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New VAIOs Made of Carbon Fiber

Shawnzyoo noted that Sony has released their new series of VAIO TX laptops. In order to make them stronger/lighter/thinner, they are now made of carbon fiber. No plans to release it in the US yet, so start learning Korean if you want this one.

12 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. I'll Let Them Try It First by Comatose51 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Carbon fiber is used fairly extensively in cycling and we've learned a few things about it. They have lower heat tolerance and abrasion resistance than metal. I'm not sure if those are qualities you want in a laptop which tend to get hot and rub against the table.

    --
    EvilCON - Made Famous by /.
    1. Re:I'll Let Them Try It First by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

      All my PCs are coated in plastic.

      I for one welcome our carbon-fiber overshells.

  2. How is this different than the CF TX for NA? by cullman · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. Electrical properties by asadodetira · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to point out that using carbon fibers or nanotubes in consumer electronics has electrical advantages. Using a conductive filler you can achieve electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection or electrostatic dissipation (ESD). Other conductive fillers such as carbon black or metallic powders would work but due to the small aspect ratio of the particles they require large amounts, and this degrades the mechanical properties of the polymer. Some more infomration here http://www.patagon.8m.com/equations/cnt.html

  4. Re:Carbon Fiber? by hsmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    it makes it faster by 1ghz, just from the carbon fiber alone

  5. Re:Learn Korean? by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 5, Funny

    The two biggest mysteries of the world: How morons get modpoints, and how a first post can get marked as redundant.

  6. Re:Learn Korean? by ducleotide · · Score: 5, Informative

    the sony website is taking pre orders, i'm guessing it'll be released in the US soon.

  7. Re:Learn Korean? by kromozone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most Koreans can't understand anything babelfish says. It's complete unintelligible gibberish to them. Korean->English can be equally nightmarish. Most Koreans don't follow traditional rules for word separation, so the system can't figure out where the words end. In addition, hangul uses a very limited range of pronunciation whereas as its parent language, Chinese, has a variety of different inflections. As such, each Korean character has up to 50 or 60 different meanings. I can get by with most stuff, even technical documents, but talking to a University age student on the Internet is excruciatingly painful. It's like they all use some hyper-evolved form of leet-speak where you can't use spaces.

  8. Re:safe? by CausticPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't carbon fibre both flammable as well as electrically conductive?

    If it was flammable, it would certainly be a very poor choice for constructing race cars.

    As for electrical conductivity, it wouldn't be any more of an issue than metal notebook casings which are already widely used.

    --
    -CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
  9. "Instant" mode by gantos · · Score: 4, Funny

    This AV mode button makes the instant Mode available in 12secs without any booting process.

    Is 12secs the new definition for "instant"?

    --

    "How do you expect me to see the forest with all these damn trees in the way?!"
  10. Re:Learn Korean? by MaestroSartori · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now straying dangerously offtopic, but if the first post just regurgitates a bit of the summary (or article) then surely it could be redundant? :)

  11. Re:Yet another reason not to put it on your lap... by CottonEyedJoe · · Score: 5, Informative

    When carbon composites fail, they do so spectacularly, as opposed to Al, steel or Ti which usually just crumple a bit. They are also prone to directional issues. A teammate of mine slammed on the brakes hard in a race to avoid a crash and the lateral forces on his fishtailing rear wheel snapped his Zipp 303 (a carbon rimmed bicycle wheel) in half. The wheel was stronger than an aluminum rim in one direction, but weak under minor lateral forces that an Al rim would easily have weathered. As for laptops on your lap.... Carbon isnt known for spontaneous failure under no load at all... Unless you're sitting on it I wouldnt worry. BTW, what is it with cyclists and good beer? Nothing like a bomber of Dreadnaught to recover after an 80 mi race.