Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Macbook Pro, MacBook
TUAW Poll: Your MacBook/Pro experience
Yesterday, we pointed out an article at Infinite Loop that was describing yet another (allegedly) melting MagSafe connector. Many of you wrote in to state that your MacBook/Pro experience has been trouble-free. Still, the issues people are having are very real, so let's take a brief (and informal) poll.How has your MacBook/Pro experience been? Is it noisy, hot, discolored...melting? Is it a dream come true, the best laptop you've ever used? Leave your answer below, and check back tomorrow for the results.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
betty said 9:39AM on 6-29-2006
what if the first 3 units you had recieved were a nightmare and the 4th was a dream come true?
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Mike said 9:41AM on 6-29-2006
I've found the heat to be....manageable. Having started with a TI99-4a, I haven't lost sight of the what the MBP really IS. It has the ability to live a long time on a battery while surfin and emailing, and it has the ability to rip and transcode a DVD to ipod format in 40 minutes (my ibook took 10 hours). You don't get something for nothing...what you get here is speed for heat.
The best way to illustrate this is to start iMovie, iDVD, quicktime, iTunes, get all of them looping something, then try to read email and surf the web. Memory permitting, you'll find the web and email experience pretty much identical to when the other stuff ISN'T running. Hit expose and notice that all the video is running without dropping frames. Is it any wonder the laptop is getting warm?
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Laurence Anderson said 9:41AM on 6-29-2006
Couldn't ask for a better laptop (MacBook).
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F_D said 9:42AM on 6-29-2006
Overall the MacBook Pro been great. A little hotter and noisier than my old iBook but nothing out of control. What's weird (and I was surprised that practically no one else has experienced this) is that it seems slow to wake up from sleep about half the time.
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Kevin H said 9:44AM on 6-29-2006
Minor issues but Apple really took care of them. I had one of the first (if not the first) Macbook Pro sold at Apple Store Yorkdale in Canada. Of course it had a huge whine and melted things so they eventually gave me a new one... with a faster processor (2.16) and a 7200 RPM drive. Thats a good way to make anyone happy.
The new one is not cool by any means but its no longer a hazard to other things on my desk and the whine now only shows itself when attatched to my cinema display... meh. Good :)
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john Faitakes said 9:47AM on 6-29-2006
I've had the heat issues, and not talked about anywhere I have experienced the constant problem of my MBP not properly awakening from lid closed sleeps and that once played and trashed, wmv files will not empty from the trash once the MBP has been put to sleep. My MagSafe power adapter is 1 day away from fire, it heats up pretty hot and works ion and off. So Apple is sending me a new one.....
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Toby Stevens said 9:56AM on 6-29-2006
MackBookPro number one was a disaster - flickering display, dodgy keyboard, too hot to touch if it was doing anything complex. The second unit's been much better, so I'm finally happy :)
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brett f said 9:57AM on 6-29-2006
I love my macbook pro. it is the best laptop I have ever owned. BUT
yes it gets hot, but it's manageable.
yes it makes a small whine but I don't care.
sometimes It stops making system sounds. ie. the trash will not make any noise, and iChat will not make noise ( but raising the volume makes the appropriate noise )
other then that I love it.
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scralpha said 5:53AM on 8-15-2007
Bought my 15.4" 2GHz MBP refurbished from Apple online - it died about 12 hours after I received it. Applecare took nearly 3 weeks to replace the logic board, battery, and some other unit related to power, and now it's a dream. A scorching-hot, sometimes screen-whiny dream, but I love it. No signs of problems with the magsafe adapter, though.
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Sam said 10:03AM on 6-29-2006
I've had a MacBook Pro since mid-March, and the only issue I've had with it at all was when I accidentally knocked it off of my desk. Because it was running at the time, and it hit a tile floor, the hdd was trashed. I sent it for repair, fully expecting to pay for the hdd since it was my fault. I was notified that there was some problem with a backorder on the 7200rpm drives at the repair facility, so they just sent me a brand new one. The new one(as well as the old one) seems to be free of any of the well-publicized defects.
