Harber London Magnetic Envelope Sleeve For MacBook Review

Laptop sleeves serve an important purpose for those who need to carry their laptops between conference rooms, classrooms, and hotel rooms—places close enough that hauling a full-size backpack would be too much trouble. To that end, they fulfill an almost utilitarian role, but that shouldn’t dissuade you if you’re looking for a laptop sleeve that oozes class and style.

Meet the Harber London Magnetic Envelope Sleeve For MacBook. Though it may not have the slickest name, its leather-clad exterior is all that other people will see anyway. Despite all the leather, it’s also surprisingly thin, not at all bulky nor selfishly hogging a ton of space inside a backpack. But how is it in terms of protection? Let’s go see!

The Rundown

There are two main materials involved here: the full grain leather and the wool felt it’s built around. The former mostly covers the front, which is the side people will see most of the time while you’re carrying this around. Needless to say, the leather feels very premium, and it’s surprisingly not all that scratched up after two weeks of testing. There are no stress marks or patina around the areas that fold yet. We particularly like the stitching, too. Though we presume it’s mostly there to bind the leather to the wool felt and keep the whole thing together, it adds some flair to the otherwise plain leather.

Meanwhile, the actual sleeve that will hold a laptop is made of wool felt. Call it weird, but its fiber-y look reminds us a bit of fiberglass before it’s settled. Regardless, it feels very substantial, dense, and cushioned. That said, the texture might not appeal to everyone, especially those who have sensitive skin. It doesn’t put much thickness on the sides of your laptop, but that’s okay since we’re more concerned about scratch protection and not impact protection in that regard.

For impact protection, the leather’s stitching at the sides provides a lot of buffer between your laptop and whatever surface you put it on. It’s not quite the level of protection a false bottom (an air gap) would give, but we’ve noticed that it’s enough to dull mild impacts. For example, when you have this in your backpack, you can be fairly confident that your MacBook’s display won’t immediately shatter when you set down your backpack.

Apart from the—understandably—limited colorway options (Tan and Black), you get plenty of size options. You should find that most MacBook Pros and Airs are supported all the way back to 2012 models, both in the 13-inch and 15.6/16-inch sizes. The takeaway here is that with these many size options, we can reasonably expect a snug fit for each particular MacBook model.

Indeed, our 13-inch MacBook fits very snuggly, encased in the wool felt material. There’s a substantial air gap at the top where the closure goes over. This is understandable, though, since the leather needs a wide curve so as not to put too much stress on it. Yes, some people like the cracked leather look, but it doesn’t really look that great when it’s concentrated around seams.

A unique feature Harbor London showcases with the Magnetic Envelop Sleeve is the “Smart Charge-Through System,” which simply lets you pass a cable through the side. Interestingly, their promotional materials show them using a USB-C cable, and it’s probably because a MagSafe cable could easily get disconnected. That’s because getting a cable into the sleeve is quite tough since the laptop is already snug inside, so a magnetic cable like MagSafe could just snap off. If you plan on using this feature, plug your USB-C cable first before inserting the laptop into the sleeve; that’s the best scenario we’ve tested.

We’ve checked out the leather and wool felt, but a third ingredient that plays a major part is the magnets. What other choice would there be? Magnets deliver a satisfying tactility that hook-and-loop patches could never, while snap fasteners would be too fiddly, in our opinion. A zipper closure would be more secure, but the dual magnet setup here is already pretty strong and very convenient to open and close.

Packability

Our key first impression of the Magnetic Envelop Sleeve is how “not bulky” it is for a leather laptop sleeve. We were wholly expecting something that would selfishly eat up a ton of space inside a travel daypack. Fortunately, Harber London went for a more frugal design, limiting thickness by strategically putting the leather where it’s likely to be seen: at the front. Simultaneously, this leaves more room for the wool felt, which is arguably more important since that provides the cushioning.

All of this is to say that the Magnetic Envelop Sleeve is easy to pair even with backpacks that are limited in capacity and do not have a built-in laptop sleeve.

Quick Comparison

The Bellroy Laptop Sleeve has a similarly slim design, and if we’re talking about classy styling, they’re a brand that specializes in it. There’s way less emphasis on leather, but more importantly, the magnetic closure’s design isn’t as good. It’s more of a lip that’s held together by magnets, which feels less secure than the Magnetic Envelope Sleeve’s flap that goes over the entire opening. Still, if you’re not too keen on the very leather-centric look, this is a more fabric-focused alternative that looks just as classy.

Fjallraven’s Kanken Laptop Case trumps both by having a zippered closure, plus it has a document sleeve at the back where you can also pack slim accessories. Where it falls short is how much dead space there is along the sides. This makes sense since the Kanken Laptop Case is offered in a general 15-inch size rather than being tailor-made for specific laptop models.