A Ukrainian soldier has shown how his M1 MacBook Air has almost survived a direct hit from artillery shell shrapnel.
Usually if a YouTuber is going to stress-test an Apple device, it's their iPhone and they drop it a lot. This time, YouTube user "Shadows" is also a soldier in Ukraine's Azov special forces brigade, and he didn't intend to stress-test his MacBook Air.
While he is also a photographer on Instagram, unsurprisingly, this soldier does give much detail over his duties or this specific incident. But he has shown two images on Twitter of his MacBook Air after a shelling.
In machine translation, his tweet asks: "What level of ballistic protection does the MacBook Air on M1 have? Because this one withstood a fragment from a shell."
From the images, it's clear that the MacBook Air was closed when it was hit. Based on later discussions about soldiers' use of MacBook Air models, it does not appear that the YouTuber was carrying it at the time of the incident..
Even if it didn't save his life, it's impressive that the MacBook Air still works at all. It has a hole punched through its lid, display, and at least keyboard if not the whole machine.
Yet the soldier says he is even reading replies to his tweet on that same machine.
However, while the MacBook Air is arguably functional, segments of the display are now unreadable. The YouTuber seemingly does not have AppleCare either, as he's subsequently posted that "the repair will cost as much as a new laptop."
There are no Apple Stores in Ukraine so servicing is done by authorized resellers where pricing varies. In theory, a US Apple Store could charge $99 for a screen, $99 for "Enclosure Damage," and $299 for "Other Damage."
In practice, though, the shelling would probably count as physical abuse of the MacBook Air and so not be covered by repair programs. A search through Ukraine-based online stores shows very few M1 MacBook Air models still available, but the Stylus reseller lists one for the equivalent of $758.
