Spruce up your laptop with a Gelaskin cover

Most of us keep our laptops for over a year or two, but even the toughest machines start to look a little dog-eared after a few months of daily use. While it’s difficult to justify buying a new one for cosmetic reasons, there are a few options for sprucing up your old laptop.

One of the cheapest, and most vibrant options, is to cover up all the scratches using a Gelaskin. Looking more like graffiti, it turns your laptop from old and tired into a veritable work of art. Or at least, that’s what some of us in the office think.

One thing that can’t be denied is how easy it is to apply the Gelaskin to the lid of your laptop. More plastic coating than sticker, just smooth out the bubbles and it looks almost a part of the lid. It’s also equally easy to remove, and doesn’t leave any marks or residue.

You’ll find several different styles – from huge waves and fish, to a giant red robot. Laptop users will only find two sizes available – 13.3 and 15-inches – aimed at the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro, but it’s easy to resize them to fit your own machine. Within minutes we managed to cut and reshape a 13.3-inch Gelaskin to fit our 8.9-inch Asus Eee PC 901, with great results.

Both sizes cost £15, and you’ll also be able to get the protective skins for your Apple iPod Classic, Touch and Nano. Nintendo DS Lite users are also catered for. For more information, visit Firebox.