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Ric said 10:03AM on 6-29-2006
My MacBook arrived with a defective trackpad. It wasn't "non-functional" and since the order was customized, I had to send it back to repair instead of simply getting a replacement. Phone support recommended I have a genius look at it in an Apple Store to confirm and send out to speed the process. So two hours after unpacking it I tood it in a store. They confirmed and sent it out. Item was evidently lost at the repair facility. Repair believed the store hadn't sent it out yet. The store blamed repair for not scanning it upon arrive. No one would look into it and thus I kept getting "wait a few more days" over and over. Three weeks after sending it out (and daily calls later), a dispatch finally took ownership of the problem. He said it was looked at and they didn't see the problem. It was waiting for another to look at it. I asked for further explanation and got none He finally graciously offered to replace the unit and upgrade the RAM for free. It would go out in three days (next day air). He gave me his direct line to call if there were any problems. A week later no MacBook or notification it was being sent. I called. No response. I repeated it every day for the next week. Finally another rep said it was being delayed every further. Surprising it arrived two days later. In the end I appreciate the free upgrade, but the communication between the brick and morters and Apple repair is dismal. What's even worse is the relationship between tech support (surprisingly needed for repair) and customer service. I was trapped early on with people seemingly wanting to replace the unit, but couldn't because they needed information from another area and weren't allowed/couldn't contact them directly. Twice I was told I did the wrong thing by following supports recommendations of going into the store. No supervisor would take control and just look into the problem. It was always 'wait and see' even after weeks. It's incredible that a company with such high customer service rankings could be so much worse than any other computer experience I've ever had. We’ll see how the MacBook holds up to the 2-3 years use I’ll likely have it for, but if I needed to buy a computer right now I’d seriously debate about buying from Apple (and certainly not customize an order to my needs).
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Matt Stocum said 10:11AM on 6-29-2006
I've "had" my MacBook Pro for a little over a month now. Unfortunately it's spent more time with AppleCare than it has with me. Went in around the start of the month because of AirPort kernel panics. Came back with the same problem, went back a day later, and now it's been at apple for about the last two weeks because the LogicBoards were on back order. Now it's fixed and ready and waiting to go out since the 26th, but for some reason it hasn't shipped. This has seriously been the worst repair situation I have ever dealt with, even worse than Dell (and that's saying a lot).
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Andy Lee said 10:23AM on 6-29-2006
My black MacBook needed a new logic board only a couple of weeks after I got it. The symptoms were that it would refuse to wake from sleep.
It runs pretty darn hot, but I rarely have it on my lap, and I make sure it has airflow underneath.
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XIII said 10:27AM on 6-29-2006
Hot as hell and starting to discolour around the lower edges, but otherwise pleased.
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Eric Carroll said 10:29AM on 6-29-2006
Although I am a Mac Technician and have witnessed one bad MacBook Pro, my experience with my 2.16GHz 15" Glossy Screened MacBook has been great. Not a single issue. Boot Camp installed like as advertised, and it play Battlefield 2 better than the 'gaming PCs' at the Web Café my friend owns... So far I am thrilled.
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Michel said 10:29AM on 6-29-2006
my mbp17 is a lot of better than my old powerbook15. an elegant computer I can take with me in journey or at work.
it is hot, the powerbook was already hot and I'm looking forward when computer will be be just cold as days of york :)
it was a custom order to a local reseller (fnac) in France.
I should say, I did not wait macbook or intel cpu to be fishy with my mac
in a few years
my powermac cube (truly a wonderful "tour de force", an engineer accomplishment) lost its firewire after I put a too much hot video card
I asked a change of motherboard in my imac G5 because it was too noisy for my taste , it's still too much noisy and I'm sure it's the alimentation, not the motherboard but well apple did not to hear so, well I just accept the tiny noise.
I still think it was the best computer I could have at the time.
of course I could speak about Sony or philips (an old laserdisc reader which couldn't let open the disc tray.. and had issues to read complex discs) and others and others.
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Matt said 10:31AM on 6-29-2006
I have had some minor issues. I have the moo'ing fan, but to be honest the sound isn't loud enough to bother me. Unless I am in a silent room I cannot hear it.
I have actually had a couple of programs crash on me and a few times have had the GUI artifacts that people have talked about, but overall nothing that has been detrimental to my ability to work or use the macbook. Heat wise I can still get it on my lap.
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Andy Lee said 10:32AM on 6-29-2006
BTW, I'm not answering the poll, because the choices are poor. There's a huge gap between "it's been a nightmare," which implies the problems are both severe and ongoing, and "I've had minor issues," which implies the problems are trivial and resolved. I had a severe issue that was dealt with relatively quickly -- hardly a nightmare. I also have an ongoing concern about the heat.
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Kevin McKay said 10:33AM on 6-29-2006
Black MacBook. Runs no hotter than my previous 12" G4 Powerbook, but much faster. So far (three weeks) I've had no problems of any sort with it. I read the various reports of problems, but no evidence of them here, thankfully.
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Michael Potter said 10:33AM on 6-29-2006
The only two problems I've had with my MBP 17" are both under control now ... I believe.
First was the kernel panics when putting a load on the wireless connection. It was already an infrequent problem, but since I switched my router (Linksys WRT54G) to "G" only, I haven't had the issue. Still keeping an eye on it though.
Second was the heat. I loaded up the SMC update 1.1 yesterday and damn if it's not running cooler! Though it's still hot, I can actually put my finger on the space above the function keys for more than a split second without burning myself! And the "palm rests" are noticibly cooler as well.
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