Expert assessment
Benefits
- High quality materials
- Great craftsmanship
- Elegant design
Disadvantages
- Superficial protection only
- Low structure
Our verdict
The Leather MacBook Sleeve from Harber London impresses with its simple design, high-quality craftsmanship and beautiful materials. However, the protective aspect is superficial at best and prevents your MacBook from being scratched by other items in your bag. The sleeve is more suitable as a very fashionable accessory in nicely furnished offices.
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Harber London is a relatively young family business from London (as the name suggests) and specializes in high quality accessories made from equally high quality materials: full grain leather, wool felt and recently a plastic textile made from recycled plastic bottles.
Most of the laptop sleeves, such as the Leather MacBook Sleeve, are completely plastic-free.
Eugen Wegmann
Although made from high-quality leather and wool felt, the Leather MacBook Sleeve is overall quite simple. The back half consists of a thin piece of leather, the front of a thicker piece of felt, onto which is sewn another piece of thin leather that acts as two small pockets. And that’s it.
The sleeve comes in four color options: light gray (Classic) or dark gray felt (Black Edition) combined with black or brown leather. It is also available in different sizes for all possible MacBooks since the MacBook Air from 2010.
Eugene Wegmann
The sleeve has practically no structure of its own – you can easily roll it up if you want without it breaking. If you have the right size, the sleeve fits very tightly around the laptop.
Eugen Wegmann
If you choose the wrong size (for example, the 16-inch version for a MacBook Air), then not only will the sleeve be baggy, but your MacBook may simply fall out, like buying pants that are two sizes too big. Conversely, you should obviously not choose the MacBook Air version for your 16-inch MacBook Pro. It simply doesn’t fit.
The Leather MacBook Sleeve also does not have a fastener. Since one long side is permanently open, there is of course practically no (splash) water protection.
The two small pockets on the front are practical for storing cables, notes and other small items, and even one of the smaller MacBook power adapters fits quite well. Then it gets pretty tight. The large 96-watt power supply from Apple, which comes with the more powerful MacBook Pro, almost fits, but the plug either hangs out of the case or presses against the inside of the leather – not ideal in either case. Smaller but thicker power supply units stretch the pocket quite a bit and wear down the leather in the long run. The two pockets cannot be closed either.
Should you buy Harber London Leather MacBook Sleeve?
The Harber London Leather MacBook Sleeve is a beautifully finished, high-quality accessory that provides some protection for your MacBook against scratches and dents. You can carry your MacBook in style from meeting room to meeting room. But if you’re traveling, you’ll need something more robust, and you’re probably better off with another sleeve or bag.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and localized from German.