BluRayHiDef
Banned
PS3 slim was matte too. In slim version matte case is way of cutting production cost. Pro on the other side was targeted on enthusiast market and that's one of groups which don't like piano black finish on devices. Look for gaming peripherals. Gloss finish is rare on them outside of some small details.
And for aluminum it's not even how it looks, but properties of it which make it not great material for external parts of any device. Aluminium is soft and have relativelly low yield strength (around 16-20MPa, for comparison glass fiber filled nylon can have it as high as 240Mpa). Which means it scratch and bend easily. It also conduct electricity which gives you problems like antenagate of iPhone 4 or other. Asus has notebook which you could feel with your fingers when it was connected to power supply. It literally was shocking users on touch. It also needs to be machined instead of just cast like any type of plastic. Machining is not only expensive but also really not eco-friendly. You need way more material which then need to be recycled which require transport to correct facility and then remelting which takes lots of energy. And all that is even before anodization which is really nasty process.
Very informative post. Are you generally inquisitive and subsequently knowledgeable about many things or do you profess in materials science?