Laptop Keyboard Silicone Cover

Details

Category: Laptop Hardware

Published on Monday, 26 August 2013 15:41

Written by Ben

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You gotta maintain and take care of your possessions – that's my motto , and one of my possessions which I deeply care about is my good old laptop computer.

Since laptops supposed to be mobile and are very delicate and therefor highly breakable they are pron to be damaged quickly if not maintained and taken care of properly.

I have been witnessed to many cases in which my friends and people I know were just careless about how they maintained their laptops and even more careless about how they handled it in their daily routines.

One of the most common “laptop accidents” involves liquid being spilled in the vicinity of the laptop or worse – on the laptop's keyboard. The laptop's keyboard is one of the more sensitive spots of the machine due to the fact that it is not a completely sealed area.

Furthermore , that unsealed area is very big and is spread almost across the entire length of the laptop.

Besides liquid , dust and micro-dust are also a reason for concern. Dust presents a problem when it comes in contact with electronics and mechanical moving parts of a computer. It accumulates slowly and over time it prevents an efficient heat dissipation and causes moving mechanical parts like fans and optical drivers fail.

The micro-dust goes where the bigger dust particles cannot enter. Usually these tiny particles find their way to the optical drive's laser reader , extension socket etc.

because of the issues I mentioned above , I bought this:

it's a keyboard cover made of silicone created especially for Dell Inspiron laptops. Of course there are covers that were designed for other laptop models of different brands as well.

 

It fits EXACTLY on the keyboard , the translucency of the keys is pretty satisfying especially considering the fact it is made out of silicone , it prevents dust , micro-dust and liquid from entering beneath the keyboard and into the laptop itself.

Using it prevents the letters printed on the keyboard to be wiped out over time and it also appears to absorb the key's typing noise.

The edges of the cover are thick and deliver more friction because of it which translates to a good grip of the cover on the keyboard.

I type a lot with this laptop , mostly during lectures , and not once the cover lost grip from the keyboard's surface.

Due to the fact it is made out of silicone the cover can be easily cleaned using water and an ordinary soap.

Oh , and of course , it is very cheap – cost me 3.49$ on Ebay, I believe it's quite a cheap investment in your laptop's survivability.

So to sum up...

Pros:

 

.1 cheap – a little over 3$

.2 protects keyboard from dust and liquid

.3 absorbs sharp keyboard typing noise

.4 protects printed letters on the keys

Cons:

 

.1 prevents heat dissipation from underneath the keyboard

.2 not entirely transparent and some people would even say it makes the whole appearance of the laptop ugly

.3 it gets dirty pretty fast

.4 unless you use some sort of a cloth to physically separate between the laptop's monitor and the laptop's body when closing it, you’d find out that closing the laptop's monitor over the laptop's body while the silicone cover still there and leaving it for some time create stains on the monitor due to the contact between the silicone cover and the monitor.

Despite the downsides of this product I would highly recommend it for anyone who cares about his\her laptop. The downsides can be easily overcome by cleaning the cover often and using a cloth when closing the laptop's monitor. And about the appearance issue...well, nothing is perfect  , I admit it doesn't make the laptop prettier than what it was before using this cover but it it beats having no functioning laptop at all because bad handling and misusing the laptop...