5 ms·
Plastic Macbook. Do you want one?
Hi guys, i got this idea that my current MBP retina 15" is really heavy and getting hot sometimes.
Would it be a good idea to custom design a case (display cover, keyboard enclosure and bottom case) to be 100% plastic?
I'd like one and i was wondering if you'd want one as well.
- PaulHoule 7y agoNo.
- Jaruzel 7y agoYou should at least expand why. My thoughts: - Plastic will warp when heated. - The metal in the MBP is probably being used as a heatsink - It won't look good.
- PaulHoule 7y agoI don't want an MBP. There are two contradictory things about Macers: (1) They hate macs. They are always complaining about their computers, about how they waste time hanging around the "genius" bar. (e.g. maybe it is not smart to do!) (2) They insist on buying macs no matter what and won't consider that you can get plastic computers, computers with good heat sinks, computers with more RAM, computers with NVIDIA graphics cards or AMD APUs, etc. if they just were willing to take their business elsewhere.
- sturza 7y agoI cannot speak of other users but: 1. never visited the genius bar in 9/9 years of multiple mac ownership 2. it's the only platform where i can run 100% native windows, *nix and macos(need this for iOS development)
- stephenr 7y agoTLDR: what the fuck are you talking about? Longer: a) What the fuck is a "Macer" in your context? Because the only dictionary definition I found is a ceremonial role where someone literally holds a ceremonial mace, i.e. a fancy staff, or fans of some musical duo whose shared family name is Mace. b) I'm occasionally frustrated by something, but I definitely don't "hate" Macs, and I've been frustrated by things on other computers a lot more, even with much reduced usage. I generally don't complain about my computer, if something is wrong I fix it, or contact Apple support to help diagnose/fix it. I don't know who is "hanging around" at a Genius Bar. I've used them a few times, generally taking in something with a hardware failure that's covered by warranty or an extended service program. c) I don't think anyone buying a Mac is unaware of other computers being available. Just because they have different preferences/priorities to you doesn't mean they're unaware of products in the market. For reference, I've used Macs since I was about 9 I think, and owned them exclusively (I've worked on other things but never bought anything else personally/through the company I run) since my first iMac when I was 16, about 20 years ago.
- Spooky23 7y agoLol. Apple service isn’t as nice as it once was as they have scaled, but 8/10 times you can talk face to face to an accountable individual to resolve issues with service. Try dealing with PC companies — it’s just a worse experience by any metric. There are definitely downsides with respect to cost and some particular capabilities.
- Nextgrid 7y agoLook into seeing what makes it run so hot. Ditch Chrome, Slack and any Electron apps and your laptop will be cool forever.
- sturza 7y agoIt's not running "so hot", it's just annoying. The weight problem is the one i want to get rid of. I recently got an ideapad that is partly plastic, it's not hot and it only weighs 1kg.
- sturza 7y agoWhile having a 4 core i7 8th gen, which i cannot get into a MBA
- quickthrower2 7y agoWhat? Also ditch compilers, local docker containers, IDEs, ...? Install Lubuntu?
- bwb 7y agoWouldn't it melt?
- busymom0 7y agoDoubt it. A lot of windows laptops are made of cheap plastic. Thinkpads for example. It’s only recently when they have switched to metal. Even MacBook used to be plastic a decade ago.
- quickthrower2 7y agoA case in point: kettles
- theqoo 7y agoYes please, I'm a fanboy of apple but I have metal allegy, So I can't use macbook at all. I've used white macbook, and after changed to metal macbook I got rash on my hand, so I gave up to use it.
- karmakaze 7y agoUh no. The rigid case helps keep the logic board from failing. The unibody and later ones only fail in other places (screen connector, keyboard) and was a great step in reliability over the plastic MacBooks. I had a rubber-like matte black one. Btw the 17" so-called-unibody model wasn't a single metal piece and failed more than all the others.
- askafriend 7y agoThe Aluminum acts as a heat sink... It’s a dumb idea what you’re suggesting. Sorry, I know this isn’t what you want to hear but you need to hear it. This is why HN shouldn’t design a laptop.
- prowebdeveloper 7y agoThought the the idea of the metal enclosure was heat dissipation? (i.e the whole thing is a giant heatsink)
- johnnyRose 7y agoThe heat has to go somewhere. If your machine is feeling hot, the heat is escaping. Trying to prevent that by using a less conductive material may not end well for your laptop.
- rasz 7y ago>my current MBP retina 15" is really heavy Weight: 4.02 pounds. Did it gain weight since you bought it? >and getting hot sometimes. its designed to cook its internals instead of running loud fans - thats what users want, that and thin. Dont worry, both CPU and GPU will throttle around 80-100C and will not get damaged.