lenovo = embarrassing

Will you say that in 5 years though? When the iPad came out, I said it was a waste. Now, I’m posting on one right now…

Thing is, they will be good only for reducing paperwork and some more social stuff, but that’s it. Maybe some industrial stuff here and there, maybe. They still need IMO a SIM card slot, but hopefully this will be fixed.

Yet for some social categories it will be useless. In another way, it will be annoying since some phones can do the same tricks. , but hey, they might differentiate on the road.

Lenovo’s IdeaPad is the consumer brand while the IBM legacy ThinkPad is for commercial/enterprise users and designed as such… There’s a reason why the Think brand is what it is considering that Intel, Google, NASA and others use them. That IdeaPad in the first post does look like Applish, though.

Speaking of Apple knockoffs, Acer’s Chromebook 14 could easily pass for a MacBook Air.

wowzer… such a bummer. All that tooling and a missed opportunity to do something interesting. Something that people might actually notice.

About a year ago I was approached by a larger brand in that space to be VP of design for consumer laptops and tablets. I didn’t really want the job so I wasn’t going at it hard, but their in house executive recruiter reached out to me so I thought i would explore it. In the end they didn’t give me an offer because I had never designed a production laptop. I explained that, first, they knew that when they proactively called me, and second I had never designed a sneaker before when my first 4 landed inside Metropolis magazine, and I had never designed a smartphone before yet did several that went to products, etc, etc… still they said they only wanted someone who had designed a lot of production laptops… I said I understood the logic but it was misplaced and perhaps that misguided logic is the reason they have failed to bring anything to market that people actually care about… the executive recruiter handling it signed and confided that she agreed and was frustrated but it was going from above… these kinds of insular industries can chase their own tails so much.

It’s almost like they’ve downloaded a MacBook model off of GrabCad and changed the logo. You would think if they were going to emulate a style for a Chromebook, rather than creating their own identity, that they would use Google as an inspiration instead of Apple.

Yo: Glad to hear that big global brands make the same kind of dumb hiring mistakes many smaller companies make. Thanks for sharing!

I suspect it was more of a cultural fit than doubting your capabilities. Not to say that Lenovo couldn’t benefit from a cultural change, but some HR flunky is nowhere near the gravitas neighborhood to make such a change. That will be a board/c-suite decision.

On a side note, since we got acquired by a 600-pound gorilla, I question if I applied for my current position, would get it. I know this is a cliche, but since as far as I can remember, I think different from most everyone around me. I like being a contrarian for contrarian sake. I think it will lead to something. That something can be good or bad, but at least it will be something other than status quo. This is why I think I fit well with NPD that allows freedom to learn.

My corporate conglomerate uses something called Gallup. They have a strength’s finder test. And they have a recruiting tool, which the candidate can never see. If I apply for an advanced position, I would be required to take this test and it is used to evaluate me. Here’s the kicker, once the test is taken, they don’t want you to take it again. And while I understand these personality traits are somewhat constant, there is no doubt my management style has grown over the years. I also question the test’s ability to distinguish or even factor what comes natural to you to what you are capable of doing. Seems to me 2 separate issues.

But I digress. How bout them Cubs?

I’ve had to take those tests as well, and I’ve had some good hearted chats with some of the organizational psychologists who design and administer them. The odd thing is that some of these tests are designed to identify and promote predictability… a great straight for an executive in finance or operations, but not for an executive who is charged with bringing you innovation and creativity in design, marketing, and even sales to a degree. Predictability is the opposite of creativity… bringing the conversation back around, I think the macro take away for me here is that a lot of organizations want predictability, wether that it is an employee, or in a design they “know will be successful”… the result is a MacBook air clone.

I had a chance to check out the Acer Chromebook 14 in person. It’s remarkable that they were able to build all-metal laptop that retails for $299. But when you inspect it closely you’ll see that it’s made of stamped aluminum, as opposed to cast alloy. It was a clever way to recreate the look, but due to the lower tolerances associated with metal stamping there were some visible quality differences. The average user may not notice it but to me, it almost had the feel of a movie prop.

ah, you can see the construction a bit in the hinge area in this photo now that you mention it.

Ah interesting.
Is the Macbook air ( and other Macbooks) cast? I would have assumed it’s full CNC.
With their roundabout 30000 machines that would make sense.
We looked into casting but it has serious anodization challenges.

Finding myself in the tail end of a project that involves stamping a large part as well, I can attest to the cosmetic and ME challenges.
Also that there still is a good amount of CNC necessary to clean up and straighten out the part.

