potential swither losing the faith
hi guys long time reader second time poster.......
i'm a potential switcher and have been since about nov last year and as i'm about to buy i find a reason to have to wait like the move to intel, bigger screens, new versions etc
I decided i wanted a laptop but am now getting worried that Apple have lost their magic.
all i seem to be reading about is broken machine's, faults and Apple not caring (if i spend £2000 uk on a laptop i don't want any dead pixals !!!!!!!)
I know machines can be damaged in transport or arrive faulty, when we brought my partners PC it came dead and i had to re-install the o/s straight away.
are these machine faults such as whining and heat on the MBP's just people expecting to much or have Apple just rushed everything ????? was it like this when they went to power Pc chips ???
help me restore the faith
i'm a potential switcher and have been since about nov last year and as i'm about to buy i find a reason to have to wait like the move to intel, bigger screens, new versions etc
I decided i wanted a laptop but am now getting worried that Apple have lost their magic.
all i seem to be reading about is broken machine's, faults and Apple not caring (if i spend £2000 uk on a laptop i don't want any dead pixals !!!!!!!)
I know machines can be damaged in transport or arrive faulty, when we brought my partners PC it came dead and i had to re-install the o/s straight away.
are these machine faults such as whining and heat on the MBP's just people expecting to much or have Apple just rushed everything ????? was it like this when they went to power Pc chips ???
help me restore the faith
Comments
second, sorry, but dead pixels happen on every generation, but i have NEVER seen one in person. don't take my "random sampling of one" to be a statement of fact, though. just to let you know that not every laptop coming off the line is riddled with dead pixels.
finally, this is why everyone says that, if you buy "revision A" of any brand-new cutting edge hardware apple ships, you will find (and have to live with) every problem that does not come up in the super-secret testing labs of apple. but also give credit to apple that they will swap out parts on the assembly line if it's a critical problem, firmware updates when possible, and seem to be more responsive to endemic design problems than i hear about from anyone else.
me? i'll buy the SECOND intel tower they ship, because i know there will be issues out of the gate. but yeah, there may be some "character flaws" even with those, but hopefully no dealbreakers.
It gets a little hot but not that hot. It had a kernal panic about 3 times but I think that I traced it to the magsafe cord being partially in and partially out.
All things considered every apple product I have owned has performed above expectations. Except for Aperture 1.0
Fanboy yes, apologist no.
since i started to use a pc as a student (six years ago), i have bought two desktop pc's (one with windows millenium - probably the worst OS ever - and one with XP). both pc's drove me crazy because of all the software crashes and 'blue screens of death'. i also bought two laptops (both XP): the first laptop had a broken optical drive and had dead pixels on the screen. the second also had dead pixels, but on the bright side: the optical drive worked!
because of the fact that i've always hated win XP, i switched to mac in july 2005, i bought an ibook and just last monday i bought this macbook pro.
i don't have dead pixels on both screens, both optical drives work and i've only had 2 software crashes on the ibook since july 05.
my mbp has a whine and its normal temperature is 43°C. but i'm happy with my machines. they have been more reliable than my pc's have ever been.
and in the end i want my computer to be reliable and i don't want it to crash when i'm about to save my document...
Originally posted by rok
first of all, remember that those who have problems are INFINTELY more likely to complain (and have those complaints recorded/posted) than people for whom everything is working well.
MacInTouch (AKA MacInWhine) is a prime illustration of this phenomenon. Visitors to that site submit the most esoteric issues, leading a naive reader to assume Macs have an extremely high failure rate. Remember, though, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
For example, I have a first-revision G5 iMac, which is statistically much more defect-prone (motherboard capacitors and power supplies) than other Macs. Mine's 1.5 years old and works perfectly. I'm sure many similar iMacs have failed, but not all, or even a majority.
Macs do have a certain defect/failure rate, but it is probably comparable or better than the rates of other first-tier manufacturers who make similar products.
Originally posted by icibaqu
how many people do you expect to post "just wanted to say that this computer has no issues and rules!"
