I was contacted by Mohammed Ikram about something else and he mentioned that he ran an eBay Pi shop. He’s sent me a few things for review. I will, however, be as honest as usual when reviewing the items.

The first item is a case for the Pi made out of acrylic (plastic) and is very similar to the Pibow. So, it’s either been based on their designs or reverse-engineered from a Pibow. But anyway, let’s not focus on that and instead look at the case in isolation.

It comes as several layers of acrylic with plastic wrapping on each. This means a fair bit of messing about removing the wrapping.

Once that’s done, you’re free to assemble it. Slight problem here – the layers aren’t numbered and it doesn’t come with assembly instructions. Bit of a pain, but I watched enough Krypton Factor when I was younger to be up to the challenge and you probably will be too. You put the screws through the bottom layer and then place layers on top to form the sandwich.

Eventually, you’ll get all the layers in the right order and the right way up and you’ll end up with a complete case.

I’ll say this for the case – it’s certainly solid. Considering it’s made up of fairly flimsy layers, the end product once you’ve tightened the screws up is great.

At £9.95 it’s marginally cheaper than the Pibow. I quite like the black-and-clear aesthetics as well.

The trouble is, the Pibow is better. The colours are more ‘fun’ in the original Pibow and the layers are numbered and also marked with the port names. Build quality is probably about the same though and if you’re trying to save a little bit of money, then the eBay one is the one to go for. Something to bear in mind though: a portion of the profits from sales of the Pibow go to the Foundation and other local charities.

Score: 6/10. It does the job.

You can take a look at the eBay item here and you can see the rest of Mohammed’s shop here.