Review: Gumdrop SoftShell for Samsung Chromebook

What’s one of the things that a GeekDad fears most? When your progeny approaches you with something plastic and electronic and formerly bustling with digital life and they whisper, “I dropped it.”

Now, with my eldest, this has become a game of recrimination, wherein it is somehow my fault that I didn’t properly anticipate the slipperiness of the device, coupled with the nascent coordination of his teenage fingers, and, really, shouldn’t I have put a case on it to begin with, Dad?

Well, yes. Yes, I should have.

The Gumdrop SoftShell is what’s going to save those of you who have found yourselves forced into the roll of amateur IT Manager. This line of Chromebook cases features molded silicone that perfectly fits your Chromebook of choice. The edges are protected by polycarbonate bumpers that have been tested to absorb shocks of up to a six-foot drop. There’s even a bumper around the hinge!

The case itself is extremely grippy and provides an extra bit of insurance against droppage all on its own. It does add some bulk, but the molded bumpers have a nice bit of fractal design that help break up the slab of polycarb. My only real gripe is that, with the Chromebook clicked into the case, it won’t quite shut all the way. The Chromebook is secure; but that teeny tenth of a millimeter of a gap tweaks my OCD.

But you didn’t come here to listen to my hangups; you came to see carnage!

Sorry about that, no actual carnage to share. But I will say this was the sixth take of this video and the Gumdrop SoftShell did its job admirably.

So if you have Chromebooks deployed in your environment (and if you’re a school IT admin and actually do have them deployed, check out their webpage: there’s a program for K-12 schools), the SoftShell is the case you need to protect your investment against the inexorable pull of gravity. The Samsung version just went up on Gumdrop’s site; but you can find versions for other Chromebooks on Amazon.