How to protect ThinkPad rubberized finish?

It gets irreversible scuff marks easily and hurts resale value. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

Buy some skins online and take them off when you want to sell it.

 

will the skin preserve corners as well?

 

I think your going to have to consider taking care of your machine.

Renee

 

What Renee said. A Thinkpad is not a football. My Thinkpad always goes from desktop (or lap!) immediately into a protective, made for the purpose case before it moves. Guess what? I have no marks on this T61p after over three years (and it travels frequently) and I had none on my old Thinkpad after seven years.

Lenovo sells a very nice backpack case as well as the standard attache' style (and there are many other case vendors), that has a padded central compartment that is quick and easy to slide your Thinkpad into whenever you change locations. There is no reason to carry it around under your arm. It is a durable, high tech marvel, but if you want to be rough with your laptop, get a Toughbook or something similar like the Army uses. And although cosmetic damage does hurt resale, most Thinkpads continue to run, even when abused a bit.

As an Old Guy I can still hear Mom telling me as a boy "Take care of your stuff - if you damage it, you will replace it, not me." TPF

 

I say don't worry too much about it. Just use your laptop normally and if you do plan to sell it or the lid has taken up so much beating, go on eBay and try to find a new lid cover (a new X200 lid cover for my ThinkPad would cost $40.00 shipped from Hong Kong).

I was pretty bummed (for a few second) when I saw my first scratch on the lid and ever since then, it's taken a bit more abuse but I stopped worrying about it.

P.S.
Sweaty palm ruins the lid. lol

 

Even though I take good care of my T500, continuously putting it in a backpack and taking it out (several hundred times probably) has worn the corners a bit . I can't imagine how I could have protected it from that ... the corners that go to the bottom must "slide" inside the compartment of the backpack, and they pick up some damage over time.

It is nothing big, just small spots on the corners have lost the rubberized finish. I felt pretty bad for it when I first noticed, but I stopped worrying about it afterwards

 

I take good care of my machines and they wear nicely, but if I have to go out of my way to protect it from minor scratches (like the edges) forget it.

The key is using a backpack (or other bag) with a separate laptop compartment. If it's banging around with books,etc of course the surface will wear out.

A notebook is there to serve you, not the other way around.

 

Agreed here with vinuneuro, the notebook is here to server you, not the other way around. However, the suggested bag is welcome.

I use a notebook backpack and after half a ear of use when I carry it around nearly every day the rubberized finish is a little off on the corners as mentioned here. In a thread I read that if you buy a sleeve and put your notebook into the bag in that way you can avoid even this.

 

You can find lid replacements on eBay thinkpad lid items - Get great deals on Computers Networking, Jewelry Watches items on eBay.com! and other types of parts. You can also lookup the FRU (field replaceable unit) number for a part and attempt to order it from Lenovo.

I agree with comments made regarding the fact you should try to take care of a laptop as much as possible, but the reality is life happens and you can't baby a laptop all the time, for instance it's hard to worry about how carefully it's treated going through airport security when you have a plane to catch in two minutes. When selling on eBay or other places I find people are pretty accepting of blemishes and just want to know a laptop is in working condition, often times they'll know how to repair or replace cosmetic parts themselves.

 

you must protect your investment.