Smart Covers: Leather versus Polyurethane

Its hard to form an opinion on a product that we've only seen pictures of.

Functionally, I wouldn't expect there to be much difference. Generally speaking, I avoid leather for something like this since I expect it to wear since it catches the abuse the device would get without it. Keep the price down and make it cheaper to replace as needed.

I will either get one of each or just the leather. I always go with the durability that leather offers vs cloth or vinyl. As for color transfer, it could happen but leather wear often looks 'aged' rather than 'worn.'

i actually have the red smart cover right now, and i love it except for one thing. it seems to get a little "floppy" when using it after a while. if i hold the device upside down, the middle buckles very easy. i've heard the poly. versions are more stiff and durable, so im going to my best buy tomorrow to pick one of those up. as far as the color staining issue, i havent seen such a thing on my white ipad 2.

That's interesting. My first question was whether or not the polyurethane version will split along the "bendy" areas after a while. I'm thinking of how three-ring binders with the polymer covers tend to eventually split at the area where a lot of bending occurs. Is this going to happen with the polymer cover to, especially since I'll be ending the cover a lot to have it propped up. Now, I'm almost certain that leather won't split in the bendy area. After all, there are lots of leather shoes that see a lot more bending in the foot area than a Smart Cover would bend. I am wondering though if the polyurethane material is more durable than whatever the polymer material is used for three-ring binders.

After doing some research on forums for designer hand-bags... The two leading contenders for a color safe leather protector were Wilson's Leather TLC and Apple (different company) Leather Care. We don't have a Wilson's retail location in Knoxville but I was able to find a small bottle of the Apple product in a luggage\gift store in the mall for $3.
So far I've applied it 5 times (every other day) to my red leather Smart Cover with no ill effects. For the first couple applications the cloth I was using (bit of old t-shirt) picked up some of the red stain (as expected), but hasn't affected the color of the cover. The amount of stain transfer has dropped off dramatically and after the 3rd application I barely noticed any.
Now that I've gotten a good base on with the every other day treatments, I'm planning to drop back to every few weeks just to keep it well protected.

Think of it this way... Would you rather have a polyurethane wallet or a leather one?

Maybe I'm just naive, but at $40, it darn well should be more durable than a three ring binder. 🙂