I am new and have two things to submit. First, I finally have my first Apple device in the new iPad. I love the UI, the Cloud and the stability. I will never own an Android Tablet another Android phone for that matter.

Question

Now that I am already long-winded, I wanted to post a review of the new Otterbox Defender. I bought it yesterday and was skeptical at first with the price and the bulk of the unit.  I have three young children at home and need the utmost protection for my expensive device.  The Defender has a nice foam backing that the website relieves my OCD by mentioning it will protect back of the iPad from scratches.  Phew!  The polycarbonate shell is also sturdy and can take a pounding, not to mention the built-in screen protector.  The cover for the front also supports the sleep/wake feature of the new device as well and will provide enough protection for even the craziest three year old.  To top it all off it comes with a silicone sleeve that wraps around the shell to add further protection and a nice grip.  I highly recommend this to anyone with young children, OCD or for those affraid to play with the iPad and don't want to scratch it.

Answer 1

Anyone contemplating the Otterbox Defender for their new iPad should be aware that the polymer used to create the screen protector degrades the quality of the display. If you are doing work that needs or could use the high quality of the new iPad display it might behoove you to look further. It is fine for non-critical use, however.
A second problem, at least with the first run of Defenders is that the auto-lock feature may or may not work.  It seem that the new iPad requires that not only the alignment of the magnets be proper the polarity of the magnets must be proper too.  The Defender uses two magnets one of which will be over the sensor regardless of which way the cover is placed.  However the manufacturers apparently did not know of the polarity requirement so it is left to chance as to whether or not the auto-lock feature works.  On my Defender it works with the cover in one orientation but not the other.
Except for these two problems the case is excellent.  These two problems aren't present when the case is used on the iPad 2.