Sigh... the aluminum Powerbooks dent easily

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
My laptop bag (my 15" al pb in a padded sleeve inside) which was sitting vertically fell over flat and the zipper on the outside of the bag was enough to ding the lid



Oh well- I guess it was bound to happen eventually.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    my wife carried hers around in a bag for over 8 months now. not a nick on it. sorry, but those suckers are not "easy" to ding.



    sure you can do it, but it's gotta either be back luck or effort.
  • Reply 2 of 32
    coolmaccoolmac Posts: 259member
    Leo Laporte from TechTV showed his 12" Powerbook on The Screen Savers with a nice dent in one of the corners.



    He said he dropped in inside a padded bag and it still made the dent, so yes it certainly does seem that the AL Powerbooks are easily dented.
  • Reply 3 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    my wife carried hers around in a bag for over 8 months now. not a nick on it.



    That might be the case... but it didn't take much force to cause this dent.
  • Reply 4 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    my wife carried hers around in a bag for over 8 months now. not a nick on it. sorry, but those suckers are not "easy" to ding.



    sure you can do it, but it's gotta either be back luck or effort.




    You must be talking about a Ti. The new Al's dent very easily!
  • Reply 5 of 32
    maybe it's time for the job of! Ding King! You know, those things that remove dings on cars
  • Reply 6 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lsngctrl

    You must be talking about a Ti. The new Al's dent very easily!



    Aluminum does dent easily so does titanium. If you ever look at Range Rover the sheet metal usually has waves all over it. Aluminum is strong but soft but most of all it is light. But all that is a good thing aluminum will withstand certain types of forces because it gives.But the trade off is the lighter you go the thinner it gets and the more likely it is to dent (an increase surface area and a pucker) Cast iron rarely dents and is fairly strong. how bout it guys? a feBook! or better yet depleted uranium. Be the first on your block. I am hoping to get by more than a week before I dent mine. I only made it about 2 with the tiBook
  • Reply 7 of 32
    I went from a Alu 12", to a 15" Ti, and to me it seems the Alu dents a lot easier than my Ti...



    My Ti has taken months of punishment and still looks brand new, the Alu looked worse after only a few weeks...
  • Reply 8 of 32
    asenasen Posts: 93member
    Although there are a squillion different types of Al alloy, I guess Apple ditched Ti because Ti is extremely expensive, and its manufacturing process is extremely wasteful. Even so, if you have enough of it you can make gucci toys like these:



    (The world's deepest diving and fastest production submarine)



    Then again, you can also use Ti to make this:



    (the Ti panels buckle if you touch them)





    So, Apple swapped to Al alloy for its latest PBs. Although John Ive is right in saying its 'extremely durable', that durability is not much use if you do this to your Al alloy machine:

    (no-one was serious hurt)
  • Reply 9 of 32
    Umm, you drop your powerbook and you expect to be unscathed? I bet if you jump on it, you'll break it, too.



    I've had my 12" powerbook since January and I've barely even scratched it. And it's with me 95% of the time.
  • Reply 10 of 32
    So, they are easy to dent, and yet they aren't?



    Does anyone have a picture of a dent?



    I'm hearing so many mixed reports. I don't know whether to baby my new 12" DVI PowerBook, or carry it eveywhere...
  • Reply 11 of 32
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by penseive

    Umm, you drop your powerbook and you expect to be unscathed? I bet if you jump on it, you'll break it, too.



    I've had my 12" powerbook since January and I've barely even scratched it. And it's with me 95% of the time.




    al powerbooks are easily dented. laptops are made to be portable and used and used in the field. not babies and cradled and packaged with bubble wrap 24/7.



    there comes a point where as beautiful as it may be, the side effects are not worth it. the new 15 inch albook is gorgeous, but i don't like it for the all the quality problems, and the fact that its easily dented. what good is that
  • Reply 12 of 32
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    i'd love to see photos of these dents. i'm telling you, over half a year there's not a nick, dent or scratch on my wife's PB, and she was bringing it to school every day. (and she didn't baby it at all)



    it has always felt a lot tougher to my than my 15" TiBook, so i'm not sure why so many people think they're more fragile/likely to dent.
  • Reply 13 of 32
    etharethar Posts: 111member
    Denting or cracking...pick one.



    Mine's holding up like a champ.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    kidredkidred Posts: 2,402member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by coolmac

    Leo Laporte from TechTV showed his 12" Powerbook on The Screen Savers with a nice dent in one of the corners.



    He said he dropped in inside a padded bag and it still made the dent, so yes it certainly does seem that the AL Powerbooks are easily dented.




    As opposed to the fricking huge crack a plastic pc notebook would have suffered?
  • Reply 15 of 32
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by KidRed

    As opposed to the fricking huge crack a plastic pc notebook would have suffered?



    u mean when the plastic would bend and return to its original state?
  • Reply 16 of 32
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I call bullshit. I've beaten the tar out of my 12" PBG4 and it has no dents and one tiny scratch and that was from a key hitting it hard.
  • Reply 17 of 32
    etharethar Posts: 111member
    You guys go ahead and argue the relative merits of metal and plastic. I'll be over here trying not to beat the living hell out of my $2000 consumer electronics devices.
  • Reply 18 of 32
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    i'd love to see photos of these dents.



    again, if you have them post them and how you got them.
  • Reply 19 of 32
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    How is aluminum for flexing, I heard that the TiBooks suffered from the screen flexing a lot. I also am wondering because when I close my AlBook I somtimes without thinking about it push on it from the center of the lid and that makes LCD funkiness I'm sure you all have experienced. Is that really bad for it, possibly long term causing white spots, dead/stuck pixels? Or am I just paranoid and it doesn't do a damn thing besides freak me out?





    I am working on not doing this but it is a new concept to have to be more careful with a computer then my old days of being able to punch, kick or use as a seat.
  • Reply 20 of 32
    666666 Posts: 134member
    I dropped a hole puncher on my 1.25 15 the first day I got it and put a half centremetre gash on the corner of the lid.

    Ahh well...
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