I have a Samsung galaxy tab S6 with their keyboard book cover case. It looks like this. Ignore the keyboard part, that detaches and it’s not what I’m talking about. The case on the back of the tablet has a hinge with a lot of resistance. You can set it to any angle between about 0 (flat against tablet) to 130 degrees or so and it will stay there, allowing to rest the tablet at any angle. You also only need to pull it out to your desired angle, you don’t need to fold anything to create the stand. This is a fantastic design and I love it.
To be clear, it is not a folio style case where the case folds into several pieces and you push one part of the case against another and allow it to rest at 1 fixed angle. And yes, there are some designs that give you 2 or 3 fixed angles. It’s very different - no folding, it doesn’t cover the rest of the tablet when it’s not folded, and it allows you to set it to any angle you want. The samsung kickstand design also lets you hold the tablet by the kickstand which is very convenient for holding it one handed from the bottom/back which a folio stand would not allow.
I’m thinking about getting an S8 tablet and that version of the same design from Samsung is absurdly expensive ($350). So I thought, okay, I’ll just get a cheap third party version. Without the keyboard is fine, I can use a bluetooth keyboard, I really just want a semi-rigid adjustable angle kickstand. After using every search term I could think of, I could not find a third party case that worked like this. The cases that stood the tablet up were either folio style, as mentioned above, or simply had a basic extending kickstand which only extended to one fixed position.
This is bizarre to me. It’s a good design, it’s a really obvious one, and basically any official accessories are always copied by third party accessory makers. Except for this. Apparently samsung themselves are the only people who have created this design, even though it is, IMO, by far the best design for a case kickstand.
I know there’s one other option, the protective standing cover also from Samsung, which has a similar design. I may end up getting that, but I prefer a lighter, less bulky case. The version of the case for the S8 ultra is 2/3rds of a pound, adding to the weight of an already heavy tablet. Still, I may go that route if there are no other option.
So two questions:
Is there maybe some sort of name for this style of design that I haven’t correctly searched for? I looked through hundreds of tablet cases, so I would’ve probably stumbled across it even without knowing it, so probably not.
Why is this design idea unique to Samsung when pretty much every other accessory ever made is copied by at least a dozen third party companies?
I’m frustrated enough that I’m considering just gluing my current case to the new tablet, but that’s less than ideal because obviously it would not provide any protection (although I suppose I could glue it to the back of a properly fitted case) but also because the S8 tab ultra is giant compared to my current S6 tab, so the hinge may not be strong/big enough to hold it properly. It probably would work, but I figured I’d come ask here first why this design is rare/exclusive or if I’m missing something.