15" Macbook Pro Unibody

Welcome all macbook pro users. I thought it might be nice for all the macbook pro users with the 15.4" screen and unibody style to have their own place to discuss topics, enjoy! I just bought my mbp and think its the bomb. I've never had such great quality in any notebook before. I purchased and returned the HP HDX 18t and was shafted by the HP executives for getting the worst notebook from the HP home and home office website. I was so sick of buying windows based pc's that I saved until I could get the new mbp. I've never been happier with any purchase, and I would do it all over again, even for a more decked out (off brand, lol) system. You can watch the video review I did on the HDX 18t in my signature and instantly feel better about owning a mbp!

 

Hi I m considering buying the 15inch MBP Unibody, whats the screen like, I know its glossy but can you see it when near the window, are there any lighting issues your haivng?

 

awwww, only for 15" MBP unibody?

i got that specks of glue on 3 of my MBP that i ever bought (brand new) on the case, on the screen, it can be clean rather easily by cloth with warm watter.

i would really suggest you go see one in store if you're interested.

i dont own one, but have played around with it in store.

yes, the new screen is really reflective, much glossier than just a glossy screen. this is all the same with glossy screen with glass covering.
but saying all that, the benefits of stronger, easier to clean, screen really outweigh its downfall.. i think.

 

Honestly, if you want a mac, get the old macbooks if possible (they are tanks)... the unibody ones have had an insane failure rate for us.

We are talking no post, no nothing "bricked" laptops.
I am pointing every one of our users away from them right now.

 

Same here, and the downtime is EXPENSIVE

 

Im basically deciding between the sony vaio fw and new MBP, i wanted to know whether there had been any hardware issues anyone had encountered regularly with the unibody macook pro, like bits falling off, not that there is actually much to fall off, are dead pixels common on the screens? basically just reliability issues with the machine itself.

Thanks

 

Havn't seen dead pixels much, but flickering screens, dying backlighting, death due to vibration, weak aluminum above LAN ports ... personal experience on about 120 units both 15" and 17" units ........ VERY unimpressed with the hardware if you bounce it or abuse it much. Great desk ornaments in real world applications for my customers and the ones that apple WONT fix make great bookends.

 

ok thanks i didnt know about the backlighting and vibration, blimey its so complicated buying a laptop!

 

That it can be, I kind of just configured a whole variety of laptops for different jobs, for speed I use the Asus, for abuse I use the panasonics, for mid range work I grab what ever is handy

 

i wish i had that choice, just one notebook for me. Is there anyway the new MBP's screen beats the sony fws? viewing angles?clarity when transferring picture to big screen? brightness? outside(sunlight) use?

 

Your talking about the 17inchers right? i've heard quite some nasty surprises with these.

 

15"s as well but about 1/3 to 1/2 of the failure rate

 

I emphasized some of your post above. I would think that if I abused any type of precision electronic equipment (that wasn't built for it ala the "toughbooks) that I could expect problems.

My 15" MBP is from the first run of late 2008's, ordered and recevied from China and I have had ZERO problems with it...but then I don't abuse it/bounce it. I do use it everyday, and it does get hot sometimes gaming, but operationally it couldn't have performed better (minus the heat).

 

And I fully agree with you on that aspect, I probably should have worded it slightly different, by bounce it much I should have specified a vehicle mount arm and driving down highways and some unpaved roads in which one of my customers was up to 80% of units failed after 4 months. I consider that MINIMAL abuse, that any consumer grade unit should survive for at least a year or 2, and a business or industrial grade unit should not even be a minor concern.

 

