Personally I don't see the allure of the Speck case. As we speak right now, there is someone sitting next to me with a MBP in a Speck case at the lib (anecdotally, at my school's health sciences library 80% of the laptops are MBPs). I think that it is quite ugly as far as cases are concerned. I could see getting one if you were concerned with scratching your MBP; however, I have had an alu laptop for 4 yrs and haven't scratched it once with it out. Now, in transport there is the potential for damaging/scratching your computer; therefore, it is advantageous to use a sleeve or carrying case for you MBP. Just my $.02