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| | Manufacturer: Moshi | | | Min OS X: Any Version |
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When it comes to shielding your Mac, whether it be from the occasional office-supply missile or the constant chafing of jewelry, the PalmGuard excels. After dropping several dozen mechanical pencils point-first onto my MacBook Pro, and then subjecting the palm rest to two months worth abuse from my stainless-steel watch, the PalmGuard came away with nary a scratch. Finally, determined to make some sort of impression on the material, I purposefully grated my watch-band into the computer as if I were trying scratch an itch, and was gratified (in one sense) to see that I had succeeded in etching a small mark into the plastic. If the PalmGuard had not been in place, that motion would have left a dark gash in the MacBook Pro's shell. The conclusion nearly writes itself: the PalmGuard is clearly sufficient to protect your Mac against the ravages of all but the most careless of users. As an added bonus, Moshi picked an easy-to-clean surface that is far more resistant to the buildup of crud than Apple's aluminum case. As a matter of fact, we were so pleased with the condition of the PalmGuard after the two-month test period that we decided to build our image gallery solely from photos taken right before we removed the PalmGuard for the first time. If you're especially curious, you may be able to spot the point where I intentionally scratched the palm rest. Except in one image where the light hit the blemish perfectly, you'll be hard pressed to find it.Aesthetically speaking, two of the three sections of the PalmGuard are designed to match the case of your MacBook or MacBook Pro. The third piece, meant for the trackpad, is largely transparent. We reviewed the variant designed for the 15" MacBook Pro, and found that while the hue of the PalmGuard very closely mimicked that of the MacBook Pro, it was not perfect. While I thought that the difference was very palpable and tended to describe it as a "metallic" sheen on the part of the plastic, the vast majority of the Mac users that I showed my MacBook Pro to could not pick out the difference until I pointed it out to them. Up to that point, the only thing that they noticed was the tiny Moshi logo in the bottom-right corner of the palm rest. On a related note, the transparent trackpad sheet was not as invisible to the user as we had hoped, for two reasons: first, it had a tendency to yellow. Second, its smooth surface was judged to be more difficult to use, and was eventually removed as we felt that it was unnecessary in the first place. The Final Word In all, the Moshi PalmGuard is an excellent way to prevent yourself from inadvertently damaging your MacBook or MacBook Pro without sacrificing its trademark look or feel. While we feel that the portion of the PalmGuard that protects the trackpad was something of a failure, it seems equally clear that that particular part of the computer does not need to be protected. Additionally, the very thing that made the PalmGuard so easy to apply also tended to work against the machine's normal operation; Apple's tolerances are so tight that closing the lid required an extra ounce of force to ensure that the latch was fully locked. Aside from that, the PalmGuard performed brilliantly, protecting our MacBook Pro from a level of abuse that surely would have ruined its palm rest.
Pros • Excellent protective qualities.
• Easier to clean than aluminum.
• Nearly invisible to the user.
• Easily applied and removed.
• Relatively inexpensive.Cons • Trackpad portion reduces accuracy and may yellow.
• Color matching could be a bit better.
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