Why did Apple abandon the use of polycarbonate and plastic in its products?

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Level 1

8 points

Why did Apple abandon the use of polycarbonate and plastic in its products?

I loved the polycarbonate white and black MacBooks. They're either completely white or completely black, which I absolutely love. With the aluminum products, there must be a part of the exterior design that is not aluminum (the black part at the back that lets the display rotate), in order to prevent the weakening of wireless signals. My point is, I like it when a device is covered COMPLETELY with one type of material (like polycarbonate), and aluminum isn't capable of doing that.

I loved the design of the iPhone 3G/3GS. The glass on the iPhone 4 breaks very easily when dropped, and the aluminum on the iPhone 5 is very slippery to hold.

Why does Apple like aluminum so much? Can products not be made thinner without using aluminum? And if it is to make the devices stronger, I found the plastic and polycarbonate ones to be very strong already.

Posted on Apr 20, 2013 11:30 AM

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Answer 1

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Apr 20, 2013 11:53 AM in response to techsage1029

The white poly was cracking to often

I did like the black MacBook's, Apple didn't seem to think so as they removed them when the iPads came out because they considered them educational machines and the iPad replaced it.

I like it when a device is covered COMPLETELY with one type of material (like polycarbonate), and aluminum isn't capable of doing that.

If your willing you can most certainly have your machine coated or buy one new already coated from them.

http://www.colorware.com/imagegalleries.aspx

All black MacBook Air (with logo for the customer)

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Answer 2

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Apr 20, 2013 12:40 PM in response to techsage1029

Aluminum is an excellent medium for dissipating heat whereas plastic is prone to insulating and retaining heat inside the MBP. In short it is a very practical engineering decision on part of Apple to keep the MBP cool during operation. Unfortunately your aesthetic preferences are at variance with good engineering practices.

Ciao.

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