There are a lot of reports of build quality issues of the new macbooks, ranging from bad quality screens (where have I heard this before?Dell), to slanted/bent function keys, to loose battery covers. It appears many are having these issues, sometimes all three, and it deeply concerns me. Those are the only reasons why I don't think I'll get a rev A aluminum macbook.
The reason I bring it up here, is I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it here yet, and I'd like to get other people's feelings on it.
I'll post links as soon as I can fetch them.![]()
Loose battery cover.
Poor screen quality.
Slanted keys.
Youtube video showing battery cover problem.
Macbook pro loose battery cover.
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My MacBook doesn't display those issues.
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But many people are reporting these problems, so I don't think it's just a few.
That's what concerns me so much.
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Not in my house. Just got my 2.4 MBP today and it's built rock solid. No battery cover was loose, no screws missing, no minor chips or scratches, it was mint.
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Not saying these are or aren't problems, however I am curious why people are obsessed with taking their battery cover off? I mean, I know Apple has been known for non-replaceable batteries, but geesh...shouldn't need a new battery for a year or two at least...
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I have no issues at all either. Nothing related to whats been posted in this thread and nothing otherwise either.
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I don't think its a huge issue. Again, it is the first major redesign of the Mac notebook lineup in years, so what we haven't seen in a while are these "defects from first few production runs". Similarly, Dell had a lot of problems with its XPS M1530 line. So I don't think it'll be a huge deal.
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I bought the 2.8 GHZ MBP with the 320gb 7200 RPM HD so it was basically straight from China. There is one build quality issue and I'm going to get it fixed because it's annoying, the sleep light on the laptop has like 1/3 of it not dead but some of the metal finish covering it, so basically I see the whole sleep light but 1/3 of it is a tad darker and seems like something is covering the pure white light. Otherwise great quality screen and solidly built. Just a bit pissed off I bought the best one and I have an issue like this. Then again I'm not an Apple snob-elitist (Holler at those guys that use their new MBP at starbucks with their iPhone, I know you guys exist) so I hope they and I can get thsi fixed.
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"huge build quality issues?" I think that's way overrated. It's just the way forums work.
The screen is mediocre though. Too bad NBR does not measure contrast or they would have noticed, I think. For a good review of the screen:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Aluminium-Unibody-13-9400M.11984.0.html -
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That said, I have the new 2.4 Ghz Alu Macbook, in fact I'm on my second one because my first had a dead pixel and Apple cheerfully exchanged it without prejudice. I went out of my way to remove the battery cover several times on first one and my current one and neither have a loose cover after putting it back in place.
The function keys being slightly slanted? Who cares? They WORK. There's nothing wrong with the computer and you would never know they were slightly slanted unless you read these forums of people blowing it out proportion. The slanted F keys are hardly prominent.
The screen has limited vertical viewing angles and it's not the best for black level but are you buying this computer as a primary movie machine or a whole computer? For me I bought it as a computer and the screen is excellent for that. The screen is better than the previous MacBooks but only now people are making it out to be the worst thing they've ever seen, only because Apple makes it. If it was any other company it would never be mentioned.
Again, go look for yourself, even my review is not going to help you if you stay fixated on only the negative reviews. Notice how very few people talk about the best attributes of this notebook such as how cool it runs. It barely gets warm when taxing the processor. I've never once experience any notebook that stays as cool as this one. Even the new MacBook Pro gets hot. -
I love how your whole profile is biased to macintosh. Mac isn't that great. It's build on BSD and that's its only grace. If I didn't need the mac side for OS updates I'd be running Fedora.
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The screen isn't the greatest, but I don't have any of the other build problems mentioned here.
About the screen, it is pretty glossy and has some backlight bleed on mine, as well as limited vertical viewing angles. But colors are decent, it's bright, good horizontal angles, and there's no ghosting, so I'm pretty happy overall. It's certainly better than many of the XPS M1330 screens I've seen. -
fastrandstrongr Notebook Evangelist
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Here are the list of "problems" that I have compiled from here and MR!-
1. dead pixels
2. loose battery cover
3. poor screen quality - 9c8c better?
4. slanted keys. (function)
5. trackpad misaligned
6. superdrive problems -
I went to the mac store to have the memory upgraded to 4gb. When i went back to get the notebook, i found that they are giving me a brand new one
. WHY ?
Becoz when they opened the notebook, they found some screws missing and they could not put new ones in . ( they said that my laptop is only 4 days old and hence they are giving me a brand new one.)
