Best Skins Ever?

[tardman91]

I just ordered a new M1 MacBook Air and instead of going with my usual thin case I was considering going with a skin this time instead. Now that I'm getting space gray I don't want to hide it. I'm really careful with my stuff, and the plastic cases don't provide much protection anyway. Who uses one, and are you happy with it? I used to to use Best Skins Ever about 10 years ago on all of my phones and used to really like them. I see they have a matte skin for the Air that "disappears" when applied. Anyone have one they can post pictures of? Are there other/better brands I should be looking at?

 

[Jack Neill]

I like Dbrands. put one on a MBA 9,1 and fit perfectly.

 

[fitcious]

I have the bamboo one from dbrands on my 2020 MBA

 

[teerexx52]

I've used Best Skins for years and love them.

 

[gerjomarty]

Does anyone have any up-to-date reports about Best Skins Ever? There seems to be radio silence from them on all social channels, with numerous reports of payment taken without delivery.

I'd be importing from the UK at great expense so I'd like to get some reports first, ideally.

 

[tardman91]

Does anyone have any up-to-date reports about Best Skins Ever? There seems to be radio silence from them on all social channels, with numerous reports of payment taken without delivery.

I'd be importing from the UK at great expense so I'd like to get some reports first, ideally.

I ordered mid-November and received my skin about 5 days later. No issues there. But 3 days later when I had issues with the install and the skin stuck to itself during install and got stretched, I reached out to the them for either a refund or replacement under their guarantee and got no reply at all. Funny thing is, I got a thank you email a few days later asking for a review, and I replied to that immediately because it said to it if you had any questions or weren't satisfied. Nothing. I tried contacting them through Facebook and Twitter as well. Nothing. I sent a total of 5 emails over 3 weeks. Nothing. I just opened a dispute of the charge with my CC company. I would not buy anything from them. I've been buying skins and screen protectors from them for nearly 10 years and have never had a problem with their products or customer service, so I have no idea what's going on with them.

 

[jqc]

Not that the M1s have that much heat, but I do find they get warm under normal office tasks. (but nothing like Intels); do the skins make it harder for the chassis to dissipate heat? Im thinking the bottom skin.

 

[Acorn19]

I'm looking for a clear skin for mine but can't find any other than one from Etsy which I am super dubious of due to mixed reviews, I assumed they would be easy to find with this being my first macbook but can't find anything I like at the moment, may have to bite the bullet and go the dbrand route but all their designas look a little cheap

 

[hyperx136]

I recently got 2 orders of the matte skin from BestSkinEver and used them both for 5 months or so. One MacBook Pro 13inch 2020 4Tb and One MacBook Pro 16 inch. I was pretty happy with both of them so I just placed another order for the 3rd one (for the M1 MBA that is incoming).

I used to get them 7 years ago and remember that I enjoyed them but since then changed to either a case or dbrand. But lately, I've gotten tired of taking the skin out every time I have to sell something since I assume people do want to know how the laptop looks underneath the skin. Therefore this year I went all-in on matte for easier resell (not have to take it off before reselling).

All 3 times that I purchased the products this year they ship within 3-5 days at the latest and it shows up about 5 days later, not too bad for free shipping. The very first skin that I did get from them in May had some big bubbles after installing so I emailed them and they replied to me within a few days offering another replacement if I were to cover the shipping. I didn't ask them how much was the shipping since after a few days the bubbles look better than before and I figured there was no need for another skin.

Overall I am happy with the look and feel of the skin, the customer service to me was decent. I can only speak for my own experience but I guess I am happy enough to purchase 3 of them within a year

 

[Acorn19]

I recently got 2 orders of the matte skin from BestSkinEver and used them both for 5 months or so. One MacBook Pro 13inch 2020 4Tb and One MacBook Pro 16 inch. I was pretty happy with both of them so I just placed another order for the 3rd one (for the M1 MBA that is incoming). I used to get them 7 years ago and remember that I enjoyed them but since then changed to either a case or dbrand. But lately, I've gotten tired of taking the skin out every time I have to sell something since I assume people do want to know how the laptop looks underneath the skin. Therefore this year I went all-in on matte for easier resell (not have to take it off before reselling).

All 3 times that I purchased the products this year they ship within 3-5 days at the latest and it shows up about 5 days later, not too bad for free shipping. The very first skin that I did get from them in May had some big bubbles after installing so I emailed them and they replied to me within a few days offering another replacement if I were to cover the shipping. I didn't ask them how much was the shipping since after a few days the bubbles look better than before and I figured there was no need for another skin.

