Laptop Sleeve Buyers Guide

Posted by: Paul

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Whether you have a brand new laptop and are looking for a laptop sleeve or you’ve decided you need one for your old notebook, it’s a great decision. Laptop sleeves are a great way to protect what can be a very expensive piece of electronics. Once you start looking though you’ll soon find that they come in different sizes, styles, colors, and materials. You can even have a custom one made just for you. Today we’re going to look at all the options you have and help you find that perfect laptop notebook sleeve for you.

Laptop Sleeve Size
There are many sizes of laptop sleeves available and it’s really important to get the size that matches your particular laptop. 17 inch laptop’s are some of the hardest notebooks to find the right size for. Some popular sizes of notebooks include the following:

  1. 7-10 inches (Mini notebook size)
  2. 12 inches
  3. 13.1 and 13.3 inches
  4. 14 inches
  5. 15.4 inches
  6. 17 inches

The best way to find out what size laptop you have is to measure diagonal across the screen. It’s also a good idea to measure diagonal across the laptop as a whole and compare that to the size of the screen. It will obviously be a bit larger, but a lot of laptop notebook sleeve companies will reference the sleeve size by the screen size of the laptop. You also don’t need to get the exact size because most type of laptop sleeves will have a little bit of stretch to them. If you are still unsure and don’t want to take the chance of purchasing the wrong size you can add the model number of your laptop when you search. A lot of manufacturers make sleeves designed specifically for certain models such as the Apple Macbook or IBM Thinkpad.  If you’re looking for a laptop sleeve or bag for some of the more rare and larger laptops, then check out my article on 20″ laptop bags.

Laptop Sleeve Padding
Padding is almost as important as the size of the laptop sleeve you get. How much padding will largely depend on how you plan to use the laptop sleeve. You will obviously be putting the laptop in it, but will you be carrying the laptop by itself or will it go inside another bag? If it’s going in another bag then you won’t need near as much padding and the laptop sleeve will be more of a protective measure against dust, dirt, and scratches. Some people however prefer to carry their laptop and sleeve under there arm. This creates a much greater chance of it being dropped or bumped into and you should look into one that has additional padding or even handles.

The Right Style
A sleeve for laptop comes in many different styles. For example a business man would be more likely to have a laptop notebook sleeve that had handles and a professional look to it where as a college student would most likely be carrying around a more relaxed and trendy style such as a neoprene laptop sleeve. Either way, it’s important to find a style that really matches you and your interests. A lot of people will even pick a style that matches their personal fashion sense.

Laptop Sleeve Material
Leather, microfiber, canvas, microfiber, or even a neoprene laptop sleeve. They come is almost any style and material you could imagine. This goes right along with the style of laptop sleeves available. A laptop neoprene sleeve is my personal favorite. The material lends itself well this this type of application and it even adds a bit of cousin to the laptop notebook sleeve.

Zipper / Velcro / Button
Laptop sleeves all have different ways of keeping the notebook in. A leather case is more likely to have a button or snap closure system and the neoprene laptop sleeve will have a zipper or velcro closure system. One concern to keep in mind is if you’ll be putting the sleeve into another larger backpack or briefcase to take to work be sure take note of anything on the outside that could scratch or ruin anything else in your larger case.

Budget
One of the great things about the laptop sleeve is their price. A nice one can be found for as cheap as $15.00 with some of the higher end and designer models ending up in the thousands of dollars. So what are you waiting for? Your laptop will thank you and the extra protection that a laptop sleeve provides is a lot cheaper than repairing or replacing your laptop if it gets dropped and damaged.

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