Lucky that i decided to replace my RAM so fast !!!!!! -
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I hope the trackpad misaligned doesn't create and big problem to stop it from functioning, I don't think it is, but I'm a little paranoid >.<
edit: Just read The_Shirt post~ thanks for the insight, do you think things, like dirt or small stuff might get under the gap and create any problem later on? -
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My new Macbook arrived in flawless condition. It is a CTO. I wonder if CTOs have a lower chance of being shipped with defects....perhaps due to a different standard of inspection before leaving the factory. Just speculating.
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It is good to know that some here are reporting theirs are okay, it gives me hope.Still, there are a lot of reports on the net about these issues, and I still don't think it's isolated to a small number of them.
When I bought my first laptop, a dell inspiron e1705, it was creaky, the screen was mediocre (very grainy), the hard drive, battery and dvd drive all failed within 3 months of getting it (it was new direct from dell). I payed just over $2300 for that system at the time, so needless to say, if there's a lot of issues with a new machine I'm very weary of spending a lot of money on it. I think the dell e6400 is a good example of first revision issues.
I know that being an early adopter on a first revision is risky. I'm leaving to go overseas in february and I want a system that I don't have to keep sending back for repairs or exchanges.
I started this thread so we could all discuss these issues with the new macbooks. Still, I'm glad that so many of you here are getting good systems.That's very encouraging.
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I think it is the fact that these are the first production models, after a short stint the problems with fit and finish will be ironed out.
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I went to the Apple store today and noticed that a lot of the MBP's had loose bottom plates. That certainly sucks, but I imagine there's an easy fix for it (probably something is just bent out of shape).
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i was considering getting one of these from a best buy because the apple store is 1 hour from me but im reading alot of people in the mac forums are having to swap thier macbooks because of dead pixels.
it would really bother me to have a dead pixel so im at a standstill right now. I dont know if apple has relaxed thier pixel policy to keep up with the demand of the new macbooks or what.
I will probrobly wait until after christmas. chances are best buy would not exchange it for me for 1 dead pixel so I dont want to risk it. -
Word of advice:
Don't. Buy. From. Best Buy.
Just my USD $0.02 -
Nice assumption!! My MBP was a CTO and it arrived in mint condition too!! -
I bought the 2.4ghz aluminum macbook yesterday from Futureshop. I did a thourough check of everything, and this thing is in mint condition. Nothing is loose or missing, no dead pixels, no issues.
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Rogue, what panel do you have and how do you like it?
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The screen is an improvement over the 'old' macbook screen. It is brighter, and has better color and contrast. My blacks are very black, and my colors are all bright. I have no light leakage at all (something my 'old' macbook had).
Last evening, when I was setting things up, I was super impressed with the screen--almost mesmorised. But today, in the light, there is a fair amount of glare. The black bordering of the screen is nice asthetically, but it only adds to the daytime glare.
Overall, I think the screen is an improvement. -
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I never actually noticed the battery cover issue until I have read the first post on this thread....it is solid but able to slightly move horizontally in its place.
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Oh boy. I noticed the keys right away. I actually went back to Apple Store and looked at the display models. All the the function keys looked slanted like mine. I guess I should have just asked.
How much hassle would it be to exchange? Do they transfer all your files and setting over? -
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QueenOfSpades Notebook Consultant
Well, I returned my Aluminum MacBook.
I really gave it fair chance, defended it, and initially it was fine. However, the inferior screen started to grate on me and I finally couldn't take it anymore, considering what I paid for it. Couple that with a loose battery cover and I decided to bring it back to Apple. They were really cool about it, waived the restocking fee, and the genius I spoke with acknowledged unhappiness with the screen.
So I bought my old model again - the Penryn 2.4Ghz version I should have never sold in the first place. I loved that laptop and only sold it because I got sucked into the glitz of something new and shiny. Lesson learned.
It was kind of a pain to go through, but I can't wait to get my new MBP, and I think I've curbed my incessant upgrading for awhile.
Good luck to everyone else. -
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QueenOfSpades Notebook Consultant
I couldn't have been any happier with my old MBP. -
My Dad and I just bought one for him and it really did feel solid. I'm going to get one as soon as I sell my new HP.
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I can now say from first hand experience, the prev gen macbook is a good model, there should be no reason to upgrade for awhile.
I'm just curious on how well snow leapord will run, but I had read I think on macrumors, that apple said snow leopard should be able to run fine on all intel macs.
Is anyone concerned about the build quality issues of the new macbooks?
Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by talin, Oct 27, 2008.