Short review of the Macbook/MBP and my Apple experiences

Hello everyone, most of you probably know of my experiences with Apple, I'll just make it short; 3 defective MBPs and a MB that seemed to be fine but came with a loose latch that isn't sturdy at all, a physical dot on my screen, not a dead pixel and is now also making that weird clicking noise I had on 1-2 or two of my MBPs, I don't feel in the mood of getting it exchanged too, wasted too much time waiting by going through that procedure before without result anyways, I got a warantee and if it breaks down I'll just get it exchanged then.

The build quality of the unibody macbook/pros are really great, the first time I laid my hands on the MBP was a moment of joy, in comparison to the several other notebooks we have and had in my family, this kind of build quality is just unparalleled. The Macbook does not lack anything in build quality in comparison to the MBP, I even feel it may be more sturdy due to its size.

Both of the unibody models feel really portable, I never had any trouble taking them out with me to a friends house or anywhere generally. Though the 0,5kg and the size difference between the two makes the Macbook feel a tad bit more portable. Personally I'd go for the MBP if I needed the performance, and because the screen on the Macbook is just a joke in my point of view.

Performance wise both models perform pretty good, the MBP which is based on the 15" high end configuration obviously feels a lot snappier in graphics intensive applications, processor intensive applications such as fusion and multitasking when you got a great deal of applications running. Though during normal usage, where you use a word processor, listen to music, surf the web, I couldn't really notice much of a difference if at all. You don't really feel much boundaries when using the unibody models.

For people interested in games, I've only played Civ 4 in windows XP on the Macbook, it performed really well; I played on high settings and all of that without any lag or slowdowns at all, which I found pretty impressive in comparison to my desktop experiences etc. On the Macbook Pro, I only played WC3, and it played flawlessly, with the 9400M the game would lose a lot of fps in huge fights such as in a 3on3 game or a late 2on2 game. The 9600GT is a lot more potent when it comes to those circumstances, but it was pretty much great experiences with both cards.

Temperature wise when gaming, I find the Macbook a lot cooler than the MBP, but I haven't played the same games, so don't take my word for it.

Temperature wise generally, the Macbook is pretty cool, even when doing things such as watching youtube, or having a lot of applications open, which would normally make my MBPs pretty hot to the touch.

Coming to the screens, I had both panels of the MBP, I did not find much of a difference at all to be honest, I got the notion of the colors being more vibrant in the LG panel, and the other panel, sorry forgot the name of it, had deeper blacks. Though the difference between the MBP panels and the MB panel is really staggering, first time I laid my eyes on the MB panel, I felt like I've made a major downgrade in sense of screen quality, the colors are washed out, the viewing angles are terrible, but when you get used to it, you don't think about it anymore, maybe if you were doing graphics intensive stuff you would. But as mentioned earlier I'm not really doing anything intensive at the moment.

The thing I love about Apple products is the feeling of seamless work flow, everything just feels so smooth with expose, the intuitive touchpad, the way the operating system is designed. I never had a reason to whine about Windows XP, but after getting used to OSX it feels hard to find a reason to log in to the bootcamp partition. Other things I love about Apple products is the design of the products, the stability of the OS, being able to boot up your computer for the first time and already for it to be ready to go. The service they offer is remarkable, I've only had good experiences with them, though 90 euros for the hassle they put me through is pretty cheap of them, but either way its something.

Things I don't like about the Apple products are the premium pricing, I've never liked it, and I will never like it. The use of cheaper hardware instead of quality internals because its more profitable, yes I know they're a company, but that doesn't mean they have to use crappy HDDs, nvidia rebranded 8600GT with minor speedbumps, or crappy screens. It kind of makes you think when a cheap inspiron mini 10 has a better screen than the MBP, doesn't it? Obviously the pricings can also be justified, you got great build quality, great service, and the biggest argument of them all; OSX.

They're quality control, I'm talking out of personal experiences, so it's not a fact, but I've never been through this kind of quality control; its remarkable how bad Apple's quality control is, getting 4 machines in a row with some kind of defects. My family aren't really tech oriented, so they really have no idea why I'm persisting on staying with Apple, to them this is just a low quality company after seeing what I've been through.
Whats the point of having a online store if you have this kind of QC.

All in all, Apple is a great company with a great brand, they make great products, my trust in them is not the same anymore though, but no other OEM offers OSX, or the freedom to use both OSX and Windows side by side.

For the future, I'll wait until I move to the US and A before making another Apple purchase, which should be around fall 2010. At least then and there I will have a physical store and the opportunity to switch out a defect machine on the spot, instead of wasting 2-3 months of my life for a defect free machine, which I never got anyways.

Thanks for reading.

Yasir

 

It is a sad story! getting from store is better

 

Update: well my macbook besides making squeeky sounds everytime I have my right hand on it because of the loose latch has now started making the clicking noise / fan weird activation sound all the time. So I gave Applecare an call, its a defect.

So they're sending me a replacement. 4th time is a charm right?

 

Did you walk under a ladder, while smashing mirrors and kicking a black cat recently??
You have the worst case of bad luck I have heard in a long time.
I hope that its a case of 4th time lucky for you
a

 

ask them for huge discount!

 

Oh my mistake I meant 5th time

Swedish Apple store is not like the American one. 90euro is as high as they go.

Underpantman the girl on the phone even told me that whats going on is sick and that I got the worst case of luck shes ever seen.

 

Oh man, I wish you the best of luck in not getting a lemon.

 

Good luck man. I just had my first experience as an Apple convert and I have to say its smooth sailing, although I did avoid walking under a bunch of ladders.

 

Thanks you guys. I'm pretty weirded out by the situaition to be honest. ^^

I still remember the rep telling me only 5% get a batch of "defective" units, it feels really strange that I've been in that category 4 times already. This all just feels unlikely, probably someone or some "force"(Lol) out there to get me.

 

Haha, just your luck...

 

oh christ on a bicycle. Good luck with this one YasirJ

 

Haha, once again thanks. I'll keep my fingers crossed, hopefully it will work this time.

 

Update:

This week I got my replacement Macbook, so counting in the MBP's this was the 5th machine. First thing I discover, which made me pretty miffed, was that my package contained dirt and grass. ? Never happened before.

I take out the Macbook, it got smudge marks on it, the battery latch is also defect as the previous one and wont sit still. This one even makes weirder clicking noises than the previous one and its been freezing on me constantly.

So here I am waiting for my 6th computer.. Wish me luck.

 

man,get dell...really

 

well, they got really long delivery times on theyre new series, and I need the computer right now, So. ;(

I can only hope that this one wont be defect, but with my "lucky" streak, Im skeptic.

 

Thanks for the review. Good luck with your new Mac hopefully it will last better!

 

Good lord... You make me hesitate to buy one. I hope the quality is better in Canada...

 

I just got to open my new MBP today. No problems here (shipped direct from China).