LapStyle “The Beast” Laptop Cover Review

Introduction

A few weeks ago I ran across a post on Gizmodo.com, a blog I keep track of, and I couldn’t believe my eyes about a furry laptop cover being discussed there. This furry laptop cover was made by a company named Lapstylewho called these covers “designer covers”, anyone else would probably refer to them as a fur coat for your laptop. All the same, my disbelief and curiousity led me to place an order for one of the “The Beast” laptop covers for $24.99 to see if it was indeed a bad joke (scam) or something would actually show up in the mail.

Lapstyle offers a wide selection of furry laptop covers

Well, something sure did show up in the mail, in fact the cover arrived in a USPS envelope precisely 2 days after I placed the order. That’s amazing considering shipping was free, be I was wrong to hold such a cynical viewpoint initially and this experience would turn out well. If not, I could at least write this lighthearted review.

Package and Design

The Lapstyle Beast cover even came nicely packaged in a plastic bag that felt durable yet easy to open thanks to a plastic zipper on top.

The Lapstyle Beast laptop cover in its packaging (view large image)

Yes, things were looking up. But then I opened the package and realized what this thing truly is — a shag carpet designed to cling to your laptop.

The cover unfurled (view large image)

The victimlaptop to be covered

When you open the Lapstyle cover package you get an instruction sheet, 8 velcro pieces of material with a white seal on the back (the while seal is to cover an adhesive glue that will actually glue to your laptop), and then the actual furry cover on which you can see two rectangular Velcro loop material areas.

Step 1 is to take the 8 Velcro strips and Velcro them to the hooks already on the cover

Then you peel off the white backing from these strips which exposes an extremely sticky glue substance that your laptop will now stick to

The next step is to sit your laptop onto the exposed glue backing of the velcro hook strips

Then fold the cover in half so it glues to the top of the laptop as well

And here’s the end result, a ThinkPad furry Beast laptop (view large image)

The glue on the back of the Velcro hook strips is very strong, I had my doubts it would stick properly to the case of the laptop, but quite obviously the adhesive force of the glue to the laptop case is greater than the adhesive force of the Velcro hooks and loops. To demonstrate this witness the following image of the strips now being adhered firmly to the laptop while the fur can be pulled away (allowing you to swap it with a different Velcro fur cover if you are so enthused):

Now, luckily for my ThinkPad laptop the largest heat vent is on the left side, so it can still operate the fan and cool itself. But as for the vents on the bottom of the laptop, well, they’re covered with fur.

Unhappily, getting to the power port on the back of the ThinkPad is now rendered impossible, you’d have to cut a hole in the furry cover to actully plug in the laptop. But seeing as the cover is furry and awkward to cut small holes in, good luck with that. The monitor out port on my ThinkPad is also well and truly covered by this fur coat. Many people have a few USB ports and such on the back of their laptops. But do you really need to use such things?

Oh yes, and then we have the optical drive. Well, it still opens easily with the fur coat on. But I found when closing the drive the fur bits tend to get stuck in the door as it closes. If you shove hard enough the door will close anyway. You could always trim the fur a bit shorter in that area I suppose.

The beast sticks its tongue out (view large image)

Furry bits getting stuck in the disc drive make it hard to close now (view large image)

I was starting to wonder if this attempt at a fashion statement might be a fashion faux pas. The cover looked downright ugly to me, but some friends tell me ugly is in (no kidding) so be I should give this cover a chance to impress and take it to a Starbucks to see what kind of looks I get from laptop toting bloggers and studying students of the world. But before I could do that I began to fear for my laptop’s life as the fan revved into high gear and the temperature crept up to 64C on a laptop that usually rests somewhere in the 50’s:

Getting a little warm under the fur coat (view large image)

The fine print of the instructions says the company is not responsible for any damage done to your laptop because of the cover. It says that it’s been tested for use over a 24 hour period with no overheating. Caveat emptor though. (view large image)

Despite the fact the instructions tried to reassure the covers had been tested on laptops for up to 24 hours safely without any overheating, I wasn’t feeling a good vibe about this whole experience so I stripped the cover off of my ThinkPad (getting those glued on strips off was tough, but doable) so that it was back to its naked self — and breathing easier for it.

Conclusion

If you’re somebody that really loves to draw attention to yourself, the Lapstyle fur cover on your laptop could be one way to do that. They also make for a fun conversation piece, I’m sure people would come up to you if you used this thing in a public space (I wasn’t brave enough to in the end). However, if you want to personalize your laptop and express yourself, I’d recommend getting a custom laptop paint jobas a better and safer (albeit more expensive) way to do that. This cover can block your ports, heat vents and optical drive so it’s really a high price to pay in terms of sacrificing usability for, umm, “looks”.

Too bad this thing isn’t recyclable

Pros

• Crazy looking, will get people’s attention
• Fast shipping of the product
• Good selection of designs to choose from

Cons

• Overheating worries
• Blocks ports you’ll want to use
• Can’t take the battery out without removing it
• Furry bits get stuck in optical drive when closing it
• Smelled a little rubbery and funky

Where to Buy:

You can buy a fur cover from Lapstyle for $24.99 here: www.lapstyle.com/laptop-covers-products.htm