iPad Air Cases

The Air sits between the standard iPad and the Pro, and it is the size most people end up carrying every day. A folio adds a few millimetres and takes the tablet from something you handle carefully to something you can drop in a bag.

Check the generation as well as the name. The Air changed screen size and camera position across versions, and the cases here are cut for specific ones.

The older Air is 10.5 inch with a home button. The later ones are 10.9 inch with flat sides and Touch ID in the power button. They are not interchangeable, and a case for one looks close enough to the other to be ordered by mistake.

Full-grain cowhide, a lining that will not scratch the screen, a cover that folds into a stand, and card slots inside for the two things you would otherwise carry separately.

Initials can be engraved for 18.90 dollars, which is worth doing if the iPad travels between people at home or work.

The front cover folds into a stand at a steep angle for watching and a shallow one for typing. Leather holds both better than a magnetic cover does, because the fold stiffens with use instead of going slack.

An Air in a folio slides into a bag next to a laptop without either scratching the other. That is the main reason people move away from a bare shell: the back is fine, it is the screen meeting a zip that costs money.

The Air is the iPad most people actually carry around, which changes what a case has to do.

• The cover folds back into a stand at two angles, one for typing and one for watching.
• Magnets hold the cover shut and wake the screen when you open it.
• The pencil strip along the long edge stays exposed on the models that support it.

Leather adds weight compared with a plastic shell. On an Air that is roughly the difference between a paperback and a hardback, and most people stop noticing within a day. What you get for it is a case that outlasts the tablet, and usually the one after that too.

One more consideration. If the iPad spends most of its life on a desk with a keyboard attached, a folio is a layer you will open and close every day. If it travels, that same folio is the reason the screen survives the trip. Most people are in the second group and do not realise it until the first crack.