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MacBook Air dropped from 4 feet in an Apple Store.... SURVIVES!

1

!!1R-

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 2, 2008
8
0
I was in the Apple Store in Cherry Creek Mall in Denver, CO earlier today. They have had the MacBook Air since yesterday morning. They had four on display today. Two with solid state, two without. One of the computers without solid state was on a rotating rod in a window display with a cloth behind it decorated with clouds.

A customer standing near the display thought the cloth was a solid wall and tried to lean on it. He crashed through the display tumbling the MacBook Air off of the four foot pedestal and landing on the laptop. Several Specialists and a Concierge jumped to the area and helped the man up and started cleaning up the mess. The MacBook Air was carried to the back out of sight immediately.

I came back two hours later and the entire window display was rebuilt and intact. I asked an employee about the MacBook Air that had been involved. He told me it was back on the pedestal on display. Sure enough, the MacBook Air spinning on the rod had a small dent on the lower side of the screen but otherwise looked perfect and ran perfect. This was the MacBook Air without the Solid-State Drive in it.

I didn't have a phone or camera with me so I was unable to take pictures, but I may have a chance to grab photos of it tomorrow.

P.S. Sorry about the excessively long post.
 
That's incredibly lucky that nothing was damaged... I wouldn't trust this to mean that dropping MacBook Airs four feet should be considered safe.
 
My theory is that its light weight saved it. It doesn't hit the ground with the same momentum as any other laptop Apple offers.

I thought it was lucky the guy that crashed into was okay. It looked like he had bent up the pedestal pretty well.
 
I would have been squirming if I watched all that go down lol. That's like being in a jewelry store and someone crashes into a jewelry case full of jewelry.
 
Geez, interesting the OP asked about how the poor MBA survived the crash rather than asking about the poor customer that fell. :p
 
The guy got up laughing but clearly embarassed. He went back to working with a Specialist and walked out with a MacBook Pro.
 
Remember: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. The MBA probably floats lightly to the ground like a leaf. ;)

I've dropped my 15" Powerbook G4 three times now:

1. Did a superman over the handlebars of my mountain bike onto asphalt with my sleeping laptop in my backpack, which I rolled on. I ground my hands to mince on the blacktop, but the laptop escaped with only a small dent in the corner of the case. I scared a passing jogger, but our brief conversation did not result in me getting her number. So much for pity. :(;)

2. The classic trip-on-on-the-power-cord pratfall. This time the laptop was open and running. It fell 3 feet from a table to the carpet and landed with the screen and bottom case forming a "V". No visible damage, no malfunctions.

3. Sitting on a couch in a coffee shop, I got up to throw away my $2 coffee and set my $2500 laptop on my piled up coat next to me. It slid off the couch onto the carpeted floor...a minor scratch or two but it still runs fine. I haven't been back since...they don't like people swearing like that.

Hopefully I'll never have to add to this chronicle. :eek:
 
!!1R- said:
The guy got up laughing but clearly embarassed. He went back to working with a Specialist and walked out with a MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

LOL, he was probably laughing when the Apple employees told him he didn't have to pay for any damages. :D. That's good to know the AIR is durable.
 
Good to know the MBA can survive something like this - it must be quite solidly built.
 
kids don't try this at home LOL

but good to know it can survive a fall like that
and good to know in case i fall into an apple display i don't have to pay damages lol
 
HLdan said:
LOL, he was probably laughing when the Apple employees told him he didn't have to pay for any damages. :D. That's good to know the AIR is durable.
Click to expand...

Try walking into Best Buy and accidentally fall on a PC and see if they dont charge you ;)
 
The MBA probably floats lightly to the ground like a leaf
Click to expand...
Yeah, thats true! It's so thin, that the aerodynamic drag is sufficient to hold back it's weight from falling off like a rock...
they don't like people swearing like that
Click to expand...
Haha, that made my day, although it surely wasn't funny at that moment, imagining the staff there :eek: watching (and listening to) you picking up the Powerbook while grumbling about this is hilarious. Sorry ;)
 
Interesting. I was at the Cheery Creek Apple store around 6pm. I was looking at the new MBA's. I asked an employee if they had any MBA's for sale. He said out of the total of five we have in the store, only one was for sale. we had an accident earlier and the one on display was "destroyed", so the only one we had for sale is now on the rotating display.

Guess they are not as bullet proof as stated above.
 
or they took the dented one off display and replaced it with one that wasn't dented as they should.
 
!!1R- said:
My theory is that its light weight saved it. It doesn't hit the ground with the same momentum as any other laptop Apple offers.
Click to expand...

I thought Galileo solved this question a while back. A macbook air should drop at the same rate as any other Apple (or non-Apple for that matter) notebook.

:eek:

[In a 4 foot drop air resistance will not be much of a factor]
 
Aren't the premium mba's theoretically safe from a 4 foot drop? There aren't any moving parts, the innards would stay in tact wouldn't they? (The screen or sheel might crack/dent tho)
 
At 7 P.M. when I went, the dented one was spinning on the pedestal. It wasn't obviously dented but it was dented.

As far as the ones for sale, it's probably the same thing that happened before they arrived. Everyone that works there is hearing something different.

Oh, and the one that dropped was the 1.6GHz model with the 80GB Hard Disk.
 
Scott6666 said:
I thought Galileo solved this question a while back. A macbook air should drop at the same rate as any other Apple (or non-Apple for that matter) notebook.
Click to expand...

It falls at the same speed, but it doesn't fall with the same weight behind it. Dropping a bowling ball will do more damage to itself and whatever it hits than a golf ball, even though they hit with the same velocity.
 
!!1R- said:
My theory is that its light weight saved it. It doesn't hit the ground with the same momentum as any other laptop Apple offers.

I thought it was lucky the guy that crashed into was okay. It looked like he had bent up the pedestal pretty well.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the MPA weight more than the MP?

EDIT: Weight does not matter.
 
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