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MacBook Air - Extremely fragile. Weaker than I expected, even in my wildest dreams.

You're really expecting too much. I remember when I dropped my old Alu MacBook off my table right onto my tile floor; I really thought the computer was going to have more harm than it did but it just dented the corner. I was actually happy it didn't do more damage.
 
marzer said:
No. I quote, "almost as if I dropped it on soft pillows." Even with sleeve and jacket its nothing like soft pillows, not even "almost". Those types of irrational conclusions are what lead to such unreasonable expectations.

The fact is, Google "laptop drop tests", nothing but ruggedized laptops can be expected to stand up to any sort of drop. And even some of those fail the test.
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I didn't write those words, though. I'm just trying to interpret what he wrote.

Now, for my personal opinion, it's apparently not anything that's even remotely "like dropping it on soft pillow", but a jacket + a sleeve is still quite a significant amount of padding.

I dropped a MacBook Pro 13" once from 4'... off my hands onto a hard concrete pavement. Upper left corner hit first. The darn thing wasn't bent. It wasn't even dented. It was scuffed and scratched.

So I think for those who are used to that rigidity, the Air does feel a bit flimsy.

AlanShutko said:
Most sleeves I've seen are fairly thin on padding on the edges (where the seams are). Hitting a corner is the worst-case type of fall, since all the force is concentrated in one place and it's likely to have the least protection from any case.
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I think there are thin sleeves and then there are thick ones. Personally, I only use thick sleeves that I know will at least survive a nuclear blast in order to protect my stuffs.

But as an aside, since I already dropped a MacBook Pro on a corner, I know at least that there are some laptops that can survive just fine from that sort of impact... with just a few scratches.

Plus I owned a MBA 13" 2010 for a while, and I constantly feared that I'd one day exert too much force and snap the thing in half.

Didn't really had the same feeling about my sister-in-law's MBA 11", though. So I think the 11" is actually more rigid than the 13".
 
bill-p said:
I didn't write those words, though. I'm just trying to interpret what he wrote.

Now, for my personal opinion, it's apparently not anything that's even remotely "like dropping it on soft pillow", but a jacket + a sleeve is still quite a significant amount of padding.

I dropped a MacBook Pro 13" once from 4'... off my hands onto a hard concrete pavement. Upper left corner hit first. The darn thing wasn't bent. It wasn't even dented. It was scuffed and scratched.

So I think for those who are used to that rigidity, the Air does feel a bit flimsy.



I think there are thin sleeves and then there are thick ones. Personally, I only use thick sleeves that I know will at least survive a nuclear blast in order to protect my stuffs.

But as an aside, since I already dropped a MacBook Pro on a corner, I know at least that there are some laptops that can survive just fine from that sort of impact... with just a few scratches.

Plus I owned a MBA 13" 2010 for a while, and I constantly feared that I'd one day exert too much force and snap the thing in half.

Didn't really had the same feeling about my sister-in-law's MBA 11", though. So I think the 11" is actually more rigid than the 13".
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No. Even a sleeve and jacket does NOT provide guaranteed protection from four feet for a laptop. Did you even read the article I quoted? That's the nature of our physical world. Pure chance when you exceed the intended operating conditions.

My wife and I had identical cell phones years ago. About a year into ownership she dropped hers on the garage floor. Cracked and quit working, had to get a new one. Since, I've dropped mine twice on the same garage floor, scruffed but no cracks and still working. Go figure!

This has nothing to do with the quality or construction of the MBA or MB pro or similar class of laptop as it does with chance. Any laptop that comes out unscathed when its intended operating conditions are exceeded is simply luck. In this case the OP's luck ran out.
 
marzer said:
No. Even a sleeve and jacket does NOT provide guaranteed protection from four feet for a laptop. Did you even read the article I quoted? That's the nature of our physical world. Pure chance when you exceed the intended operating conditions.

My wife and I had identical cell phones years ago. About a year into ownership she dropped hers on the garage floor. Cracked and quit working, had to get a new one. Since, I've dropped mine twice on the same garage floor, scruffed but no cracks and still working. Go figure!

This has nothing to do with the quality or construction of the MBA or MB pro or similar class of laptop as it does with chance. Any laptop that comes out unscathed when its intended operating conditions are exceeded is simply luck. In this case the OP's luck ran out.
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The article you linked to talks about the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR, which, IMO, is about the worst laptop you can pick for the "rugged" category.

Here's an actual video that explains why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyCETOfy0eI

There are rugged laptops that can stand drops a lot better than that one.

But that aside, not everything is up to pure chance when you have proper protection, dear sir.

And if a jacket + sleeve is not enough to protect a MacBook Air, then... that's that. You can put it up to luck or not, but I'd say... the computer wasn't designed for that.
 
bill-p said:
The article you linked to talks about the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR, which, IMO, is about the worst laptop you can pick for the "rugged" category.

Here's an actual video that explains why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyCETOfy0eI

There are rugged laptops that can stand drops a lot better than that one.

But that aside, not everything is up to pure chance when you have proper protection, dear sir.

And if a jacket + sleeve is not enough to protect a MacBook Air, then... that's that. You can put it up to luck or not, but I'd say... the computer wasn't designed for that.
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Yes, exactly. Even a lesser rugged-designed laptop can't be expected to survive the impact of an intentional drop. Why is a NON-rugged (yes, but lightly padded) laptop scrutinized for being damaged in a drop it was NOT designed to ever be subjected too?

As I said before, surviving exceeded operating conditions is nothing but pure chance. Now if it were a case guaranteed to protect against 4 foot drops, that'd be a different story.
 
