Wow, the old unibodies are tanks...

[Frieg]

Just venting a bit of appreciation for the old (until mid 2012) unibody design My old MBP 2011 dropped from 75cm yesterday directly on the upper left edge of the display lid on hard tiles , the impact was LOUD. Thought my beloved macbook would be gone now. but to my surprise, really absolutely nothing serious happened. the edge became really bent inside, but there is no crack in the screen. the rubber band between the alloy frame and the glass got squeezed out, but that took enough energy from the glass to prevent damage. everything works absolutely fine, also no inside damages.
well, it looks even more like a "workhorse" now It's planned to put it to the shelve for good by the end of this year, because it's now 2 OS X versions behind, but this rocksolid construction will be missed

 

[leman]

All I can say is that you got very lucky. Unibody is an amazing design but withstanding impact is not necessarily it’s forte

 

[Count Blah]

The strap on my computer bag brokein such a way that it swung around and my 2008 15” MBP dropped on the back right corner, straight on the pavement. The corner got bent/smooshed in such a way that the laptop couldn’t open. I had to take needle nose pliers and bent it out, to open the laptop. One I did that, I turned it on, and everything was fine.

This laptop also sustained a full glass of water from my young son accidentally knocking it over, on the kitchen table. It took 4 months for it to completely dry out, I tried after 3 months, and it still didn’t work. Between myself and my wife, we used it 2.5 years after the water incident.

That laptop took a beating, tons of travel, water, dropped, bumps, airports, etc... and would probably still turn on and work today. They(Apple) certainly don’t make them like they used to. Sadly, they don’t offer anything close to it, as an option. Their way or the highway, sadly.

I believe the 2008 design is the same unibody design as the last 2012 cMBP.

 

[ocnitsa]

I had an old unibody model that fell through a plate glass table top onto a concrete patio floor...corner was dented a little...some scuffs...screen was still untouched. It was a tank.

 

[goobot]

My 08 fell 4 feet onto the floor and other than a dent on the side it was fine.

 

[jerryk]

Lost of small pieces held on with screws, and cables and pins in sockets in those units. The new units have fewer separate boards and cables so less to pop loose. But when they break, it can get expensive. Win some, lose some.