I have to disagree about the older style mbp vs the new unibody mbp. I did a whole lot of looking, reading, reviewing and handling pretty much all "premium notebooks". I have to say over the choices I had, the new unibody mbp 15" & 17" models were the better choice. If you really want to compare the structure of the older macs compared to the new mbp, just Google this: old mbp vs new mbp. You will find there are a slew of different reports about both. What I've manged to learn is that you really have to test, use and try whatever one you choose to make up your own mind. Laptops have come so far with so many different choices and features, that there's way too much information to just throw out what are sometimes unreliable and vague comparisons, and hope you will end up with one that suits your needs and wants. People are very different, what makes one person happy will not necessarily make the next. And with that said you can pretty much figure out what kinds of online reports your going to get on the hundreds of different computer options. I really like the new unibody mbp. Its fast for my needs, has a really great end to end glass screen and is sturdier than any notebook I've yet to see. I've read all kinds of issues with the older mbp from apple care over tightening the screws on the side to correct the trim that was squiggly/warped all the way to the screens becoming warped/compromised. From what I can tell, if your not concerned with some extra ports that the old mbp has, and you want a sturdy notebook that's light and portable the new mbp is a good option. The screen was the selling point for me, its very sturdy/straight and has clean lines. The color, brightness and response time are awesome! I like that it doesn't "creek" anywhere and that the plastic trim is nonexistent. I also wouldn't expect the screen to warp as easily as the old mbp as the entire back is made of aluminum and the screen is end to end glass. No plastic trim all the way around screen to "squeak" and it has a strong hinge that doesn't cause the screen to bend or flop around. I know that the new unibody mbp's overall construction is thinner and more precise than that of the old mbp, but it doesn't seem to compromise its structural integrity one bit.

 

No, its for ALL the new mbp 13", 15" & 17" owners. I just wanted a place to call home for the new 15" mbp on notebook reviews forums.

 

I just wonder if the newer unibody models will still protect the internals. It does no good if the outside is protected but the electronics break down in the inside.

 

protect inside from what?

 

Both, and we are talking about minor use and knocks that every other laptop we have deal with has little to no trouble with... especially the older macs.

We had one 15" unibody stop working after a slight knock on it side IN A LAPTOP CASE... the knock was a door closing on a user who talked too long while the door closed. (the user is admittedly a little absent-minded sometimes)

The actual impact could not have been much more than setting it down a little less than graceful... but the laptop was bricked. If this was the only one, I would say it was just bad luck... but its not.

Note care and caution are asked of all laptops... but accidents happen.
We have had Dells, Toshibas, and the old macs dropped more than 2 feet and still work. Indeed, most laptops we work with (and no these aren't tufbooks)are surprisingly durable internally and work despite major exterior damage.

Even when machines do get damaged via blows, its usually the hard disk, screen, or power couplings which are damaged... the hardware is usually well-protected and the machine will POST, just not find a boot drive, fail to show on the LCD, or not take power from battery or AC.

The new unibody macs are fragile... so fragile and failure prone that I recommend my users not buy them.

I honestly hope its just one or two runs which suck... but I am hedging my bets that apple has finally made a laptop which is so pretty that it stopped being functional... save for paperweights or bookends...

 

Thank you for putting it much more elloquantly than I could have.

 

For every Apple horror story you find about the internal and/or external failing, there's one for the same of windows based pc's. No disrespect, but this is old news.

 

I didn't know that my mac was that fragile. but i baby it.

 

I don't think you get it... we deal with hundreds of laptops... from multiple makes and vendors.

We have had more unibody macbooks fail since the shipped than EVERY other make combined in the past YEAR.

These are rediculous levels of failure for even low-end refurb $300-500hardware.

Reminder this ISN'T a windows vs macOS debate... this is about hardware, and one build in particular. Apple is shipping crap... and mac users should not be happy about it.

I have 20+ dedicated mac users who likely will not buy a mac next time.
And note those are only the ones who have finally given up... you know how mac fanatics are...

 

Btw kernelPanic, Is it normal for the grey logos at the side to fade out? The headphones, usb, firewire, magsafe logos, etc

 

I'm not saying I don't believe you, but can you give me something other than your word to back up what your saying like a graph or chart that shows these stats? It would be good information for the public if what your saying is true. I really like the new mac style as well as many others in all of the other forums I'm a part of. But, if the failure rate is as high as you say, wouldn't that constitute a lawsuit for knowingly selling faulty hardware? If you have information about this macbook model and its really as bad as you say, then you should go public.

 

For every computer that fails there are plenty that do not fail.

 

Exactly! You've got a point. Apple is a massive computer manufacturer. There are hundreds of computers which are bound to be defective for every thousands not defective.

 

Obviously that guy is going to see failed laptops, he fixes them. They deal with "hundreds" of defective laptops.

 

Just how much in denial are you guys ?

If you dont believe that KernelPanic is telling the truth (on the failed laptops they are seeing), then thats another thing.
If you believe that KernelPanic is telling the truth, then its a different matter.
Its not a case of every manufacturer having some defective laptops; its a case of what % is defective.

Lets say Apple sells 1 million laptops, out of which 1000 are defective.
That means that out of every 1000 laptops you encounter, only 1 should be defective. The chance of you encountering 200 faulty laptops in a sample of 1000 is very very very low, though its possible.

