We have finally got our hands on one of those new Vaja iVod DJ cases for the 4th generation iPod, and this one was made using the Vaja Choice service. Vaja has enabled us to dress our iPod to the nines in Gear Live colors as you can see from the image above. We took tons of images, and give our full impressions, after the jump.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
The way that Vaja presents their cases is almost an Apple-esque experience. The packaging is beautiful, and you can tell that the physical product is simply top notch just by picking it up and surveying it. The iVod DJ includes a built-in cover for the iPod’s click wheel which looks like a vinyl record. The leather used is full-grain cowhide, and feels very durable. The two colors used from the Vaja Choice service were Caterina Vibrant Orange for the top and Caterina Steel Gray underneath.

USING THE UNIT
So there really isn’t much to using the case. The iPod fits in snugly, and will not just fall out of the top opening. The iVod DJ keeps a tight grip, and leaves access to the ports on the top and bottom. The leather really looks great, and the colors are rich and vibrant. Now, here is our gripe. The iVod DJ provides protection for the click wheel, as stated above - but that comes at a price. The click wheel functionality is greatly reduced with the DJ unit. You can operate it through the cover, but it has a steep learning curve. You need to apply a good amount of pressure to get it to work, but oftentimes we found that it was easy to click the wheel by accident. Even if you don’t accidentally click, the speed at which the scroll wheel responds is greatly reduced. Case in point, using the click wheel without the case I could scroll through all of the artists on the iPod in 5 seconds. Doing the same with the iVod DJ it took over 20.

Do note, the Vaja iVod case is available without the DJ cover, leaving the click wheel open for standard use. If it were us, we would choose functionality over the protection.

FINAL VERDICT
Basically, the Vaja iVod DJ is a great case. It protects the iPod, and is one of the few protective cases that is actually visually appealing. The only problem that we have with the DJ version of the iPod is that the iPod functionality is crippled because of the protective covering. Some might find this to be nice because it covers the iPod almost completely, but we are of the mindset that a good case shouldn’t impede upon the natural use of the product - especially at $80 USD. Granted, part of that high cost is the Vaja Choice customization options, which is a great service. Let it be known though, that if we were looking at the normal iVod case, it would have been given a perfect score. Check out the rest of the images below.