Review: Guardian waterproof case from M-Edge

Summary

This well-built, premium priced case promises to keep your Kindle 2 dry in up to 3 feet of water. It does its job well, but might seem like overkill for many Kindle owners.

Pros

• It works!
• Very sturdy construction
• Easy to open and close
• Also doubles as a very flat waterproof lunch box

Cons

• Expensive
• Doubles the weight of the Kindle
• No access to the power switch

Full Review

The Guardian case from M-Edge is the first thing I’ve ever reviewed that scared me a little. That’s because the company claims it’s waterproof in up to 3 feet of water, so to properly review it I would have to submerge my Kindle.

Now just to make sure we’re all clear on this: I don’t get paid to write these reviews, and I don’t keep the cases after I review them. And now I’m supposed to dunk my Kindle into water.

The thing is, I think anyone who buys a Guardian case is going to feel the same apprehension. On the plus side, M-Edge is an established company with a wide range of Kindle cases and accessories, and I’ve never come across any pattern of complaints about build quality. On the negative side, hello, water.

It turns out M-Edge anticipated this, because the Guardian comes with detailed instructions on how to inspect your new case for defects, and how to test it for waterproofness before you ever bring your Kindle near it.

The case back is built from sturdy, hard polycarbonate in black, blue, or red. It’s rubberized to prevent slippage on wet surfaces, which is a nice touch.

The front panel, which is hinged to the back like the cover of a book, is a combination of transparent hard plastic and a pliable clear membrane, and it includes an attachment ring on the bottom so you can fasten it to something (a small lanyard is included).

After inserting your Kindle, you flip up the four built-in clamps over the front panel, then push them down to lock into place on the back of the case.

The waterproof seal is created by a rubber O-ring that runs around the perimeter of the case. It’s replaceable, and M-Edge suggests you replace it yearly (the accompanying user guide says they’re for sale on the M-Edge store, but I couldn’t find them as of July 2010).

Usability

Despite providing so much hard shell protection, the pliable membranes that stretch over the buttons and keyboard provide plenty of give so that you can still interact with the Kindle. I had no problem turning pages or typing notes, but using the 5-way rocker was a little tricky. It tended to be fine if I wanted to press up, but it was a chore to get the cursor to move down, and frequently I ended up pressing the rocker in rather than down during my tests.

The two things you can’t access, for reasons that will quickly become obvious, are the audio capabilities of the Kindle (both speakers and headphone jack) and the power/sleep switch.

I probably don’t need to explain why M-Edge didn’t put holes in the Guardian for the speakers or a headphone jack. As for the power/sleep switch–which is the one thing reviewers have hammered the Guardian for–after examining the materials of the case I realized that the pliable membrane used on the front just doesn’t provide enough horizontal give to be used for this sort of switch. You’d have to make the switch cover out of some sort of other button-shaped rubber that’s thin enough to let you interact with the power/sleep switch, but sturdy enough to take that horizontal stretching over and over without tearing.

It’s hard to blame this design flaw totally on M-Edge, then. There’s no way to easily provide the right kind of waterproof access that you’d need to use the switch, but without that access you can never let your Kindle go into sleep mode or you’ll be forced to open the case to awaken it.

There’s one simple way this could be fixed immediately: a software update from Amazon that would let you set your own time-until-sleep timer, or disable it completely. Until Amazon does that, you’ll have to deal with this issue when you use the Guardian.

Styling

M-Edge usually offers cases in a variety of colors, so even though something like the Guardian is more about function over form, it’s not surprising to see that it comes in at least a few color options. The opaque plastic back comes in black, blue, or red, although the front remains transparent in all three versions.

To be so sturdy and well-built, it looks and feels slimmer than you might expect. A lot of standard cases for the Kindle tend to disguise it to look like a traditional printed book, or like a dayplanner. The Guardian keeps your Kindle looking like an electronic reader, only more durable. And buoyant.

However, at slightly over 1 pound, it adds a significant amount of heft to the 10 oz. Kindle. A Kindle in a Guardian case weighs just a bit more than an iPad, which I can say from experience is not a fun device to hold in an unsupported reading position for long periods of time. Maybe this is why M-Edge suggests that the buoyancy of the case allows for “hands-free” reading.

To close on a style note, one thing I definitely like about the Guardian is how the transparent cover works with any decals or skins you may already be using–they’ll show through the front even when the Kindle is sealed inside.

Value: the $80 question

Determining the “right” price for a protective case like this is even more subjective than usual, because most of its value only emerges in certain scenarios. Complicating things further is Amazon’s recent steep price cut on the Kindle 2, from $260 less than a month ago to $190 now.

At $80, the Guardian was already a significant investment–32% of the Kindle’s purchase price–back when the Kindle was $250. As of today, a Guardian will run you about 42% of a Kindle’s purchase price, and to make things even more interesting it will now be protecting a smaller overall investment (at least for new Kindle owners).

But if you do need a waterproof case, you probably want the best-built one you can afford, and in that sense the $80 price point reaffirms the sense that the Guardian is a solid, high quality product.

Here’s the deal, as unglamorous as it sounds: if you rarely ever take your Kindle near water, or if you’re on a tight budget and you’re not a naturally clumsy person, you can probably get by with slipping your Kindle into a large Ziploc bag on the rare occasions where you need water protection. (Note: there are also other waterproof or water-resistant cases and bags for sale on the Amazon Kindle store, but I haven’t tested any of them.)

If you’re the type of person who’s always around water, or who owns a boat or a pool, or you love to take your Kindle into the bath, the $80 price tag might feel more acceptable.