Tablet Insight: Customize it Your Way

Forget about buying someone else’s color scheme. Forget about having someone else’s picture on your case. Forget about searching for something that expresses your personality. It is time to stop letting other people make choices for your tablet case and time to jump start your inner artist.

At affordable prices, creating your custom tablet cases is a fun, interesting and unique chance to personalize your tablet. Just like “Old Blue Eyes” says, do it “my way”.

Visual Customization

Most tablet customization out there is for “visually enhancing” the tablet cover. In other words, you can upload your favorite picture and the company will print it on the case cover. One of the movers and shakers of customizing case covers is Caseable. They have a wide range of case styles (sleeves for those who like the naked tablet in their hands, folios for those who want some extra protection) that can fit almost any tablet.

Check the Caseable tablet case for the Amazon Kindle Fire. What I like: handmade in funky Brooklyn and Berlin, great quality in the stitching and excellent material choice, easy to use 1-2-3 step to customizing.



Another great way to add some flair to the device is with a tablet skin . Most skins are thin, transparent, adhesive, rubbery material that applies to the back of your tablet for protection and grip. While the transparent skins are nice, why not take it to the next level and add some visual decoration? This is the driving force behind GelaSkins tablet cases customization. Similar to how Caseable works, you upload your photo online and then they print the picture on a super-thin (about 1mm) 3M-designed adhesive skin.

But that’s not all. GelaSkins then sends you a wallpaper jpeg that matches the skin design giving your tablet one continuous image from back to front. It looks sharp and sophisticated and highly personalized.

Buildable Customization

Now, personalizing by adding photos is nice, but what if you want to custom design other features of your tablet case? Zippers , Velcro, straps, magnets and so on. Is there anybody out there doing this? The truth is that there is not much in the tablet case world doing such complete customization (yet). But a few companies give you slight personalization options.

CourierWear makes some fashionable tablet messenger bags . Via their website you can ‘build-your-own’ by choosing, for example, how many pockets you want (side, front, inside), the size of the back (the mini size is ideal of 10” tablets like the Apple iPad), attachment clips for a sleeve inside the bag, waist straps and shoulder straps. All these extra bells and whistles can add up to a hefty price tag in the end but you get a stunning case that is YOUR design (why not combine it with a Gelaskin and really personalize your tablet set up?).



WaterField is another brand that allows a bit of case customization. It is not as much customization as CourierWear, but you can choose you material, how the pocket opens (from the side or from the top), if you want a shoulder strap and/or a pouch for cables and extras. Take a look at their tablet sleeve case ‘Exo’ for a good example of what WaterField tablet cases have to offer.

Customizing Your Tablet Stand

Tablet stand cases are the final frontier of customization. A lot of folio tablet cases have only a few different viewing/typing angles. Generally these are ‘good enough’ if you are working on a flat, hard surface but they tend to be not-so-sturdy in other situations. Sonnex has put together a fantastic, innovative sleeve-stand (first time I’ve ever come across that combo!) that allows you to mold the case into a stand for nearly surface, angle or position.

The Future of The Tablet Case

Basically what we can see is that while there are some options for customization, there is not much out there that lets you chose exactly how you would like your case. Maybe this is where smaller boutique, hand-made case designers can really shine: made-to-order tablet cases. Otherwise it is still up to you to patrol the case websites looking for someone else’s design to fit your lifestyle.

For those of you who stumble upon a company that allows full case customization, make sure to leave a comment down below!

Tablet Insight is a weekly column by Thomas Andersen that focuses on the innovative tablet uses and considers what is the most compatible and necessary tablet case.