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how easily do the unibody mbp dent?

G

gagaliya

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2010
466
394
well i finally ordered my new 15" mbp and intel ssd from amazon, should be here mid next week.

Now for those of you who used mbp for a while, how easily do the aluminum unibody dent/scratch? it seems every single used mbp on ebay i see had some sort of dent on it...

All of the mbp casings look bad, including the see thru one, they defeat the purpose of having a slick unibody mbp. The only option is those invisible films that stick onto the mbp, but they need water to install. None of them seems like good options.

Anyway i am thinking of just getting a sleeve and leave the mbp naked. Is that a good idea?
 
Wirelessly posted (iPod Touch 2G 8GB: Opera/9.80 (iPhone; Opera Mini/5.0.0176/802; U; en) Presto/2.4.15)

The invisible films are placed on with a limited amount of water, and when your computer is off. They wont fry it.
 
The way I see it (I have only had my macbook for about 3 days now my first one) aluminum has it's advantages and disadvantages.

It lacks the ability to flex like plastic does. But that can be taken as an advantage and a disadvantage.

Since it does not flex, if you do drop something on it or drop it on something it's going to dent and not flex back...

If you're careful you should be ok.
 
I've really only held onto a unibody macbook pro and the way I see it the fact that it doesn't flex is really a strong point. I had a powerbook g4 which lasted for about 5 years. I'm pretty sure the only reason it ended up having a problem is because I held it by one corner when moving around. The flex that the case eventually caused the solder connections in the motherboard to become weak and eventually it became unstable. I attribute this conclusion to the fact that it could be made to work if you bent the case a little bit.

Anyway. I"m confident that laptop would have kept on going for quite some time if it hadn't developed that particular problem. I just hope i can get the same life time from the macbook pro I have on order.

Finally I'm sure a macbook pro is like anything else you own. It's going to be in the condition that you treat it. If you treat it poorly and trow it in a bag with other things instead of it's own compartment you will scratch it. If you keep it in a bag designed to seperate your laptop from other things it will stay in good condition. Treat it well and I'm sure it will treat you well.
 
nothing is wrong with a little water in order to put on the invisibleshield. i have an invisibleshield and i love it better than a case.
 
I have the incase hardshell on mine to protect from scratches and help the resale value if I decided to sell it later on or pass it on as a gift.

Yeah it detracts from the design but I my MBP goes some pretty wild places and the 20 dollar case takes the heat.

Plus anytime you have a dent on your machine the guys at the Genius bar become about 20x harder to work with. Everytime I deal with them they know they can't use the physical damage claim. The outside is, as described by a genius on my last visit, "cosmetically perfect".
 
You can put on a film like the Invisible Shield to protect it from scratches, but that obviously won't offer any shock protection if you end up dropping it, so I hope you're not expecting that to protect it from getting dents.

I would say it dents pretty easily. Mine has no dents, but I haven't dropped mine, and I'm pretty certain that almost any fall would result in a dent in the machine.
 
If you drop the unibody it will dent. My boss dropped hers, and the corner is super dented. Just like an aluminum can, it actually looks kind of cool. Makes me want to smash up the rest of it. Still works fine though. They are super easy to scratch too. That said, if you are careful with your stuff you will be fine. They are not fragile by any means.
 
The casing is actually pretty tough. I dropped a penny from my bookshelf to the top of my MBP and I was pretty shocked that it didnt even dent the casing.

I don't use any protection for my MBP as I assume that this thing was built for tough and I was right.
 
macfrik said:
The casing is actually pretty tough. I dropped a penny from my bookshelf to the top of my MBP and I was pretty shocked that it didnt even dent the casing.

I don't use any protection for my MBP as I assume that this thing was built for tough and I was right.
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a penny wouldn't even put a crease in a piece of paper. that's not really a valid test of its durability.

the last MBP I had got a dent in it. I was climbing over a gate (don't ask) with the MBP in my backpack, in an incase sleeve, and my the bottom of my backpack hit the top of the iron gate as I was getting over. Opened it up and there was a small but noticeable dent on the edge where the impact was.
 
I had the 2008 pre unibody 15", and that thing dents easy, the difference being that because its a thin layer of aluminum, it dents the same way a soda can would, whereas the unibody would not. If you do drop something significant on it, it would actually scar/dig into it more than dent(happen to the Macbook air, didnt know what caused it though).
 
mine bend really bad when it got dropped from waist height in a laptop bag, was a write off basically!
 
It depends on the amount of force, of course, but here's what just happened to my i7 15" a few minutes ago.

So basically I had a small flashlight on the shelf above my computer (about 3 feet high) and it rolled off and landed flat (as opposed to straight up and down, which would've been a disaster) on my left palmrest. Thankfully only the battery lives underneath, as opposed to the right side, where the HDD is.

In case you're wondering, it was one of these:
http://www.gerberstore.com/index.php?xpage=itempage&xid=684
These are heavy duty, and weigh around half a pound (223g), so it was quite an impact.

It was pretty loud through my noise isolating earphones, so I can only imagine what it sounded like to the naked ear.

So yeah, they do dent. I'm a little bummed, since I've only had this thing about a month, but you know, something would've happened sooner or later. This is my daily computer, so it was bound to happen.

On the plus side, I now have a use for those Apple stickers that came with my computer! :D
 

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On the plus side, I now have a use for those Apple stickers that came with my computer!


if that was mine, i would buy a moshi palm guard, that would cover up those little dents and not ruin the look of the macbook pro.:D
 
Wehrwolf said:
On the plus side, I now have a use for those Apple stickers that came with my computer! :D
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Don't...

Just accept those dents.

On the plus side, your "tiptoe phase" is over and now you can do what the hell you want with your laptop without being worried about keeping it flawless.
 
samuelmacdaddy said:
On the plus side, I now have a use for those Apple stickers that came with my computer!


if that was mine, i would buy a moshi palm guard, that would cover up those little dents and not ruin the look of the macbook pro.:D
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Moshi Palmguard would definitely hide them...but I'm not too keen on spending $23 for something just to cover up two small dents.

Main reason I want to cover it up is if I ever need to go in for warranty, the dents won't be obvious. I know they (Apple) shouldn't have a problem with two dents above the battery, but I've heard some horror stories. A causally placed Apple sticker probably wouldn't garner a second thought.

I'm not too concerned with keeping the look all that pristine; an Apple sticker or something similar could probably cover both dents up, while adding a bit of a personal touch to my MBP.

"This is my MBP, there are many like it, but this one is mine..." :p
 
Here's the i7 post-impact with a stylish 'bandaid'. I personally think it doesn't look so bad; gives my notebook a little personality out of all the unibodies that are out there, and hides the dents.

If my eye is going to be drawn to that location anyway, it might as well be something more aesthetically pleasing than a pair of dents. :D

I plan on keeping this machine until I run it into the ground, so i'm not so concerned with resale value or how stickers/dents will affect that.
 

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^ I have a dent in the same exact area on my new MBP. Covered it up with a Moshi guard. My 2008 SR developed some fading over time so I also bought it for just that reason.:)
 
Ann P said:
^ I have a dent in the same exact area on my new MBP. Covered it up with a Moshi guard. My 2008 SR developed some fading over time so I also bought it for just that reason.:)
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Nice. Someone else suggested a Moshi too. I guess if I get bored with the Apple sticker I may end up getting one too. :)
 
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