I ended up getting the Clam Case after all as the white one just came out last week. The generic case I bought back in June didn't turn out to be so good. Sometimes it would work perfectly and other times the keyboard would act up, either not responding to keypresses or typing multiple letters on a single press. This started to make me less efficient when typing on the train. I was backspacing so much to make corrections that documents often took me 2-3x longer than they should have. So even though the Clam Case was $150, I still felt it was worth it because I'd be able to type normally. Since the generic one was just $35, I didn't feel too bad. Some parts of the imitation leather were starting to wear down and it did a great job of protecting my iPad for 6 months. While the keyboard was mediocre, it was an excellent folio case.
The Clam Case is worth every penny. It's a solid construction that will protect your iPad on all sides. It's versatile because you can use you iPad as a tablet or laptop without removing it from the case. The keyboard is solid and as responsive as a computer's keyboard. The generic one I had was to soft, which is probably why it had contact issues. If there's one downside to the Clam Case it's the weight. In order for it to stand up like a laptop, the base/keyboard needs to be heavier than the iPad otherwise it would tip over. When attached to the case, the iPad weight doubles and feels like a netbook.