Overall I am happy with the look and feel of the skin, the customer service to me was decent. I can only speak for my own experience but I guess I am happy enough to purchase 3 of them within a year

Could you provid a link please because I can't see the M1 skin listed anywhere on their site only shows late 2018-2019 and if possible could you provide pics, I really don't want a glossy finish I'm trying to avoid the greasy feel if poosible

 

[hyperx136]

Could you provid a link please because I can't see the M1 skin listed anywhere on their site only shows late 2018-2019 and if possible could you provide pics, I really don't want a glossy finish I'm trying to avoid the greasy feel if poosible

The 2018-2019 MBA is the same size as the m1 MBA. You can check out the size comparison on Apple’s website. The only thing that changed is the thickness of the laptop to accommodate the new magic keyboard, which does not affect the size of the top and bottom case.

i’ve attached 2 pics of how it looks on the MBP 2020 4TB

 

[dborja]

The 2018-2019 MBA is the same size as the m1 MBA. You can check out the size comparison on Apple’s website. The only thing that changed is the thickness of the laptop to accommodate the new magic keyboard, which does not affect the size of the top and bottom case.

i’ve attached 2 pics of how it looks on the MBP 2020 4TB

Just to add to hyperx136's pix, here's the only difference between the 2018-2019 and 2020 MBAirs. The backs on both early 2020 and M1 are exactly the same height and are just 0.02" taller than the 2018/2019 MBAirs. Sorry that I didn't quite get the skin straight

 

[sky87]

Does anyone have any up-to-date reports about Best Skins Ever? There seems to be radio silence from them on all social channels, with numerous reports of payment taken without delivery.

I'd be importing from the UK at great expense so I'd like to get some reports first, ideally.

I have Best Skins Ever skins on my MB 12" and MBP 13" (and have also recommended them to other people as recently as last year for their MBA/MBPs). Also had them on an iPad a few years ago. I really love how the skin feels on my macbooks - I have the matte one and I can barely tell that it's there. Installation was fairly straightforward once I figured out how to do that.

That being said, they used to have fantastic customer service a few years ago, but seem to be somewhat lacking this year.

Earlier this year I got a new iPad Pro 11" (2020) and wanted to get a Best Skins Ever skin on it, but they didn't have one that fit my iPad. OK, I figured it was a new product and needed new cutouts, so I emailed them to ask if they were planning on making one for the iPad Pro 11" (2020) and all I got back was radio silence. I just checked their website and they still don't have a skin for the iPad Pro 11" (2020) more than half a year after launch. So I'm not sure how active they are anymore or even if they are keeping up to date with new skins.

(I ended up with a DBrand skin (for the sides) and a no-brand skin (for the back) for my iPad, and DBrand got the skins to me really quickly (international shipping). The downside is that DBrand doesn't do transparent skins...)

So generally, while I love the Best Skins Ever skins and had a great experience with them in the past, I am a bit doubtful about ordering from them at the moment given the lack of updates this year...

 

[hyperx136]

Another follow to what I forgot to mention in my last post, the cut-out of bestskinever definitely can be better. I have used slickwraps and dbrand skins before and out of the 3, dbrand has the most precise cut out and sizing, follow by slickwraps then bestskinever. Customer service wise it's dbrand, follow by bestskinever and then slickwraps (well known reputation for bad customer service and slow shipping)

The only reason I don't buy dbrand skin because the listed above reason, they don't have matte/clear skin. And I usually get tired of design skins after a while, no matter which design it is. Between bestskinever and slickwraps, bestskinever is cheaper, faster shipping, and better customer service in my experience even though they only have 2 types of skins and the cut-out is slightly smaller than slickwraps. Also bestskinever requires the use of liquid for application so some people might not like that since if you are not careful, liquid can get inside the laptop while installing.

 

[Mxbzz]

I too have been looking for a clear, matte skin for my M1 MBA. I wanted to get the BSE but at $38 for the "full protection" it was hard to swallow. Slickwraps was $33, which was a little better, but I've heard their shipping times were abysmal. Dbrand doesn't offer any type of clear skin, and are generally more expensive so that was a no-go.
Ultimately, I wound up ordering an off-brand "LENTION" clear/matte skin off eBay for $17. I've had positive experiences with other off-brand skins, so I figured it's worth a gamble at half the price.

I used BSE many years ago for my iPhone, and their website hasn't changed much since. You'd think they were out of business with the lack of social media updates. I've also used Slickwraps for my 2016 MBP and I have no complaints, so if I lose on this off-brand skin, I'll probably order a naked matte" from Slickwraps.

 

[alfmoonspace]

No comms on my end. I need to return a skin because the cut was off a bit and they haven't replied. I had to open a PayPal case for a refund.

 

[Mxbzz]

Finally got my LENTION matte skin. Installation was fairly simple, as these are thick and have almost a glittery look with matted texture, meaning less worry for visible fingerprint stains. It came with top/bottom/wrist/trackpad(x2) cutouts. Absolutely love the matted texture on the wrist rest / trackpad. The cutouts are almost perfect, but I did find the trackpad cutout to be a hair larger than the trackpad itself. It doesn't seem to be too big of an issue since these are machine-cut, so the overcompensation is balanced out in the wrist rest cutout.