Coming from a decade of windows laptop machines, and having gone through about 20 I find this thread utter nonsense. When you hold the air in your hand you can just feel its durability. Their choice of unibody, with one panel on the bottom, without exposed component doors etc is the logical choice for laptop design.
I am in no way an Apple cult member but this thing is a effing wonderful machine.
You are lucky to have only sustained a dent.
Oh, and if you drop a steel reinforced, bulletproof military grade hummer from table height, it too would sustain damage.
 
TheRealDamager said:
So you drop it from table top height, and are shocked that you ended up with a dent?

I've traveled all over the world for years with 2010 and 2011 Airs, and I've found this to be an amazingly durable machine given it's size and weight.
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Same here. I've traveled all around the globe with my MBA 13" and never felt fragile in any way. Needless to day, I never dropped if off any table... :rolleyes:
 
The vast majority of sleeves and similar (thin) protective coverings have precious little impact on *deceleration*. Especially since a 3-4 fall onto a hard surface results in over 50g's of impact force.

They're meant to absorb slight contact and pressures- like within a book bag.

Ask Dale Earnhardt. It wasn't hitting the dashboard or the steering wheel that killed him.

And FWIW, "almost as if I dropped it on soft pillows" is using way too many words to obfuscate the actual impact surface- which almost certainly can be described with two words. Was it really soft pillows? Perhaps even hard ones?

I toss my laptops onto my bed quite often. Often on the pillows too. I've never been too worried about that "impact." (No, not a pillow-top mattress either.)

Finally, the very day I bought my Rev. A MBA I dropped it from 5 feet onto a granite floor. Not a mark. The overwhelming causational factors have to be luck and impact point.

I've never held a laptop that felt as strong or sturdy as my MBA- from the first time I held it. Except for the brick called a ToughBook. Except perhaps for the back of the screen.
 
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my buddy thought my 11" air was a slicing board and decided to place the bbq sauce on in. not by any means hard. dented it. only cosmetic, but the mba is soooo sexy, its still annoying.
 
Ballis said:
my buddy thought my 11" air was a slicing board and decided to place the bbq sauce on in. not by any means hard. dented it. only cosmetic, but the mba is soooo sexy, its still annoying.
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This has to be a troll, no one in their right mind would take a piece of aluminum that looks like a laptop with an Apple logo on top and USB ports on the side and still put BBQ sauce on it.

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ryannel2003 said:
You're really expecting too much. I remember when I dropped my old Alu MacBook off my table right onto my tile floor; I really thought the computer was going to have more harm than it did but it just dented the corner. I was actually happy it didn't do more damage.
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See? It just dented a bit, and that's without the protection. I have a super soft sleeve and super soft jacket (no exaggeration) and still... a dent. Did I mention it's on the sleeve? YES! It's on a super soft sleeve with a super soft jacket and still... a dent!
 
Well, I think, as has been discussed, that the computer wasn't made to withstand falls and/or impacts.

So dents and bents are inevitable when you subject it to such... regardless of whether you wrapped it in a soft jacket or not.

You don't have to baby the computer, but I'd think it's common sense to not let your laptop fall at the least?
 
TheRealDamager said:
So you drop it from table top height, and are shocked that you ended up with a dent?

I've traveled all over the world for years with 2010 and 2011 Airs, and I've found this to be an amazingly durable machine given it's size and weight.
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i have found that the older gen macbook airs are more durable but have noticed on the 2012 modle that it has weak spot not like its older siblings
 
I counter your story with my dropping a 3750 24 port Cisco switch on the top of my "13 MBA display and it made just the tiniest of grooves in the monitor frame. I figured it would crush the thing. So, your anecdotal evidence as to a fragile machine is equalized/canceled out by my anecdotal story that the Airs are built like a tank.

Blackberryroid said:
This has to be a troll, no one in their right mind would take a piece of aluminum that looks like a laptop with an Apple logo on top and USB ports on the side and still put BBQ sauce on it.

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See? It just dented a bit, and that's without the protection. I have a super soft sleeve and super soft jacket (no exaggeration) and still... a dent. Did I mention it's on the sleeve? YES! It's on a super soft sleeve with a super soft jacket and still... a dent!
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If I pay a good amount of money for a thing such as the air, I don't drop it. How on earth are you able to drop a 1000+ dollar thing of a table? :confused:
 
I can sense the frustration in the OP and I can empathise, it's not a nice thing to happen. Maybe the 2013 Haswell models will be more durable with carbon fibre.
 
Mrbobb said:
So it's just cosmetic, Air still powers up and works correct? I say we're OK!

B4r we bemoan the Air, lets have a shoot out of similar-size laptop and see how the competitions do. Or maybe the finely crafted aluminum give us a false sense of looking at a indestructible machine?
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I have the competition as well as multiple Macs and although I will say I like the MB* line for looks much better this is one area where the competition's plastic holds up better.
 
I dropped my 2010 13" Air from waist hieght (I'm 6'6") and to my surprise no dent, no scratch, nothing. Very durable.
 
The MBP is too thick, the MBA is too fragile and the i7 is too fast. What are you going to do now?
 
Tech Air

I have a rigid Tech Air briefcase for work and a soft one for daily carries - they both give particularly good edge protection

( stops to touch piece of wood )

I marked this MBA the first ten days I had it, but since then I've been more careful. I'm planning on getting another one once this one has had the three year company write down
 
Its only a dent!

I have a mid-2011 Air (my second one) and am a bit of a road warrior - on the road at least 90 days a year. So, on a trip in Europe with the Air in a sleeve I made the major mistake of grabbing it quickly without realizing the sleeve was unzipped. The Air FLEW out of the sleeve landing squarely against a metal table edge about 5 feet away.

The result, two bite mark like indents on the case, but the Air running perfectly. Stupid me yes, fragile machine no way.
 
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