Will the hard case scratch the body itself?

Hi:
I am planning to purchase the speck hard case, like this Speck 13" SeeThru Satin Case for MacBook Pro and MacBook - Apple Store (U.S.)

I saw the video from official here: YouTube - SeeThru Case for MacBook Installation Instructions

When they installed the hard case, the lock click sound was extremely loud. I was wondering will that scratch my macbook during installation? There are few snaps at the side, could they possibly scratch the macbook?

Thanks.

No but the dust and dirt that collects underneath it will. ^-^" Unless you work in a very clean environment where it won't collect then you don't have to worry about that.

Just remove it every week or so and clean it.

huh, insteresting
how would dust scratch metal?

cpthk said:

huh, insteresting
how would dust scratch metal?

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It's very small particles that rub against the metal that causes the scratching.

cpthk said:

When they installed the hard case, the lock click sound was extremely loud. I was wondering will that scratch my macbook during installation? There are few snaps at the side, could they possibly scratch the macbook?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I have this case on my MBP...and I think that as long as you install it carefully you should be fine.

By "installed carefully" I mean flexing the case a bit as you install it to minimize the friction between the plastic retaining tabs & the exterior of the laptop.

HTH,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I have this case on my MBP...and I think that as long as you install it carefully you should be fine.

By "installed carefully" I mean flexing the case a bit as you install it to minimize the friction between the plastic retaining tabs & the exterior of the laptop.

HTH,

- Nick

Click to expand...

Did you have the problem that has scratch caused by dirt and dust mentioned by CrimsonRequiem?

cpthk said:

huh, insteresting
how would dust scratch metal?

Click to expand...

how does sand blasting make metal disappear?
The macs are not made of titanium or something, it's light aluminum which could be scratched with your nail if you wanted to(it's finish).
The cover almost always will leave little scratch(not really a scratch, more like wear from it staying in contact constantly) areas around the corner of the macbook where it clips on.

After getting my case I tend to clean it about once a month and it seems to be doing fine.

I live by the beach and tend to frequent it (not with my MBP) but when I come home sometimes I get sand on the table and place it down on it and it sometimes can get into the case. So thats why I am very careful about cleaning it so it doesn't get any dirt or sand in between the case and just scratch the heck out of it.

(Sorry for copying nick)
HTH

later

idrinorbarsaku said:

how does sand blasting make metal disappear?
The macs are not made of titanium or something, it's light aluminum which could be scratched with your nail if you wanted to(it's finish).
The cover almost always will leave little scratch(not really a scratch, more like wear from it staying in contact constantly) areas around the corner of the macbook where it clips on.

Click to expand...

The aluminum is extremely strong. I don't think you could scratch it with your nail. I remember once in the apple store, one of their agent showed it to me of how strong it is. I also tried it too, We even use a pen's plastic body to scratch it really hard( I mean it), still unable to scratch it with mark.

I noticed amazon has some review about the dust/dirt stuck between the case and the macbook caused scratch. I noticed those reviews only exist in the old macbook, and they all refer to "plastic side of macbook", which they were talking about the old plastic macbook. I didn't see any related review in the new macbook, which is the aluminum one. Not sure if this problem exist in the case of new macbook.

I have a speck hard shell case on my macbook pro unibody and i'm a mechanic and take it to work everyday. My environment is very very dirty and I am yet to have any scratches on the body of my uMBP. I take the case off every 1-2 weeks and clean it with the cloth it came with and then put the case back on. I'm going on 5 months without a scratch. Its a good investment.

cpthk said:

Did you have the problem that has scratch caused by dirt and dust mentioned by CrimsonRequiem?

Click to expand...

I have not had any problems thus far...but then I only use my laptop at home...and maybe different environments have different dust & dirt compositions.

I'm not saying that it's not a good idea to remove the case every now & then to clean out dirt that may accumulate underneath the case...I just haven't seen much of a buildup thus far in my situation.

I have also not removed my Speck case since I installed it...and that's probably been 2-3 months...and I have no plans on removing it & cleaning things anytime soon.

As far as this statement:

cpthk said:

The aluminum is extremely strong. I don't think you could scratch it with your nail. I remember once in the apple store, one of their agent showed it to me of how strong it is. I also tried it too, We even use a pen's plastic body to scratch it really hard( I mean it), still unable to scratch it with mark.

Click to expand...

We may be talking about some different situations here. There are the older MacBooks/MacBook Pros that have the older style aluminum case/enclosure...and then there's the newer "Unibody" design.

I'm pretty sure with my older MacBook Pro...that I could pretty easily scratch or dent the Aluminum housing (maybe even with my finger nail, but I'm certainly NOT going to try it! )...which is the very reason why I purchased & installed the Speck case in the first place. The newer "Unibody" designed MacBooks may be tougher to scratch.

- Nick

Please delete, duplicate post.

pigoo3 said:

I'm pretty sure with my older MacBook Pro...that I could pretty easily scratch or dent the Aluminum housing (maybe even with my finger nail, but I'm certainly NOT going to try it! )...which is the very reason why I purchased & installed the Speck case in the first place. The newer "Unibody" designed MacBooks may be tougher to scratch.

- Nick

Click to expand...

If on the older MBP, even finger nail could scratch it, then you might notice the snaps on the hard case could scratch it too. Those snaps are even harder.

cpthk said:

If on the older MBP, even finger nail could scratch it, then you might notice the snaps on the hard case could scratch it too. Those snaps are even harder.

Click to expand...

That's why I suggested in my earlier post to gently "flex" the Speck case as you install it...in order to reduce the pressure those plastic tabs may put on the case.

But the bottom line is...whether a fingernail can or cannot scratch the aluminum case...you're purchasing & installing the Speck case because there most definitely are things out "in the world" that WILL scratch or dent your MacBook's exterior!!!

So let's not focus on this "fingernail" scratching issue!

- Nick