My experience of the MBP

So I'm sitting here with my new MBP, been sitting here for a week or so now, if I have to be truthful about it.

I'll keep it short;

+ are;
Good performance
Nice design
OSX rocks
Screen is gorgeous during good circumstances
Multitouch is wonderful

- are;
It gets hot
It has crappy thermal fan controls, you have to use SMCfan and force the fans to higher rpms to keep it "cool" which is hot but not too hot.
Its not silent at all.
Really disappointed in the viewing angles of the screen. The glossy can also be annoying at some times.

Now other things I've noticed which I think most people don't experience, probably just me getting another defect machine; I've had corrupted graphics during scrolling, the laptop has frozen a couple of times for no reason, my keys seem to be a bit slanted, the touchpad is even worse than on the first machine, my battery has lost 2% permanently already, even though I haven't even used it once.

After installing the new firmware updates, the notebook is making even more fan noise, the performance with the intregrated gfx wasn't choppy in wc3 before, now its choppy half of the time and it froze up on me for no reason even though I only had skype and firefox running.

All in all, I feel like I want to return it and get my money back and buy a future version, but the 14days have already passed, so I'm forced to keep on playing this stupid russian roulette game with these evil evil guys.

Edit: Ps; what the douche is up with the dust on the speakers? I got in on this replacement machine also, it really looks cheap from some angles.

 

nice review, my macbook is great. The only time when the fan kicks in real loud is when Im almost out of ram.
So I just have to close down program and its ok.

What I love the most is I never get any blue screens and that is huge. When your working hard all day, it sucks when the windows computer crashes on ya.

 

Good reading.

I know how you feel, glossy can be a pain in open and bright areas. As for the heating most "mobile desktops" have that issue. Anyway, enjoy your MBP

 

Yeah, I love the MBP, but whats the difference between blue screens and an unresponsive OS and the volleyball of death?

I'm pretty sad to be honest. But what can I do, this is just my effin luck.. How high chance is it to get two defect products in a row, either the company got a problem with me, or there actually is a god who is punishing me for being an atheist. Tough call.

 

It's not just you. I've never seen a line of laptops get released with so many quality control problems. Look at macrumors (home of the biggest Apple fanatics on the web); when people there start complaining, you know you have a problem. It's unbelievable that Apple has such a small combination of hardware to deal with and still can't get it right.

 

congrats YasirJ..

Lynn
I'm still waiting to order mine

 

Its weird how many defects you risk having with the new MBP. It has really been a stressful, sad experience with the new MBP for me personally, having a long checklist of defects you have to look for and hope that you don't have.

 

Haha thank you. I hope you get a defect free product.

 

YasirJ should I runaway from the MBP I'm just tired of Windows and I'm not familar with Linux..I'll just re-post in "what I want" thread

Lynn

 

Hi JasirJ.
you said the MBP is hot, I wonder what is the temp to be exact? are u taking about the CPU or GPU? do you fell any hot on the palm rest?
Thank you.

 

Naw. Its a great machine, and I think you'll enjoy OSX. I doubt you'll have the luck I have anyways. Just try to buy it from an retail store instead so you can exchange it quickly if its faulty. We sadly don't have Apple stores in Sweden so its all done via the phone and net.

 

Yep. I owned the original plastic Macbook when it first came out and was turned off by the melting/cracking plastics and browning palm rests so I sold it for a Vaio. Now I've been eyeing the aluminum Macbooks, and what do you know, problems again. At this rate, I don't think I'll ever have the chance to get a Mac... lol.

 

Then stop using XP and get Vista. You'll see as much blue screens as you see beachballs in Leapord (and hopefully thats a little to none but and thus an improvement over the god awful Tiger)

 

Well, I don't use the dedicated gfx for wc3, so I don't really know, I remember the one time I used it, the notebook got really hot, but I did not have smcfan installed then. The temps are between 70-80 during wc3 gaming with the 9400M. The whole notebook gets warmer because its aluminum and the heat spreads easily, but it also works to its advantage since it gets cold pretty quick when you stop doing something intensive.

The parts where it gets really really hot, I have not tested playing with it on my lap haha, but the top left side gets really really hot, almost frying hot. I did feel the bottom of the notebook during one of those situations, and it was pretty warm, but I don't know how I would have fared with it on my lap, maybe it would have been acceptable, I cant say, yet.

 

That sucks man. :/ Well, whats life without taking risks I guess. In this case I feel like I'm playing russian roulette though. Too risky, too much damage to my heart.

