As MacBooks are meant to take serious beatings every day at the hands of school kids, I have difficulty thinking new versions will be Al clad. The MBP housings are wonderful, but they're clearly less tough than the MB's polycarbonate ones.

The blasted 85W causes agita on Hairplanes.

>As MacBooks are meant to take serious beatings every day at the hands of >school kids, I have difficulty thinking new versions will be Al clad. The MBP >housings are wonderful, but they're clearly less tough than the MB's >polycarbonate ones.

I'm sure all those people who've taken the utmost care in handling their MacBooks and found large cracks developing in the casing would agree entirely with your assessment.

".... suggested to make way for a model with a more rugged, resilient MagSafe connector"

And they don't sell replacement connectors. You are supposed to pay £59 for a new power supply each time the crappy connector breaks or the cable burns.

The comments on the device at UK Apple store show the disgraceful quality of the device.

I thought that Apple has been using Aluminum in their Powerbook G4s forever. So they stopped using the metal for a year or two and it is suddenly news that they're switching back?

It isn't exactly like Aluminum is an uncommon material in laptops, either.

The Aluminum upgrade would be big for the macbooks (I doubt they do it though) because it would give them a structural rigidity that would finally have the quality a laptop of that price. Almost all of the other PC makers use Al or Magnesium in small laptops of that price.

The problem with the plastic is it flexes. That was a source of the logic board and button problems of the ibooks. Those things were flexible (like the current Macbooks) and bending and sliding logic boards around is usually bad.

Nexox, the Powerbooks were the predecessor to the Macbook Pro. They were the premium line. The macbook was setup as a replacement for the ibook. The ibooks were the cheaper of the two and made of white plastic.

"The problem with the plastic is it flexes"

I had an iBook G3 with logic board problems, and apple kindly replaced it with a powerbook G4 (12").

During its 3 year warranty it problem had 3 or 4 new housings put on. It was my primary computer at one point, and was used quite a lot, and I noticed it wouldn't sit steady on the table. This was because heat was causing the entire case to warp!

I don't know what material they should go for - in my experience both Al and plastic have their problems...

My old Macbook developed a crack where the plastic raiser meets the case, would be nice to see the macbooks fitted with a metal case.