my son is going to Eastern Europe for a month; he's putting a laptop in checked baggage; will it survive?
as it's a spare, the only thing on it will be the pics he downloads from his phone while he's there

does US customs still make u turn it on (when he returns) & would they go thru it if it's in a checked bag?

he's a student so not a threat, but he is going  to Ukraine.

thanks

eta: i know this isn't GD, but no, he's not going to take pics of Ruskie tanks running over pesants

All I can tell you is I've had two hard hats broken in half while in my checked baggage. I wouldn't check a laptop.

Why isn't he carrying it? I'd be more concerned about theft than damage.

I've never had to turn on a laptop or any other device when returning from overseas, including from China and Russia.

I have spent wayyy tooo much time in airplanes.  Both of these!!!

I have found that good padded laptop back backs (Swiss Gear) can absorb a bit of abuse when traveling while keeping the hardware safe.
Verify that the power brick for the laptop is compatible with the country's power grid.

Scrub the laptop of all social media and other things, keep as empty as you can.

vpn everything (if allowed, some places it might not be legal in the country).

Scrub the computer before coming back to US afterwards to keep life simple.  Or nice term, move all your
data into the cloud for backup.

Update virus protection and such.

I have had to do it with company laptops and they survived.  I usually had hard side luggage back then.

I wouldn't check a personal computer.  Even if I had a bag that wouldn't fit in a tiny overhead that they made me gate check, I pull the laptop out and carry it.

Theft of property from luggage.
Its a thing

thanks

The x-ray technology is so good now that they can tell a real laptop just by looking at the images. It's been at least a decade since I've seen them make somebody turn on a laptop.

While experiences vary, in general it's best to keep all your rechargeable batteries in the cabin as carry-on baggage, per the TSA.

He might get lucky and not have any problems, but why take the risk. And it's a government agency, so what one employee allows in LA might be completely different from what some woman in New York does... Mileage and experiences will definitely vary.

https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=23054

This was explained to me by an AA employee who said the reasoning is cabin fires are in theory easier to extinguish than those in the cargo hold.

In short, just put the laptop in your carry on.