Are MacBook's Reliable?

DannyW

DannyW

DannyW

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Hi guys Im thinking about buying a Macbook or a Macbook pro I think there stunning compared to PC laptops (which im starting to think all look cheap and tacky!)

I've been offered a 15" (1440x900) Macbook pro for £450, its a 2.2ghz C2D, 2Gb, 120GB, Nvidia 8600 (I think)

The guy has it a couple of years and its already on its second battery, Its also had a replacemnt DVD-rw Drive and a replacement motherboard

Theres a fair few broken/faulty ones on the bay too.


Any advise for me please are they just as bad as PC laptops or better??
 
I've had quite a few problems with Apple gear, in fact I haven't had a single Apple Mac that hasn't had to go back for something since my old 7000 series in the 90s. iBook had a CD drive go, two Mac Minis with logic board issues (one a write off, the other I claimed on home insurance) and my current Macbook had a faulty harddisk.

They do look nice though lol.
 
When I bought my MBP back in September, it was delivered with a faulty ambient light sensor, sending the backlight wild. To repair it, they had to replace the whole screen. Would have cost over £300 if it wasn't for the warranty. I guess that's a side effect of having everything in a compact unibody enclosure though!

I wouldn't say they're any worse than PCs though. Computers will be computers.
 
The only thing apple can really control the reliability on is the casing/cooling. Everything else is designed and built by others outside of apple and are the same components used in every other PC in the industry.

As above computers are computers millions are sold every year, your bound to get a fair amount of dodgy components.

As for casings etc, from what I have seen, if its metal then its generally ok. If its plastic then you may have issues (iPhone 3g, 3GS cracking, MB yellowing, MB old gen cracking on the seems etc.).
 
Macbook case cracking, dead batteries and dodgy wifi tend to be my Mac-specific problems. I've had a hard disk die in a Macbook as well but it would be unfair to chalk that up as Mac fault.

On balance I would say the Macs give me slightly more problems, but it really wouldn't put me off buying one. Touch wood my unibody Macbook Pro has been spot on so far.
 
I have had my MacBook (white) since 2006. No problems at all. Only general signs of use. Battery still holds a good charge. About 3-4 hours, and it is the original battery. I think I would buy that MacBook Pro for £450 if it was offered to me.
 
I am not sure I would buy a used macbook without some Applecare warranty left.

I had one of the first white macbooks in 2006 and it worked flawlessly for 2 years when I sold it except I did have a hard drive go south, but it was not the original one and Seagate replaced it without question.. However, the new owner had to replace the battery twice since, IIRC.

I have had my second macbook for nearly 2 years - only sold the previous one as I wanted 4Gb of RAM. This one also has had no problems.

I took out Applecare for the extra 2 years on this one too.
 
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