A Ukrainian soldier showed off his 2020 M1 MacBook Air after it got hit by shrapnel during the war in Ukraine. X user @lanevychs [machine translated] asked on the social media platform about the ballistic protection that the laptop offered, especially after his device was able to take a hit from a shell fragment and seemingly survived. Despite the damage, the laptop still continued to work, with the screen showing images in some sections. And although the projectile punctured the screen, it seems that the base and keyboard of the device stopped it from going clean through. The only keyboard casualty being the "K" key.

З цього ноутбука можна читати твіти у X 🫣 pic.twitter.com/gKoILrbufjJanuary 2, 2026

Apple uses aluminum alloy for the unibody chassis of its MacBook line-up due to its strength and durability while still being lightweight. Aside from that, it also doubles as a heatsink, which is especially crucial for the fanless MacBook Air models. But even though Cupertino chose this material for its scratch and dent resistance, it seemed that it was also good enough to stop shrapnel. Unfortunately, he also decried the cost of repair in the comments, saying that “the repair will cost as much as a new laptop.”

The battle-damaged laptop shows off Apple’s engineering prowess, where even shrapnel can damage isn’t enough to completely destroy it. Nevertheless, we do not recommend using it as body armor, as it likely won’t be strong enough to stop a direct hit from small arms fire.

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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.