As the lengthy title of this article implies, I’m going to rant a bit about how most laptop shells (the plastic casing comprised of the plastic bottom, back, and palmrest) are made not only out of brittle, fragile materials but are also designed apparently by some group that believes planned obsolescence is a good thing.
The laptop that ignited my ire in this particular case (although there have been others), is a Compaq Evo n115. The specs are unspectacular, as the machine is a couple of years old, at least. Athlon running at 1.2 GHz, 256 megs of RAM, 14″ screen. I upgraded the hard disk to 60 gigs and loaded Microsoft Windows XP.
The laptop was decommissioned from my workplace because it’s previous owner abused it. When I got it the shell had stress fractures in a few places and the whole thing looked about ready to fall apart. So I took it home, tore it apart, and carefully began reinforcing the cracks with super glue.
The plastic most laptops are made with is basic ABS plastic. It’s cheap, easy to get into all sorts of shapes, and probably won’t ever decompose. It is also pretty flimsy and fragile. Taking the case apart last night to fix a crack where the super glue had failed, the whole piece I was to work on just broke off in my hands.
After much cursing and tantrum-throwing, I sat down with a file, ground down all the edges of the broken pieces, and super-glued them back together. After I finished, I noticed the bond, though strong, would not prevent a repeat occurence. The laptop designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make that part of the case structurally important. Apparently, the screws that hold the LCD display to fairly strong steel brackets must be screwed directly to tiny nuts mounted on this flimsy plastic back. It would be akin to bolting steel rims to a steel axle with bolts made mostly from plastic. Not very bright.
So this morning I went out and bought some epoxy, resolving to repair this case and not go hunting for a new on on eBay. Meanwhile, I find myself looking at other laptop cases. A lot of them are designed like this. Sure, there are the nice laptops that use anodized aluminum, magnesium, or even titanium for their shells, but these materials are often used mostly for cosmetic purposes, and they always drive the price of a laptop up considerably.
I just can’t fathom why some manufacturers use crappy plastic in machines that typically cost around a thousand dollars (before incentives and rebates). IBM uses plastic, but they are renowned for their laptops’ durability and quality. The stress fractures I notice on my project laptop are in places that should seem obvious to anyone. Would it really have cost that much more to reinforce the case with some sort of small steel bracket? Or at least reinforce the plastic pieces with thick ribs in the case?
Not sure that anyone can provide answers to the question of what would cost more or not. But, as in the case of many things, you often get what you pay for. In this case, it appears that this laptop is probably (was probably) considered a fairly economical model.
Both of my laptops, a PowerBook and a mid-range Toshiba Satellite, seem pretty well constructed and solid.
True enough. Thankfully, when I get to buy my own machines, I get a larger budget for things like DVD burners and cases that don’t break.
Still, I can’t imagine it costong that much more to improve the design a bit.
Well, I’m not a chemist, but I’d expect that ABS is less dense then aluminium. With a portable item like a laptop, weight may be an issue for the designers. Also, it’s probably much less expensive to manufacture the ABS cases in bulk (IIRC, they can be extruded using moulds).
Metal cases may require much larger per-unit manufacturing costs than the price of the materials involved would suggest alone. With margins on items such as laptops already low, those additional manufacturing costs could make up a large percentage of the profit margin on each unit.