 

hot?

the early penryn mbp i have is running 80c w/ 4300rpm and a cooling pad

luckily though, palm rest is fine since it's been cooled.

 

Since I installed the firmware updates I am constantly hearing clicking every 10-15sec, first the click comes, then it sounds as if some fan is speeding up, even though smcfan doesn't report any of that sort, and then it goes silent, then it starts all over. Have anyone of you experienced this?

 

My new MBP works great! I have no issues. I went from PC to Mac and Mac to PC. I really missed my old MBP so I sold my new hp and bought a new MBP. I don't never regret it.

 

The heat issue is considered to be a compromise made by Apple to keep the machine quiet. If yours is hot and noisy then you may have a problem.

 

I leave my computers on for months at a time, only restarting for updates. The last time i got a BSOD was last year, in April, when I installed the wrong graphics card.

At least apple will replace the machine on the spot no?

 

It doesn't matter if its pc or Mac, the hardware inside all comes from the same 3 or 4 factories. The only difference is the hope that apple has better quality control, and better design, thus reducing the chance that you'll buy a lemon. But in reality the failure rate is going to be pretty much the same... just take a look at all the Nvidia problems, its not tied just to mb/p, but any laptop with those chipsets.

Thus if you have a faulty product you can ask for a replacement or repairs to be done. Thus the real test of a a good company is how they respond to your problems.
Apple is constently rated as one of the best for customer service, so I would go and try that out, get all the help you can until you have a product that is working for you.
a

 

Sorry to hear about your Apple problems. I had QC issues with my 1st-gen MBP. MBP tend to run hotter than say ThinkPads. My MBP was always warm and hot to the touch. Even my keyboard felt very warm.

 

I've had nothing but astonishing support from Apple so far, but its just plain boring constantly having to wait for a new machine and having so many risk factors of getting defects.

 

I just got off the phone with Apple support, first talked to an engineer, and then proceeded to talk with Apple store who are now sending me an replacement. So here we go again I guess. Keep your fingers crossed for me, will you guys?

 

They say 3rd times a charm !
good luck
a
ps I had similar issues with my old ASUS M6n, the motherboard needed replacing twice within the first month of having it. S#@$ happens. But the service was good from asus, and I eventually got a great laptop.

 

I hope that everything will be fine this time

 

This is why I love my early 2008 Macbook Pro.

 

yes, run it hot a little, wrap around with cloth and good for winter time

 

Apple has good customer service and their desktops are highly rated for reliability, but their laptops are some of the worst for reliability.

 

Thanks for the review, YasirJ.

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that OS X never froze. In hindsight, I guess any and every OS is susceptible to it, but I had always heard that this was not an issue when I was doing research and trying to decide whether or not I wanted a MB.

 

OS X does freeze and have the BBOD (Beach Ball of Death). Apple users tend to downplays the problems of Apple products and exaggerate the problems associated with PCs.

I have been using Apple products from the Apple IIe to the iMac and to the MBP. OS X does crash and freeze. Still it is a major improvement to the junk OS released by Apple in the past. OS 8 and OS 9 are garbage that make Windows ME look like the best OS ever.

 

pacmandelight, I dunno if you've been reading the treads that have been going on here recently, but no one on these forums are saying that osx doesnt crash.

Whenever someone comes and asks about whether or not to get a mac, most of the mac users pretty much tell them the truths about macs. Maybe outside of these forums its different, but I think the mac users here on these forums are pretty decent. Atleast thats whats id like to think.

But yea, i think now its generally just new users that are coming to osx that think it never does freeze. It does, but in my experience, it doesnt happen as often as windows does by far, and for me its only been because ive been using strange hardware with my mbp, but now everythings good with the 10.5.x upgrades with leopard.

 

Thank you, Sulkorp.

 

agian, im not saying that its 100%, but for the common user it probably wont kernal panic/crash that often, but stuff can/does happen.

 

Is there a list of stuff? The new MBP is one of three systems I'm considering, and I know Rev. A Apple hardware is a big no no, but...

OS X and Windows XP/Vista are basically 100% stable unless there's a hardware or OS/driver issue (or of course malware). My Windows systems only reboot once a month for updates, and otherwise are running 24/7 for the most part. Last crash I got was...I had a system with one bad stick of RAM, which would blue screen maybe twice a year. The RAM finally totally died, and I replaced it a year ago, and it hasn't crashed since. My Macs have been similar.

 

Yeah, I'm using Vista Ultimate x64, and it has been as solid as I could ever want it to be.