Laugh with the blues =D: Cheap DIY Netbook accessories

I think not everyone knows but I've sold off my 7" Eeepc that works on Linux cos I'm quite irritated by the limitations of the softwares I can use on it (eg: I can't check my company's email for urgent stuffs).

And then I bought a 8.9" Gateway netbook @ $688 with 3-years warranty a few weeks back. =X

I dun really like the glossy surface so I wanted to make a skin for it, and I found this webby: http://lappyskins.blogspot.com/ which I find that $18 for a laptop skin was alright, and the shop's very reputable with the users on HWZ

But they don't really have the kinda design I want -_-, and customised designs are at +$12, which means a skin for my small lappie cost a bloody $30!!

I buay gam wan, and started to look for cheaper alternatives and I don't know how, but I managed to find it!!

Notefashion.com...

Ok, I admit, I'm also trying to get referrals, haha, but this is really quite cheap! Once u register, u can get anywhere between US$1 to US$5 of deposit, and the skin ranges from US$10.90 to US$15.90, depending on the type of skin u want (I bought the "Finest Vinyl" material which cost US$11.90). The skin even comes with 2 smaller skins for ur wristpad. U can also upload any picture u want, and when people buys ur design, u get US$1 in ur account.

I found a nice design online, resize it to fit my netbook's resolution, and uploaded it, and ta-dah! It's uploaded! http://www.notefashion.com/product.aspx?pid=20090415090312068

Anyway, the website really looks a bit dodgy, cos it looks like some Chinese scam site with all the description in poor English, which looks obviously being translated from Chinese. But I was thinking since it's not like hundreds of $, I gave it a try, and made my order on 15th Apr.

The skin arrived on Wed by registered mail, packed safely (it's not nicely packed though, I had a hard time tearing the envelope apart) between 2 blocks of styrofoam. The bad point is some parts of the skin was folded =( But all in all it was good. Anyway here's the pix of my lappie after I carefully cut and paste the skin (ignore the mess behind pls)!

Quite easy to apply, and took 30min of my time to cut and apply the skin.

Btw, not sure if u can see it from Photo 2, but I've also pasted a screen protector, and guess how much is it?

US$3.80

And where did I get such a good deal? From dealextreme.com of cos! And the item is here: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.19968

This is another website that looks dodgy, I mean, free shipping for ALL items? Sounds to good to be true... But anyway, must thank Jiali for introducing this website... It all started out when the 2 of us bought DS Lite, and were looking at the DS Lite accessories, and her bf gave her this website. So to try out, I bought a set of 4 extendable stylus while Ah Li bought a set 3 USB charging cable. We really did receive the items.

Since then I've been buying quite a lot of stuffs from dealextreme.com. haha

But anyway back to the topic, applying a screen protector is so much harder cos it's affected by any small speck of dust... The trick is to have a roll of tape with u, and if u see bubbles that u can't seem to get rid off at all, use the sticky portion of tape, stick it on the sticky side of the screen protector (on the bubbled spot), and lift it away to remove the dust. But I've to say I didn't apply it perfectly cos it isn't positioned nicely, and somehow I made a dent on the screen protector. Haha

Oh, and not to forget I needed a pouch to contain my lappie cos the one that comes with the lappie sucks. Tried to look for something on dealextreme.com and this caught my eye: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15379

But neh, I've got even better deals. I went to Daiso, and got a B5 size cushioned pouch for my lappie. $2. U can roughly see it in Photo 2, placed under my lappie. It doesn't fit perfectly, but at least it's suitable.

So anyway the damage for a cheapo person like me...

Skin for cover + skin for wrist pad - $18 + 30min
Screen protector - $6 + 30min
Pouch - $2
------------------
Total - $26 + 1h

As compared to paying $30 for a customised skin right from the start!

But anyway, not saying that lappyskins.blogspot is not good. If u find a nice design that u like on their site, why not? $18 to protect ur laptop that costs so much, I think it's worth it

Cheap DIY Netbook accessories

0 Comments: