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A comment on System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock. Parent comment

Re:System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals n... by xxs on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @01:32PM (#28382980)
I would not consider cracks "dents". I already mentioned the cheap 'ABS' plastic, they would crack (also it's not UV stable). You can look up PA6-GF30 (nylon, 30% glass fiber reinforced) tools and they survive ~2m (6 feet) drop tests. Laptops won't do that as their screens would crash. Here: a popular video[0] of some massive abuse of a multimeter.

Again, a good plastic with glass or carbon fiber reinforcement would have similar properties to al-mg body, yet feel cheap as most people consider all plastics quite the same. For example: polycarbonate, 30% carbon fiber would have tensile strength of 150MPa (which the same to cast aluminum)

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlA7-fh5nDQ

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Re:System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals n... by OJFord on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @02:03PM (#28383466)
No, neither would I. I was agreeing with the commenter you replied to, that I'd expect a plastic laptop to crack, and a metal one to dent. If it has to be damaged, I'd prefer the dent.

You said above that that was more to do with 'top finish' than 'material'; that's what I was responding to - how would you finish crackable plastic material to make it dent like aluminium/alloy instead.

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