Undercover laptop sleeve
One of the problems with carrying a laptop around with you is that it looks like a valuable laptop, and a laptop bag or sleeve doesn't disguise it much. The Undercover laptop sleeve gives your notebook a place to hide; it looks like a padded mailing envelope complete with label, stamp, postmark, return address, delivery instructions, creases and all. It claims to be splashproof and tearproof - and you can even scribble notes on it for added authenticity (ballpoint works better than gel or fountain pens).
Hide your laptop
From across the room, the Undercover sleeve certainly looks like a (large) padded envelope; up close the stitched edges might give the game away and the stamp and Luckies-branded postmark are obviously fake. You wouldn't want to leave your laptop on the table with this while you went to the toilet, but it wouldn't attract a casual thief the way a naked notebook or a trendy sleeve would.
But couldn't you just use a real mailing envelope? We put them both to the test.
The padding is better in the Undercover. The bubblewrap (or the shredded paper in some envelopes protects against some bumps and knocks but the foam layer concealed in the Undercover is thicker and denser - and the satin lining protects it (we found bubblewrap started bursting pretty quickly and would tear if the laptop fitted too snugly and you tugged it out too fast); plus the satin looks and feels nicer, even if it gives the game away thanks to being labelled 'Undercover laptop sleeve'!
Splashproof and tearproof? You can't tear the Undercover, because while it looks like paper it's made out of Tyvek (used for untearable envelopes, car airbag covers and protecting the wood frame in American houses), but if you pull really hard you might be able to tear one of the seams. We could easily tear the paper padded envelope open completely and while it survives a few journeys it quickly gets battered, tattered, punctured and torn; the Undercover keeps on going.
The stitched seams and Velcro-close flap are the reason the Undercover is splashproof rather than actually waterproof. We tested this with a sacrificial Toshiba Port