Having bought my new notebook, I was quite looking forward to shopping for a stylish bag to carry it in. But despite the fabulous choices available these days, I decided that I would prefer some flexibility and variety, and opted for a protective sleeve in the end. Finding one for my 12.1" widescreen baby wasn't easy, since those that were wide enough tended to be made for much bigger machines, and I didn't want mine to slide around in the case.

Then I found Elecom's sleek-looking ZeroShock cases. They looked pretty sturdy too, but I was taken aback by how flat they looked - surely they couldn't fit even the thinnest of notebooks? The sales assistant demonstrated how the high-resistance polyurethane foam expands to mould itself around your notebook. I got quite a kick from watching indentations made by my fingers slowly vanish as the foam reverts to its original state. Elecom claims that their product "absorbs about 100G impact force than regular sleeves". The stiff wire-frame provides additional protection, but also means that you won't be able to squeeze in notebooks that are just a little bigger. The B5 case weighs about 200g on its own, and fits my notebook quite snugly, especially with the 6-cell battery attached.

In Japan, the ZeroShock range includes a good variety of bags and cases for notebooks, electronic dictionaries and digicams, but the range available online to the rest of the world is somewhat limited. The Japanese website also tells you which cases will fit your machine.