Vogel's RingO All-in-One Pack for iPad 2
With the festive season now well underway, it's a good time to look for tech gifts for yourself or a loved one. iPad accessories are likely to loom large. We've come across a way of giving not one, not two, but three iPad accessory gifts in a single box.
At a cost of £88 (inc. VAT) Vogel's RingO All-in-One Pack for iPad 2 provides a wall mounting system, a table stand and a car mount. A screen protector is bundled too. It's a clever idea, so how do the various bits stack up?
Well, of the three elements, the one we used the most during testing was the table stand. This is a two-piece solution. There's a fairly substantial backplate to click onto your iPad 2 and this features a circular socket that is the key interface for all three mounting systems.
The table stand is a small plastic unit that clips into this. It's satisfactory, but not great. You can't alter the angle at which the iPad 2 sits, and the shiny plastic material and thinness of the 'legs' both mean that the stand can topple over at times. But it swivels and so allows your iPad 2 to be used in both portrait and landscape orientations.
The wall mount I have to admit to not actually having tested, as I was disinclined to drill holes in a wall to fit the round bracket. But once you've fixed this to the wall it slots into the multipurpose backplate, and you can swivel the iPad 2 round to whatever viewing angle suits you. Of course, when the iPad 2 is not in its mount, the wall fixing will look a little odd.
The third element of this three-in-one mounting system is a vehicle mount. A solid two-piece bracket fits across the headrest struts in your car, and then the iPad 2 slots into the familar, round docking connector.
As with all similar systems you can't lower the height of the iPad 2, but you can swivel it up and down a little to help with viewing angles.
It's always tricky with multiple-use kit to work out whether you will take advantage of all the options on offer — how many people with Swiss army knives use all the features? But if you do decide you (or your seasonal giftee) can use all three elements on offer here, then this pack might be a good investment.
Sandra Vogel