selected. If you pick the most expensive of everything, and get a custom logo on the case, you’ll pay a staggering US $205.40 plus shipping. Expensive? Yes. Unique? Absolutely – you’ll be the only person around with a case like it.
A word about Vaja quality
If you haven’t seen a Vaja-brand case in person, you might not appreciate how truly magnificent the craftsmanship is.
Creating your custom case
First, you need to decide what kind of leather you want the case to be. With some other case manufacturers, your choice is “black” or “black”. That’s not a bad thing, but more choice is always better, right? Vaja has a mind-boggling array of leathers and colours as shown in Figure 1 – twenty-two different choices, all varying in price from no additional charge up to US $19 extra.
Figure 1: 22 different leather and colour choices
Figure 2 shows a larger view of some of the choices – from left to right, the leathers below are Blue Nubuk, Reddish Brown Buffalo, and Vitelino Ice. Vaja leather is always smooth and soft, and I’ve yet to see any case with a significant flaw in it.
Figure 2: Three sample case colours and leathers
Figure 3: My custom case for review – what a beauty!
After you’ve chosen the leather, the closure mechanism is next: magnetic or snap? The review unit I had (Figure 3) used a snap closure, and it’s something Vaja recommends if you’re going to carry credit cards in the card slots. Since I designed this case with the idea of being a wallet, I opted for the snap closure (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Snap closure and money pocket
The inside of this case houses two credit card slots on each inner face of the money pocket (Figure 4). Additionally, there are two card slots on the outer face of the money pocket, and there are two slots beneath the card slots on the inner face. Bottom line: there are eight distinct slots for cards.
The cover of the case is the classic cushioned cover – it’s not very thick, so I’d advise getting the cushioned cover vs. their slim cover that doesn’t offer any cushioning. Other choices include whether or not you want the UltraClip belt clip, if you need extras and if you need a hole in the top for headphones.
The ultimate in personalization
The final decision is the best one of all: personalization. For US $15, you can get it personalized with your name, company name, slogan, etc. For $50 you can get your company logo on there! As Figure 5 shows, I have Pocket PC Thoughts on it. The image is a little difficult to make out because of the dark leather and the fact that the logo is just plain text (I’ve since acquired a better logo). There are better examples of Vaja logo work on their web site, and keep in mind that the personalization will take an extra seven days. You can submit a logo in several graphical formats and Vaja will reproduce it on the case.
Figure 5: Personalization with a custom logo
That’s it! You’re done your custom case! I was very pleased with the custom case I designed – it had all the same quality of a normal Vaja case, with the added benefit of being exactly what I wanted it to be.
Gotchas
As always with Vaja cases, the only negative is price. They’re not inexpensive cases, but as with all things in life, you get what you pay for.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the best Pocket PC cases around, and one that you can tweak to your own liking, look no further than Vaja – but remember to bring your wallet!
