Is the joint the best place to save?

Something like 3.5 years ago, I bought a Gigabyte T1028 netbook. Now I know it was a mistake, but it looked a pretty good think then.

So what is the catch? Besides the usual things, like intel atom processor being much slower than 7 years old pentium M while having the same power consumption, slow hard drive and the touch screen being really inaccurate, Gigabyte obviously tried to save on everything there. This includes the quality of chasis.

But, do you notice the joint? Right, this one is not a usual joint across the whole width of the netbook. It allows the screen to be rotated and closed with the screen facing out, forming somehow heavier tablet PC ‒ a feature I use from time to time, but not very often.

The first think anyone could see there is this place will be pretty stressed. So you could expect the manufacturer to strengthen it there at least a little bit. Well, think again. Few days ago, it started cracking and I was afraid I'd rip it off soon. So I opened it up and was shocked to find two tiny metal clips screwed directly to the plastic. And it looked almost like they tried to make the area as weak as possible. No surprise the plastic couldn't hold the whole levarage of the screen when it is being opened.

I eased the joint a little and oiled it, so it would give less resistance when opening (which means the screen needs to be almost vertical so it does not close or lie down completely open) and used some thermal glue to strengthen the cracking plastic, but who knows how long such solution will hold.

You can have a look at what it looks like, I made few photos. And I think my next netbook won't be made by gigabyte.