Ultrabook makers turn to fibreglass to cut costs Take this as you will, but it's claimed that many upcoming Ultrabook laptops will use a fibreglass chassis to bring production costs down to the point where their vendors can sell the machines for under $1000 (£627). According to the inevitable 'unnanmed industry sources', cited by DigiTimes, fibreglass may be used instead of …
You'll be in the minority. No-one will take a fibreglass ultrabook seriously if its at all near the MacBook Air Price point.
Note to Intel make your mInd the fuck up on pricing your platforms. You fucked up netbooks, culvs and are heading the same way on ultrabooks.
If you want to create a Market segment actually try sensible pricing. A CPU and Mb does not make a product on it's own.
Not only cheaper but also lighter. Also, almost as strong as metal and much stronger than plastic (for example most motorbike helmets now use fibreglass shell). And with the moulds in place it could become common for high-end models to be carbon fibre (both stronger AND lighter) such as the Acer Ferrari models.
@John Robson - Yes it will not cool as readily as a metal-cased laptop, but it will be approximately the same as plastic, which is practically standard in laptops. And aren't the ultrabooks supposed to be lower-power than previous comparable models?
Most decent motorbike helmets are made from a carbon fibre Kevlar mix. Last time I checked only the cheap shit ones use fibreglass. fibreglass is weaker, perishes in sunlight and gets a lesser ACU rating.
If you value your brains and face I wouldnt touch one with a bargepole.
The majority of helmet sales might be for fibre glass but that's coz they are cheap.
Do you want an ultrabook that screams cheap?
Fibreglass roofs - 20 to 40 year lifespan, so exposure to sunlight isn't necessarily going to be a problem over the lifetime of an ultrabook. (The neighbour has a fibreglass boat that has been in the sea for over 40 years, if something can last that long in those conditions it's good enough for a laptop).
Fibreglass is a nice material, a lot stronger than plastic and if it's done well it doesn't look cheap
If I was buying a helmet, yes I'd choose kevlar - if I'm buying a laptop I'd happily accept fibreglass as it's unlikely I'll be using it to deflect bullets unless I get sent to Libya.
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