I haven’t looked at the Acer in person yet but from the hi-res images i can find online, I actually think it doesn’t look too bad.
The light anodization helps hide the stress lines put into the part through this aggressive process.
If this were anodized dark, I bet there would be an insane amount of defects visible.

At some point you gotta ask, is it worth manufacturing metal housing if you can’t achieve a quality standard set by Apple?
I would argue that there is a place for stamping, extrusion and other processes besides full CNC but you get into hot water when you are literally mimicking a product that is produced with “whatever the cost” kind of mentality and comparisons are inevitable.

Apple indeed CNCs most of their stuff as far as I know. Only Microsoft is powder injection molding it’s surface devices, similar to how high end DSLRs are made. I saw some of the WIP parts. It is pretty crazy, they are super light, thin and intricate and look JUST like a plastic part. Only the metal color gives away they are actually metal.

In the last few years Chinese manufacturers have really improved their metal game. Of course they stamp most of their parts, overmold them and CNC them a bit to make it look like an iphone. But the handfeel is remarkable. For just around $100 you get a device that feels very “iphoney”. But the stamped metal parts are usually just cosmetic and not part of the construction (which is the trick apple performs). They are mostly just cosmetic covers while the construction frame itself is built as cheap as possible, sometimes even just plastic. There are some interesting tests of these “pseudo metal” phones.
Check this out: Redmi Note 3 - Durability Video - Scratch, Burn, Bend Test - YouTube (bending starts around 3:00)
That thing snaps like a cracker!
It is basically the same with the cheap tablets and notebooks. The metal is only a cosmetic layer on top, construction-wise they are not comparable to an iPhone or Macbook at all.
But STILL it is getting better and better and they improve stability. Once they figure out how to use stamped metal parts as part of the actual construction we will all benefit from that.
I just would hope they would apply their developements without mimicing apple all the time, which is such a bummer. If they take that macbook clone, remove all the logos and give it a nice, matte black paint job I might be intrigued though :wink:

I get copying, but only from a “cover my ***” perspective.

  1. I create an innovative design that succeeds = everyone thinks I’m a genius
  2. I create a copy that succeeds = everyone thinks I’m a genius
  3. I create a copy that fails = everyone excuses it because the original did succeed, so how could I have known my copy would fail
  4. I create an innovative design that fails = I’m dangerously wasting company resources on vanity projects

For most managers, the downside of copying is so much better than the downside of being original that they will almost always go for the copy (ie “sure thing” in management talk). The real challenge in business is setting up an organization that accepts creativity when needed.

A great example of this is Chrysler buying AMC. AMC was a complete failure, but very creative. Lee Iaccoca later said that he bought AMC specifically for their development team in spite of their success rate. Chrysler promoted AMC’s head engineer to replace their own engineering department and establish AMC’s development process in Chrysler. That lead to 15 years of success and still influences Chrysler today.

That is what I always thought as well. It turns out it is due to the type of aluminum composition they use I believe. if they spec the right aluminum they can anodize it. I ended up doing that on a large part last year where machining was just not possible due to the size and the voids. We would have been machining away 90% of the material over a part that was rather large… after a bit of back and forth they figured out how to cast, post machine, and anodize it.

This is true. It’s totally possible.
We visited a few suppliers who are capable and are doing this in MP.

But it seems that they only way to really ensure consistent results and decent yield is to anodize black. So in terms of CMF pretty limited.
I believe GoPro is actually die-casting and anodizing (black) on some of their products.

What color was your part, Michael?
If you don’t mind me asking? :wink:

Of course, no problem. It was a clear anodize. It is on a huge speaker. There is a very very slight finish difference vs a second extruded, machined, and anodized part, but one is on the very top and the other is on the very bottom with 3 feet of black between them. We hide it as well by changing the surface finish. The cast part is bead blasted, the top is brushed with a machined in logo and chamfers.

Thanks Michael.
It sounds like you made all the right decisions for the process in order to get a good cosmetic performance.
Rougher textures certainly help.

My project will launch in September so we can pick this topic back up then :wink:

Something to remember with anodizing, in case you aren’t aware. The color is determined by the chemical make-up of the liquid in the tank, the time that it spends in the tank, and the alloy+heat treatment of the aluminum.

A 60 minute clear on 6063-T6 vs 5052 will be vastly different.

Some softer alloys 2000 and 3000 series, for example, can’t even come close to the same as what a 5000 or 6000 series alloy can, in terms of color. We tried dark bronze anodizing some soft alloy and the closest they could get was dark grey… Another challenge: welded aluminum. Welding adds heat, which alters the heat treatment, which alters the color. Sometimes it’s a neat result, but usually it’s just black or chalky white.