Review: dbrand skin for FrameWork laptop

I love putting stickers on my laptops. But when it's time to move to a different laptop, what happens to all those cool stickers? After spending too many nights with a scraper and isopropanol, I decided to get a pre-cut dbrand skin. It'll protect the laptop and it will peel off in one piece, allowing me to preserve all my old stickers.

I got the cheapest possible one - it's going to be covered in stickers anyway - which came to US$60 with the deluxe package. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled at the price but they're the only ones doing precision cut covers - and it does cover the top, bottom, and wrist-rest.

Here's how it looks out of the box:

And here is is fitted:

There are decent instructions on how to apply but it's fairly simple. The sticker can easily be pealed off if you need to re-apply it. Which is just as well, because some of the thinner strands need to be reapplied several times. Weirdly there are stickers which cover the fan holes. Not sure what that's about!

It applies really smoothly and air-bubbles are easy to push out.

There's also a wrist-rest cover:

Again, slightly fiddly to get it lined up perfectly. There's also a trackpad cover sticker. Personally, I prefer the way my finger glides across the bare surface, so I left it off.

The top cover is a blank rectangle. It grips tightly enough that the embossed logo subtly shows through:

The material is 3M™ Controltac™ which has a fairly neutral texture, smooth finish, and a consistent colour. The reverse is sticky but doesn't leave a tacky residue.

There are some great looking skins at dbrand - but if you're happy with a plain colour, they're about $25 + shipping. I got the deluxe version and a pack of silly stickers to get up to $60 for free international shipping. A little expensive, but the cuts are precise, the material sticky enough, and it gives your laptop a bit of personality.

Right, time for more stickers!