My wife got a Belkin pouch
Belkin Neoprene Kindle Case (Fits 6" Display, Latest Generation Kindle) when she gave me a Kindle for Christmas. It's perfectly usable, but I was always taking it in and out of the pouch. I wanted something that would protect the Kindle while I was reading.
I purchased the Moleskine cover with notepad because I liked the idea of having a place to jot notes. It arrives beautifully packaged with two notepads. You have to unwrap the notepads and insert one into the inside front cover. There are 98 un-lined pages per notepad. Only a subset of the pages can be easily detached. The notepads have a black cover and first page is stiff with space to write contact information in case the Kindle is lost.
There is even printed text that reads "As a reward: $___". I thought this was interesting; what if I choose not to put in a dollar value? Would I offend a potential Good Samaritan if I didn't put in a number, or worse, if they felt the number was too low? In the end, I wrote, "reward if returned".
The construction of the Moleskine cover is very good, with rigid front and back panels and ample folding space. You can clip a pen to the spine and not feel like you're squeezing it in. A pen is not included.
When closed, the cover has a quarter-inch elastic band near the right edge that's used to keep the front cover closed. To my eye it seems a little flimsy, but in practice, it's worked well and has been easy to use.
The Kindle itself is held in place by half-inch wide black elastic bands at each corner. The bands are tight and double-stitched. I fumbled a little while putting my Kindle under the bands, but once there, it's held securely with no play.
It's these bands that cause my only complaint with the Moleskine cover; the on/off sliding switch at the top of the Kindle is partially covered by the top-left elastic band. I fiddled with the position of the Kindle to put the band to the left of the switch, but it makes finding the left-edge of the switch somewhat harder.
It's not a huge problem, but has put a little wrinkle into turning the Kindle on and off. A similar issue exists with the volume up button on the right. It isn't as much of a problem as you just have to press down and not slide a switch. All the other buttons and controls are accessible.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase and would recommend it to others.
Pros: Attractive styling, excellent construction, good feel without adding significant weight.
Cons: Placement of elastic bands at the top left corner can affect how easily the Kindle is turned on/off. Also, I wish this product was available in other colors, such as brown.
Special Note about Left vs. Right handed: When I wrote this review, there was discussion regarding how the notepad is placed to the left of the Kindle on the inside of the front cover. Right-handed people wonder how useful that would be.
As a left-handed person, I cannot give an opinion on that. However, I can say that it's not possible to flip the cover around to put the Kindle on the left and the notepad on the right. While the Kindle could be rotated and mounted that way, the notepad itself is secured by sliding its back cover into a slit near the top of the inside front cover. The notepad cannot be inserted "upside down".
The economies of scale make it difficult to market a left-handed version of a product. The market is 90% right-handed (generally). Manufacturers have to decide whether or not the cost of producing a variant of the product will be offset by additional sales. Many times, a left-handed person adapts to the right-handed product.
While I suspect right-handed people are not keen to the idea of adapting to something that seems inherently left-handed, that doesn't mean they couldn't adapt and find similar value in it.
Looking at how the Moleskine cover is constructed, I think they could change the product so that the notepad could be inserted from either end, thus making it "flip-able". The slit at the top of the inside front-cover is the only limitation currently.
