Soft covers for laptops have been especially popular. They provide a more tactile feeling and of course will not crack, break or shatter like PET plastic or bulky like a traditional padded case. There are two main types of soft protection that this article will go over. These two materials are neoprene and memory foam.

Neoprene Covers

Neoprene is a trade name for a material made by DuPont laboratories whose central chemical make up was discovered by Professor Julius A. Nieuwland at the University of Notre Dame. DuPont bought the patent rights to his research and their scientists refined it to make the Neoprene material we know today.

Nieuwland first made a synthetic rubber by taking divinyl acetylene, which becomes gummy-like after being passed over sulfur dichloride. DuPont used the idea but instead combined monovinyl acetylene and hydrogen chloride gas to make chloroprene. From chloroprene came duprene, which is the scientific name for Neoprene.

Wetsuits are often thought of when thinking of neoprene, but the computer retail industry took that idea to make everything from protective cases to the laptop sleeve. The pliable rubber is easily constructed so it can be sewn into many sizes of pockets, cases and sleeves. The medium is easy to silk screen images to, making a stylish Dell or MacBook case cover for example.

Memory Foam Coverage

Memory foam is always touted as being used by NASA, however it was only developed by them. They had plans to pad their seats for the heavy G liftoff. Unfortunately it was never implemented by the space agency, but it was certainly snapped up by the mattress industry. The material is in the same vein as Spandex, a polymer-based material.

Memory foam has the unique property of being more pliable as it gets warmer, and more resistant when cold, hence the allure the mattress manufacturers had for it. This property makes it comfortable sitting on a lap as well as a great piece of protection used as a laptop sleeve for instance.

The properties of Memory Foam also make it ideal to protect against drops and crashes. It has a better absorption for crashes. It will allow give for the initial impact but tighten as more blunt force is applied.

The greater overall density makes it more protective, although it will usually outweigh a neoprene version. Your $1,400 investment dropping onto the linoleum can be saved with a simple $40 custom-fit memory foam MacBook computer case.