Thin and Light Laptops Could Have Design Flaw

[waffle911]

Aside from the Apple MacBook Pros and select premium PC notebooks such as the Voodoo Envy and Dell Adamo, nearly all computers today are made from plastic casing.

Which means that these expensive thin-and-light systems are usually resistant to the structural integrity issues discussed in this article, which is specifically talking about low-cost thin-and-light platforms.[citation][nom]Inneandar[/nom]I have to disagree with the rather narrow minded statement in the first sentence. I am typing this on a dell latitude notebook and I am absolutely positive that is has a magnesium-based chassis, and I'm quite confident other brands have a similar durable (metal) construction for their high-end notebooks, as also noted by Vatharian. It can be gold and still not glitter, you know.[/citation]
Re-read the fist sentence again. It says aside from...select premium PC notebooks..., nearly all computers today are made from a plastic casing. But a magnesium case/chassis is a more exotic, premium feature, and does not fit within the context of this article (
laptops built keeping low-cost first, performance and durability/quality second in mind).
[citation][nom]doomtomb[/nom]Apple and other manufacturers are just now realizing this. Wowwwww[/citation]
[citation][nom]Belardo[/nom]Its understandable that thin & light notebooks (such as Apples AIR) can have such problems. But some people are confusing this problem with normal Notebooks and netbooks.[/citation]
Now you guys are just blindly pointing a finger at Apple when their solid-aluminum-bodied/framed products do not have these issues, except the regular plastic MacBook, but they've known about its faults since at most a few months after it was first released. But even that has a metal frame underneath the plastic skin, so the damage is mostly cosmetic, which is unfortunate for a manufacturer so bent up on looks. But I do agree with Belardo that people are confusing "affordable thin-and-light" with "netbooks", and that a ThinkPad is the way to go for a durable notebook in general. That said, you get what you pay for, and your not paying for much when you buy a cheap thin-and-light made of plastic.

 

[zodiacfml]

those laptops that cracked were early production units..
also, these were thinner than average laptops, thinner than what you have now.

 

[IzzyCraft]

I thought Carbon fiber which i thought was used in the Voodoo Envy was strong...although i guess not super rigged

 

[Guest]

or strengthen them with fiberoptic stuff like carbon fiber or so..

 

[Guest]

Seen this sooo many times - pull the guts from a cheap laptop, dell, hp but especially compaqs and you're left with a case that flexes with very little pressure. The conclusion? The mainboard / cd drive / hdd caddy etc are being used as structural load-bearing components by design no wonder the things break.
As other posters have noted, buy a thinkpad - apart from the usual 'I dropped it...', 'the dog ate it...' and 'I split a glass of dooleys in it' (dooleys - it evaporates to, literaly, toffee and is the absolute death of laptops or keyboards) incidents I've never, in nearly 20 years, had to fix a thinkpad.

 

[bimmy47]

Seen this sooo many times - pull the guts from a cheap laptop, dell, hp but especially compaqs and you're left with a case that flexes with very little pressure. The conclusion? The mainboard / cd drive / hdd caddy etc are being used as structural load-bearing components by design no wonder the things break.
As other posters have noted, buy a thinkpad - apart from the usual 'I dropped it...', 'the dog ate it...' and 'I split a glass of dooleys in it' (dooleys - it evaporates to, literaly, toffee and is the absolute death of laptops or keyboards) incidents I've never, in nearly 20 years, had to fix a thinkpad.

Either you are not a PC repair technician, or you are lying, in a little less than 15 months selling and repairing Dell and IBM business grade machines I had no fewer hardware related repairs on the Thinkpads than the Latitudes, when adjusted for the fact that the Dells sold 2-3 times as much due to lower cost for equal or better performance. The thinkpads are good but not THAT good. IMO their good reputation is more due to the utter crap they are compared to. Acer, HP/Compaq, and Toshiba full sized (14" or larger, non-thin & light) do not ever use reinforced frames for structural stability, at least Dell offers the option of cheaper inspirons or higher quality latitudes.

 

[r0x0r]

[citation][nom]IzzyCraft[/nom]I thought Carbon fiber which i thought was used in the Voodoo Envy was strong...although i guess not super rigged[/citation]

Carbon-fibre is stronger (re more rigid) than steel and weighs less, hence why F1 cars and supercars are built from it. Also used in aerospace engineering.

It's also really expensive 🙁

 

[Stihy]

People... you need to be realistic, in budget laptop casing is usually around 50$ at tops, no fiber or carbon can fit in that price range, but if you add some texture to the laptop u usually have quite strong and cheap end product like old Toshiba L30.

 

[petitero666]

[citation][nom]Belardo[/nom]Want a notebook thats going to last, get a ThinkPad. They have a FRAME under its skin and other features that make them tougher than most other notebooks. And they aren't as expensive as they used to be, starting at $550...[/citation]

Things change... check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8sOO-8LP4E

That's why the aren't as expensive as they used to be.