Just wanted to say that this computer has no issues and rules!
Thanx from an equally new potential windows to Mac OS X switcher.
I have been stalking Apple Centers worldwide to get a good feel for the operating system and the Macbook Pro.
Must say I'm impressed with the system, and can't wait to kick Windows XP out of my life.
"Explorer has made an error and must you must now close all windows"
Great....
CYA!
Just to help you a tad more - I switched about 2 years ago. In that time i've had 2 Power Mac's at home, 2 iMac's at work, 2 iPods, and various other Apple products ... all of which have run flawlessly from day one!
I've been working on PC's since the late 80's, and I'm NEVER going back - one thing is their second to none designs, and hardware build quality, but OS X really makes all the difference - Not ONE virus, hackerattack or spyware/Adware. It's ROCK solid, extremly safe/protected, intuitive, logical and fun to use ... 'it just works'
I'm waiting patiently for my MBP 17", and I'm possitive it will be just as fabulous as the rest of the Apple products i've used!
Go for it, you won't regret it!
Best of luck
Nick
its one dead pixcel above the dock that you REALLY dont see. apple care said to keep an eye on the screen and let them know right away if there were any more so they could arrange pick up.
there hasnt been any more.
she's since bought apple care "just in case"
thats my dead pixcel/apple story.
as to MBP my brother had an early one, it had screen whine AND proc whine plus it got REALLY hot. he took it in, swapped it there and then, no questions asked.
I've since spent some time on it and its a great machine that WORKS ... yeah its a tad hotter than laptops with lesser procs. but thats to be expected i guess... ANY FAST laptop will have those issues.
there are now 4 macs in our family with more to follow.
i wouldnt let anything hold you back
Rod
You get the idea ... lol
Anywhoo - congrats on your perfect machine (looks like it's a tendency with the 17") ..... I CAN'T WAIT till mine arrives!!
Nick
Go with your first decision. Apple makes the highest quality products around and they are whiling to take responsibility when they make a not so good product. Nothing is ever perfect, but Apple's products are the closest to that.
I know this from experience. Don't let the nay sayers stop you from having what you want.
And now it's even faster!!!
17" is too big to carry around though, so I'll settle for the 15" Macbook Pro 2.16GHz
Thanx for the advice and info guys, much appreciated as always.
Soeren
Originally posted by rok
people are more likely to say "ow!" when they stub their toe, but rarely do they verbalize when everything is moving along just fine.
Actually, that situation is so rare to me that when things are fine I like to notify everyone.
Like that one time I studied for a test in chemistry, I stood up and proclaimed "It's OK, I studied." In between the balls of wadded up scratch-paper flying at me, I could tell they were in awe.
I also had some issues with the wireless but got them sorted out. It's more about the settings on my router and not the MacBook.
What I like about this machine is just about everything else. Compared to the iBook clam shell I had before it's a huge improvement. It's fast, the keyboard is solid and responsive, the battery life is pretty darned good, the screen is brighter, etc.
Originally posted by Voxapps
Macs do have a certain defect/failure rate, but it is probably comparable or better than the rates of other first-tier manufacturers who make similar products.
It seems pretty clear that the current round of portables have had more problems than any in recent memory. I can't think of another time when every forum was filled with people who had to return 2, 3 or more of the same apple laptop for various problems.
Also, perception of problems varies depending on environment and the individual. On my MacBook Pro, the whine is completely inaudible in some dead quiet environments and loud in others. Heck, I can hear the whine loudly in my office with high ambient noise levels and can't hear it at all in my living room with almost no ambient noise. I don't get it, but it's consistently like this.
As far as "problems get posted more," it actually goes both ways. I know more than enough people who have had problems with their machines but have never posted about it. Some people just deal with the heat without thinking about it. It's worth noting that the problems you do hear about are the tip of the iceberg. Most people deal with the problem, don't consider it a problem or consider it a problem and just call AppleCare. Only a tiny minority of people with problems actually post to forums about them.