Mac Geekery

I’m in love. I have to share this little bag I got a hold of recently and have been using daily for the past few weeks. Well, it’s not really a bag, it’s a sleeve. For me, that’s a little odd.

You see, I’m a backpack guy. I keep everything known to man in my computer pack from USB, FireWire, and ethernet cables to an old iSight and install discs for my computer and, for the hell of it, all the way back to 10.1. That’s the front pouch. But this is how it goes with me. When I’m in the room with my bag, I can do literally anything with my computer, and I love that.

But, most of the time, I’m heading to work and back to home. The bag is a little hefty for that and all it’s doing is going from one desk to another, so there’s no need for all of that stuff. So, I got a sleeve. The Macbook Pro is a sexy machine, so I didn’t want it covered in nylon or foam or that squishy stuff that sticks to my fingers if I drag across it (blech). I wanted something thick and protective. I wanted … leather.

Toffee makes some very nice sleeves for portable computers. I settled on the, er, coffee toffee and awaited delivery.

The Good

Oh. My.

There’s good leather, bad leather, and fake leather. Then there’s perfect leather. This is perfect leather. It’s soft, smooth, and thick enough to cushion. The inner lining is slick and eases the unit inside without a snag or concern. It fits perfectly snug inside and while it does add some bulk to the unit, it actually makes it easier to hold on to rather than being an issue.

What really gets me, though, is that it’s sturdy. The zipper handle is hefty, the teeth are thick, the seam is strong, and it just gives the impression of being built to handle use by humans rather than being for show like so many other “designer” leather items. This is the old tradition of leather: use it because it’s the right material for the job, not (just) because it’s pretty.

So, I packed my computer inside and went to work. Then home. Then repeated about 30 times.

It’s thick enough with the computer inside that I can get a grip on it and carry it around. It’s actually more reassuring to have it in the sleeve when transporting it solo than by itself because the MBP is a slippery little machine, what with that polished metal case and whatnot.

The lining inside is smooth, and put with the slickness of the computer, it possesses a masterful entry and exit from the sleeve of the computer. I had a Malware foam case for my iBook once. If there is one word to describe getting that iBook inside, it’s friction. It also had no liner. It makes a difference.

After all this fun, it still looks brand-new.

The Bad

Its not there for protection from drops, like a backpack or thickly-padded carrier would be. I’m sure it helped a little bit when my MBP decided it wanted to go lie in the flower bed rather than in my hands (whoops; 3ft to topsoil, nothing harsh, really). At the least, it kept it clean. But it’s not that kind of protection. So if you go solo, keep it held firmly.

It doesn’t have a handle or attachments for a shoulder strap or anything like that. It’s a sleeve. It goes solo in your hands or inside another case. It fit inside my backpack’s CPU slot well, for what it’s worth. If you’re looking for a carrier sleeve that you can use alone, this is not it. This is for bag conversions (a standard book-holding bag that you want to drop a computer into) and additional padding. This is not a transport device on its own unless you want to hold it like a book (which I do, and like).

It’s not cheap. That said, you really, really do get what you pay for. After paying some horrendous amount of coin for your MBP, I mean, really now, do you want a $20 case? Really?

The Geek

Sturdy seams. I’m not sure I could manually rip this thing apart if I wanted to. Everything is attached with an amount of force equal to and exceeding my personal willingness to yank. Before I trust a machine to something like this, I give it a thorough beating, and this survived quite well (and, again, looks brand-new).

Heavy zipper. I’ve seen jeans for the “big and tall” folks with wimpier zippers. This isn’t your clunky zipper that holds back thirty years of beer inside your comically-one-size-too-small windbreaker, but it’s not outlandishly-large, either. It’s a nice metal job with a very smooth action. It’s never caught. Ever.

Conclusion

Of course I say buy it. I love it. That’s why I’m sharing. If you need a sleeve and can live without a handle or strap, this is the one to get.