Review: Pacific Design 5G Grandstand Case

I like rigid, durable cases, but do allow for the fact that not everyone in the world wants a case they can stand on, throw at an assailant to demobilize them, or wedge under their Hummer’s tire to keep it from rolling downhill. As a variance from my normal ‘hard cases are most excellent’ stance, I decided to take a look at something that was stylish.

My mother tells a story about me as a toddler going clothing shopping with her. Standing around the aisles waiting for her to stop talking with a salesperson, I started feeling the seams of a shirt or pair of pants or something. Like I knew what I was looking at.

“Cheap,” I said as I checked the stitch count, shaking my head sadly with that arrogant sagaciousness of all four-year-olds. Well, at least of THIS former four-year-old.

So, first off then, my verdict on the Pacific Design Grandstand case is ‘Not Cheap’.

The Grandstand is a very fashionable case that looks very nice indeed and is clearly meant to be a fashion statement as well as being truly functional.

Despite my love of my Video iPod, the device really is still a bit awkward as a video-viewing device. So, the initial idea that this case also works as a viewing stand for the Video iPod was interesting.

The Grandstand case stands up by taking the two front-folding covers, which secure closed with some fairly strong magnetic snaps, bending them both behind the case and securing them together via those same magnetic snaps. Neat!

It’s at a good viewing angle and is very viewable sitting there on a table or desk in front of you. Leaves your hands free for, say, typing product reviews or something like that.

How does it work as a case?

It’s a belt case, but is not just a belt case. The Pacific Design site points out that it can also be hooked to a purse strap or a backpack strap, both of which I can see would work just fine. I don’t use either day-to-day myself, so to give the product a fair trial due, I wore it on my belt for a few days.

It attaches to your belt via a slim strap that both snaps AND Velcroes to the body of the case. It’s not a suspenders AND belt solution though. If you can’t get the snap, the Velcro holds well enough for most. If you really want to be sure and secure, taking the extra fiddle to get the snap closed as well will doubly fix your somewhat expensive iPod to your belt. This is obviously something that the Pacific Design designers thought about.

Overall, the Pacific Design 5G Grandstand case is, as their website describes it, an “elegant case for your 5G/Video iPod” that goes a long way towards improving your ‘desk potato’ experience. It is ‘a good thing’. Well done!