Toffee Leather Laptop Sleeve and Brief

You can never have too many cases and bags, I always say!

I tend to shy away from frilly, and lean towards clean and utilitarian.  These two items from Toffee are for the MacBook Air I just bought.

When I first opened the box, I was greeted with the intoxicating leather aroma.  Nothing like it!  These are similar to, but not quite the same as the Toffee Leather Sleeve.  Let’s take a look at the simple flap-sleeve first, called the Toffee Case.

The Toffee Case is a leather sleeve with a flap.  There are no other zippers, pouches, pockets, or attachements.  It’ strictly for the laptop and nothing else.

A magnetic snap keeps the flap securely fastened.

The inside is lined with a soft fabric.  No other pouches on the inside or outside.  The Toffee Case adds some bulk to the MacBook Air, but not that much.

It has just enough padding to protect from minor bumps, but I would not anticipate a laptop surviving a fall to the floor, and I’m not willing to test this!

The Toffee Brief features a zippered main compartment, a front accessory pouch, and retractable handles.

The Brief, with the handles retracted, makes it easy to stuff into a larger bag.

Unfortunately, the accessory pouch is very small.  I tried stuffing the MacBook Air’s power supply.  This was the result!  Oh well.  The pouch is better suited to thinner items.

The detail and stitching is quite attractive.

Open up the Brief and you’ll see the inside is lined with fabric, and has corner straps for the laptop’s edges.  The zipper is also nicely recessed to minimize contact with the laptop.

The straps held onto the MacBook Air very well, and stayed on when I opened the case.

There is enough room to access the MagSafe power connector as well as the pop-down headphone/USB/video ports.  However, you can see there isn’t a lot of room for ventilation.  The MacBook Air’s vents are on the bottom edge towards the back, and as you can see from the photo, there isn’t much room for airflow with the padded liner material.  While it’s possible to work out of the case, I wouldn’t do it for extended periods of time to avoid cooling issues.