Caseable 13-inch MacBook laptop sleeve review: Caseable 13-inch MacBook laptop sleeve

The idea behind the Caseable 13-inch laptop sleeve (and the company's iPad and Kindle cases) is one of style over substance, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. For $69.90 for the 13-inch laptop version, you get to customize your purchase with a nearly infinite number of color and pattern variations, all controlled by a simple online editing tool on the Caseable Web site.

7.5

Caseable 13-inch MacBook laptop sleeve

The Good

You can create an almost infinite variety of designs with the <b>Caseable 13-inch MacBook </b>laptop sleeve, all for one price.

The Bad

Art aside, this is a pretty feature-free foam sleeve.

The Bottom Line

Caseable laptop and gadget sleeves are blank canvases for creative minds, letting you tweak patterns and colors, or even upload your own images.

After picking the colors for the front, back, side, and zipper, you can add one of 14 overlay patterns, and adjust the size of the pattern or even apply different (or multiple) patterns to the front and back panels. Custom text and images, including photos and artwork, can also be uploaded and applied to the sleeve. The online tool even has bleed and safe lines, concepts that will be familiar to anyone who has worked in graphic design.

While designed primarily as a foam sleeve, there's also an option for adding a carry handle (at no extra cost) or a shoulder strap (for $7.90).

As a practical laptop sleeve or case, these are perfectly serviceable, but definitely frills-free. There are no pockets at all, and the carry handle/strap options are of the most basic kind. The overall build quality seems quite good, with heavy-duty stitching along the sides and a pleasingly large zipper along the top edge. Inside each case is a small leather tag that reads, "This case has been handmade for you in Brooklyn. Enjoy!"

The body is made from 5mm neoprene foam, which is reasonably thick, but won't protect your laptop from any serious abuse. For example, it's nowhere near the high-tech G-Form Extreme Sleeve in terms of ability to take a beating.

For anyone looking to use a laptop case as a form of personal expression, it's a great virtual playground, and both the sample patterns we saw were bold and bright. We had a lot of fun playing around with different case design ideas in the online tool, and it's possible to create both very unique works of art or complete train wrecks. If you're not looking to create a custom work of art, similar preprinted, mass produced laptop sleeves can be found for less.