Jason Dunn
08-17-2006, 04:00 PM
<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/skooba-skin-red.jpg" /><br /><br />The Skooba Skin is RoadWired's latest product, and as a self-confessed RoadWired junkie, I was of course eager to check out their new products. The Skooba Skin is a very simple product: it's basically a padded envelope (sleeve) for your laptop. What makes it stand out from similar products is the handle: as you can see in the image above, it can be carried with the front flap down and attached to the Velcro, or the inside flap can be flipped out and when attached to the other flap at the top, the whole thing can be carried like a purse (insert uncomfortable male purse concept here). The build quality of the Skooba Skin is, like all RoadWired products, extremely impressive. The sleeves are simple affairs with no extra pockets, pouches or anything else. They do exactly one thing: protect your laptop. It's worth noting that the pouch provides padding for your laptop, but it's not the Air Square protection that the Skooba Satchel offers.<br /><br />What's particularly impressive though is the huge assortment of colour choices: you have your basic Black Ballistic w/Blue Lining, Silver Metallic Nylon w/Orange Lining, Blue Ultrasuede w/Blue Lining, Red/Black Ripstop Nylon w/Gray Lining (shown above), Olive Ballistic w/Red Lining, Brown Corduroy w/Teal Lining, and Pink Vinyl w/Black Lining.<!> Whew! That's a lot of choices - in fact, 21 in in all when you factor in the choice of size as well. There are three types of Skooba Skin products: the <a href="http://www.roadwired.com/store/Product.cfm?categoryid=1&Productid=94">Skooba Skin 1012 (Small, $29.95 USD)</a>, the <a href="http://www.roadwired.com/store/Product.cfm?categoryid=1&Productid=95">Skooba Skin 1415 (Medium, $29.95 USD)</a>, and the <a href="http://www.roadwired.com/store/Product.cfm?categoryid=1&Productid=96">Skooba Skin 1617 (Large, $39.95 USD)</a>. As you can imagine, each product is designed for a different class of laptop: the small is designed for laptops with 10" to 12" screen sizes (12.5"L x 9.75"H x 1.5"W laptop size), the medium for 14" to 15" screen sizes (13.5"L x 10.5"H x 1.75"W laptop size), and the large for 15" to 17" screen sizes (16.25"L x 11.75"H x 2"W laptop size). <br /><br />This is where the Skooba Skin disappointed me a bit: the Skooba Skin 1012 (small), designed for 10" to 12" laptops, <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/roadwired-skin-small.jpg">was far too large for my Fujitsu 10.6" screen P7010 laptop</a>. Certainly, it's a challenge designing something appropriate for laptops with screens as small as 10 inches and as big as 12 inches, but with a name like "Skooba Skin" you expect a snug fit. I ended up giving one of the small Skooba Skins to a friend, and it fit his wife's 14" wide-screen laptop! The extra space might be used to transport a power supply, but personally I wouldn't do that for fear of scratching the laptop itself. The other two sizes were a much better fit: the large Skooba Skin fit my Fujitsu N6220 17" wide-screen laptop nicely, with no extra room on either side (it slides in and out easily, however). I purchased a medium Skooba Skin in Pink vinyl for my wife's Toshiba M50 14" wide-screen laptop, and it was a good fit as well. Vinyl is prone to material flaws and more easily scratched though, so it's more of a "looks good" option for the pink-lovers out there rather than a seriously durable choice.<br /><br />Overall, the Skooba Skin is a nicely designed laptop sleeve with a clever convertible handle for easier carrying around. If you have a small laptop, however, you'd be better off with <a href="http://www.caselogic.com/10_neoprene_dvd_player_shuttle/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=70122">something like this</a>. I have one, and it fits my small laptop like a glove.<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He has a ridiculous number of laptop cases and bags.</i>