So, either KernelPanic's corporation has been really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really unlucky, or Apple's failure rate in the current batch is really high.

 

I haven't heard any reports of massive unibody defects yet, so I don't know whether KernelPanic is right or wrong. I definitely doubt he's lying but I don't know if the assumption is correct or not.

But, latest rumours are that Apple is using the same unibody design and style with the new iPods, so my feeling is if Apple wasn't sure of the design/worried about defects they wouldn't go ahead with it. Again, rumours though.

 

If the failure rate is so high why aren't we hearing about any here? Like the other sections do?

 

How does a slight knock brick a laptop? Does a plug become disconnected, or some solder break loose? I've seen laptops dropped, and usually its the casing that cracks or some keyboard keys that fall off, and in the worst case, the HD that gets damaged. I can't really think of how it would brick a computer altogether.

 

IMO this is BS.. there is a standard number of defected ppm, if apple was way above it, someone would have reported it.. maybe people who buy macs are more careless? i don't know.. but i doubt apple would take a step back in their product quality.

 

Congrats, they are really beautiful machines huh.
Also MBPs seem to last for a long time, good hardware quality and the OS stays fast.. You won't need to upgrade for a good 3-7 years probably unless you do hardcore video work.

 

That is true. So, while I am concerned by KernelPanic's report, i am not commited to saying new MBPs are flawed. But it has made me "undecisive". I will be on the lookout for durability reports.

 

It's not a good assumption that MBPs are flawed just because one person has seen more defects. Perhaps there aren't many people who repair Macbooks where this guy lives, and he just happens to see more of them. The exception to all of this is the MacBook Air with its hinge issue. There's no denying that is an issue. But search online for MBP problems and you really don't find much. Also, alot of notebooks are fragile. My Dell XPS M1330 had hardly ever left my desk and the motherboard died. I searched online and found 1000's of others with the same problem. I hadn't drop it or closed it in a door. The days of "tank" notebooks are over for the most part, unless you want a big brick! Just buy the laptop with an extended warranty and enjoy it.

 

No, it depends on your luck. Many people have been using laptops with no defects. My sister owns a toshiba laptop and she's been carrying it every where with her. She's even thrown her laptop away with rage. But it's still going on strongly and he had bought it in 2005. It still runs windows xp flawlessly but it needs a format.

 

Guess i am one of the fortunate ones. Absolutely no problems or flaws with my Unibody Mackbookpro even after it fell about 2 feet to the ground while in my backpack.

 

Did it get bent or dented?

 

this is the most ridiculous argument ever. just take a look at the chart:

http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=156450&page=1&zoomIdx=1

apple is the ONLY company to have 3 above avg scores in reliability ratings.

 

That was a 2008 survey, as KernelPanic has mentioned, the problem is only with the unibody MBPs.

 

something tells me that one person's experience won't reflect the standard of quality that apple has set for itself, not to mention that kernelpanic has NO data whatsoever, besides his own "experience." i'll trust the 2008 survey over hearsay and everyone should use the actual data as a good judgment of apple's quality. of course there are always issues with first revisions, but saying that the unibody line has an "insane failure rate?" please.

 

Useless debate.

I have an ASUS laptop and it's the worst thing I've EVER owned. It gets to 110 degrees C while gaming or rendering music projects, the wireless randomly stops working, the wireless has always interfered with FireWire audio, the screen is horrible and has terrible viewing angles, the build quality is really bad, the keyboard can't recognize more than one key at a time, e-sata is slower than usb2, etc.

Why am I saying this? Because everyone on this forums says ASUS is wonderful. My point is that you'll find lemons from every brand. I can't wait till this goes for warranty repairs, and comes back so I can sell it!

My question is this... When do you expect the 2nd revision of the Unibody MBPs to be released?

I would buy one right now but I'd rather have a 2nd gen laptop and I dont want to spend 3grand only to find out a new gen is released a week later...

 

Hi guys,

I am currently looking into the 15" mbp. My plan for now is to wait for june 8 and Snow Leopard. At the same time i hope Apple uppgrades the graphics chip to the 130m.

Since this will be rev B, do you think Apple will get their game together by then ?

I currently have a 12" powerbook, and it has worked flawlessly for 7 years or more (cannot remember)

 

i doubt they'll upgtade the graphics card so soon.
but you never know..