Getting a vinyl skin for your Surface RT

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I recently bought a vinyl skin for my Surface RT and wanted to share the experience. I admit I was in two minds about whether it was a good thing to do. I’ve had previous experience with this kind of thing before and have found them to be difficult to fit with the result looking very messy with air bubbles and unaligned fitting.

I’m pleased to say though on this occasion it has really worked out well. I bought a vinyl skin from DecalGirl.com and the result is great. DecalGirl have lots of designs (and I mean lots, currently the site is showing 2060 for the Surface) to choose from and you can also provide your own designs.

There are a few things that make this work really well in my opinion:

  1. The vinyls are actually easily removable and don’t seem to lose any of their stickiness if you take them off and reapply. This means that you can have a few tries to make sure you get them applied dead straight and lined up correctly. It’s also quite easy to squeeze out any air bubbles
  2. As you might expect the skins already include cut-outs to ensure that they fit the Surface, such as for the cameras, light sensor, Windows button, etc. BTW I have only tried this on a Surface RT. I have no reason to think they won’t fit a Surface Pro but I’ve only tried on the RT
  3. When you receive your vinyl you also get a code and URL to download an image that you can use to go with them. I put mine on the lock screen and it matches perfectly with the surrounding vinyl as you can see from the photo below. It’s a nice touch and is pretty eye catching

You can choose from matt and high gloss finishes. I went to high gloss and it really does look beautiful. Shipping to the UK starts from $11.51, which is the option I choose. It took 12 days to arrive from the date of placing the order which isn’t bad.

 

This is the front view showing the lock screen with its matching graphic. As you can see because the vinyl skin on the surround matches up with the lock screen picture it looks like the screen runs right to the edge of the device:

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Note also the two holes for the camera and light sensor, and the cut-out for the Windows button at the bottom.

 

This is the rear view showing how the vinyl fits on the kick-stand when it’s deployed. Note the cut-out for the rear camera:

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And here is the Surface lying flat, showing the rear covering with the kick-stand folded in:

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By the way, I am happy to confirm that I have no relationship with the fine folks at DecalGirl. I found the site and placed my order and that’s it. If you have tried other suppliers let me know how you get on. I admit my views on these kind of skins has been changed by my experience and I think it can make your Surface even more personal and eye-catching. Certainly worth a look.