Review: X-Style Universal Keyboard Protector

Laptop keyboards are dirt, dust, and food magnets. Fortunately, there are many products to keep things from falling between the keys. One such product is the X-Style Universal Notebook Keyboard Protector. Essentially a plastic sheet with two rubber straps to hold it in place, this protector is designed to fit most laptops.

Priced at $3.89, the X-Style protector is inexpensive. Installation is easy – slip the laptop’s “keyboard half” through the strips and then adjust the strips for a snug fit. Unfortunately, that’s where the protector’s fatal flaw can be found.

X-Style Universal Notebook Keyboard Protector

If you have a relatively small laptop (like our test iBook), the plastic of the protector is too wide, and covers the ports and CD drive. One of the strips also blocks the CD drive. It is also too long, covering the keyboard, and half the trackpad. Owners of larger laptops should not have this problem.

The benefits of such a keyboard protector is to keep liquids and other materials from getting under the keys and potentially damaging the electronic components of an expensive laptop keyboard. Wiping things off of or washing a keyboard protector is much easier than trying to clean a keyboard.