Installation
Clear-Coat provides a variety of tools that simplifies the installation process of their full body protection shield for the 2011 11-inch MacBook Air. You are given:
- One large squeegee
- One small squeegee
- One bottle of application solution
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most complex. I give this install about a 3 or 4. As long as you take your time, there is really no reason for issue or error. One tip is to spray application solution on both sides of the shield. This allows you to get the shield aligned properly and spraying solution to the top of the shield also allows the squeegee to glide over the surface more smoothly.
Design
The Clear-Coat shield for the Apple MacBook Air is broken up into 7 different pieces:
- Shield for the top of the device
- Shield for the bottom
- Trackpad shield
- Left and Right palm rest shields
- Shields for the left and right corners of the back of the device
The shield is literally about if not the thickness of a sheet of paper. Therefore, it adds no bulk to the device, yet is ultra durable.
Protection
This section continues off of the previously mentioned design. Each shield is accurately cut to provide maximum coverage. Once correctly positioned, each shield comes very close to the edges so virtually no part is left exposed. All screws and feet cutouts are properly positioned, so even though there are no user serviceable parts. Should your device need repair. There should be no need to have the shields removed.
After several days of usage, no edges on the device have begun to lift and it is holding up as I’d expect it to. I’ve ran a fork, key and other items over the MacBook Air to test the strength of the shield and it has held up.
Feel
Maximum protection doesn’t need to feel awkward. Although this shield is super strong, it has a smooth but grippy feel to it. I don’t mean grip as in sticky. You may slide your finger over the device just as smoothly as the device without a shield. However, when carrying the MacBook Air with a shield it does feel more secure compared to the bare aluminum.
One concern I did have was how the trackpad performance would be affected with the multi-touch features presented in OSX Lion. I’m glad to say that the mouse operates just as well. The trackpad shield covers all of the trackpad surface, except a very small portion. Which makes removal possible and also gives the application solution a place to escape during install, rather then the inside of your laptop. Not that I’m referring to touch functional as it should as well as click.
Overall
As always Clear-Coat has come through with another great product. I can’t stress enough how great their shields are and the thing you always have to keep in mind is not how the shield looks post install. You want to know how it holds up several months later and so on. Using the Air around the house, throwing it in my bag to take back and forth through travel, etc.. It’s still pristine. Great product. If you haven’t already, head over to their site and check them out http://www.clear-coat.com. YouTube video review below:
Nice review. It looks good. I’m scared of getting liquid damage inside and never did a shield before. How much liquid about do you use?
Each of the larger shields require a few squirts, which equates to roughly a teaspoon of solution or so. When using the squeegee you always want to try to release the solution away from the edges if possible. However, as long as you have a microfiber or something by the edges to absorb the solution and you work slowly you shouldn’t have any problems.
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