The side profile look so square, somewhat like a alienware but even more square
it’s so square, I have a hard time imagining what else that come close. It look absolutely magnificent, though. And you would bet that it’s the engineers designed this.
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It’s probably a very personal opinion about the 16" esthetics, but I‘m not really convinced by the black plastic material used for the keyboard, numpad and the space above them. Compared to the 13", which looks closer to a MacBook, it seems a bit cheaper to me.
But there is probably a reason behind this choice? Solidity, heat resistance, flexibility, weight, cost reduction… Does anyone has an idea? It’s not mentioned in the deep dive about enclosure.
At least, as the hinges seem to be attached to the magnesium bottom cover directly, we probably won’t have this kind of problem after thousands of openings. 
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that’s a fair point. But the chassis is full aluminum though.
Sort of like an old-gen Thinkpad, where the palmrest is multiple pieces and plastic, and the shell metallic and rigid.
But yeah, this Thinkpad (x230T) do not feel like they are $2000 dollar machines.
That is a metallic palmrest. But I think you know where the problem arises – threaded inserts.
The screw instead of going into the palmrest actually goes to a plastic part (via a threaded insert glued to the metal piece), so the machine pretend it’s a metal-chassis, without actually being a metal chassis.
Dell took it a step further and made the entire outside plastic.
I have had multiple failures of these type (hp 15-dw-10xx series), a Dell Inspiron 3511, and another hp, this time a m6-n015dx.
The fix for these is to, I joke you not – take it to a drill press (you want perfectly prependicular holes), put holes where the screw used to go, and bolt it down with bolts. The chassis-es and backplates are actually decently strong, but the inserts never.
Same with my dell. I attached the clip-on bezel later because I need to make larger holes in the bezel to clear the screw and nut.
And if you are telling me to be more careful, my Dell it’s actually my dad who broke it. And yeah somehow all 3 inserts are just gone
Even the XPS 9360 have this problem, mildly. The screw goes into a metal mid-frame, which is glued to the “carbon fiber” palm rest. The solid aluminum bottom-plate actually provides substantial strength. But since I have run it without the structural back plate for a little while, the metal midframe is now slightly bent, and make a creaking sound when I press down on it.
By directing all the forces to a solid aluminum chassis (where the screws goes into dedicated threads), framework not only made it more serviceable, but also more rigid
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