I messed up installing the bottom and have an ugly line of paper residue due to sticking the skin back on the paper.. but since it's on the bottom, I don't really mind. If it gets to me, I'll cover it up with some stickers or something.

Anyhow, for less than 20 bucks I'm satisfied. I imagine as the days go on, these splotches of trapped air will eventually disappear-- they're not noticeable unless you're looking at an angle.

Edit: eBay link for the curious

 

[alfmoonspace]

No answer to PayPal dispute either. They closed the case to my favor.

 

[sky87]

No comms on my end. I need to return a skin because the cut was off a bit and they haven't replied. I had to open a PayPal case for a refund.

No answer to PayPal dispute either. They closed the case to my favor.

Thanks this is useful to know.

I'm quite sad about this as I really did love the skins I've bought from them in the past, but the lack of updates for newer products and lack of communication has put me off ordering anything with them for the moment.

I ended up getting Bodyguardz for my new M1 MBA - which shipped fairly quickly and should hopefully be with me at some point (international shipping, expecting delays due to global situation...)

 

[harleymhs]

Well, I've been using BSE for many years... Installed on all my laptops and Ipads ( rear only ) never had any issues with them until recently! Agreed with everyone here... They WILL NOT ANSWER any email or return any phone calls for support! Years past I reached out to them and this guy Michael would always answer emails. My wife even left several messages for them on their phone number NO RESPONSE! But I recently ordered something for my NEW ipad pro, it was delivered fast! I read some people dont even receive their orders! Not sure how a company can survive with zero customer service these days! Their products are very good but shame on them for not getting back to their customers who have concerns! I literally watched them go from good to bad ... Im sure they will be out of business very very soon! Sad ....

 

[harleymhs]

If anyone has issues with their order, Just dispute the charge or open claim on PP and you will WIN, trust me they wont answer our emails they wont answer PP or CC either... Terrible... PS they emailed me to do a review for their item I ordered, I emailed back and said REPLY to this email and Ill do the REVIEW ! NO REPLY! LOL

 

[gerjomarty]

I ended up getting Bodyguardz for my new M1 MBA - which shipped fairly quickly and should hopefully be with me at some point (international shipping, expecting delays due to global situation...)

I'd appreciate it if you could share your impressions when you do get it!

 

[The Game 161]

ordered mine from sopiguard and while it's very good had to pay a duty fee so likely won't do this again. the UK ones though don't do the colour I wanted which was navy

 

[sky87]

I'd appreciate it if you could share your impressions when you do get it!

Can do! It is really taking some time getting to me though, the last tracking scan was January 3rd. Hopefully it is somewhere between California (last scan location) and me as opposed to being stuck in a warehouse somewhere!

Edit - the USPS tracking stops at the last US tracking point. On the off chance it might have been handed over to my local mail carrier I decided to try the USPS tracking number on my local mail carrier tracking system, and it worked! Apparently the skins are now somewhere in the country. If they arrive before the weekend I'll probably try to install the skins over the weekend

 

[sky87]

Well, the Bodyskinz skins arrived last night, so went to work installing them on my MBA. I've previously installed several BSE skins so it wasn't too difficult as the installation is very similar.

Initial impressions of Bodyskinz (glossy - only option they had) vs Best Skins Ever (matte):
- I prefer the BSE matte clear skin - it looks closer to the metal underneath (and almost invisible) than the glossy clear skin. With the glossy skin it is a lot more obvious that there is a skin on the macbook, although it is still much less obvious than if I had gotten a Dbrand or other coloured skin.
- The glossy skin has a lot more grip than the matte skin.
- I like the BSE matte trackpad protector, which feels almost similar to the trackpad without a protector. I didn't bother installing the Bodyskinz glossy trackpad protector as I don't think I'll like the feel of the glossy skin as a trackpad.
- The Bodyskinz had a strip for protection of the area above the function keys. I don't think the BSE has an equivalent strip for protection there but I could be wrong (only device I have handy with BSE installed is a 13" MBP and it didn't have that area protected).

Installation wise
- Bodyskinz provides an application gel (some mixture of water, alcohol, and others) whereas BSE asks that you make your own spray bottle with water and soap. I liked not having to make my own solution, but worried about running out of the application gel. The application gel was less likely to run off than soap/water, but it was also harder to soak up the excess gel compared to just using soap and water.
- Otherwise the installation is almost similar between Bodyskinz and BSE - both are wet installs.

At this point I think I still prefer the matte BSE skins over the glossy Bodyskinz skins. It's a pity that I don't feel comfortable ordering from BSE at the moment (as mentioned in this thread). I'm still glad I got the Bodyskinz skins though - at least my MBA is protected from minor scratches, and I can now alcohol wipe it (i.e. the skins) as much as I like...