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Which notebooks are the most durable?

G

GrimmPenguin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2007
106
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I'm curious as to whether or not the iBook G4's and the Aluminum PowerBook G4's are more durable than the MacBooks and the MBP's. Which ones seem to have the lowest repair rate? If anyone could just give me information or like statistics that would be great. Also, if you have your own opinion feel free to share which you think is the most durable and the most stable as far as repairs go.

I wasn't for sure if this was the right place to put this, but this is the best place it seemed to fit.
 
My two cents:

I used to own a 887 Mhz G4 15 inch Powerbook-the hinges on that particular line of Powerbook kept breaking. I had that problem; that and the powerbook tended to show scratches and bumps more so than my current Macbook (first generation). I would also have pixels burn out on the screen.

But my current Macbook has needed a battery replacement; a new power adapter (the first generation tended to fray); and a Apple firmware 'bricked' my DVD/CD drive.:mad:

Both are about even in terms of headaches I had to endure.
 
Thanks for the post. My reason for asking is because it seems that since the switch to Intel, Apple has had a loss in quality. This is just pure speculation, I have no proof. I've heard for instance that the later models of the 12"PB's had hardly any problems. The story seems different with the MacBooks that are out now and what not. I'm not in any way blaming Intel. I just wonder if Apple has become more concerned with quantity over quality in these past couple of years.
 
Well, he's talking about a TiBook, not an aluminum Powerbook. That's a model farther back, and yes, they were quite notorious for hinge failures. The 12" PBG4 and the iBook G4 were both pretty low failure rate. The 15 and 17 were quite low as far as I know also, although there were a couple of problems unique to those. There's been lots of speculation on loss of quality for Apple but not a lot of hard, statistically interpretable data, unfortunately.

And then the TiBook, as mentioned, had a high (mechanical) failure rate, and the iBook G3 had a high logic board failure rate, so that has to be taken into account too. We're always most aware of current quality levels. And if we happen to have a flawless computer for years, we ignore the fact that other people may have had failures on that same model, or vice versa. So it's important to insist on well sampled data before you draw conclusions!
 
The plastic models will be more durable, if you want to make sure that a drop won't take out a project when you are pulling an all nighter go plastic.

As for the failure rates of the new machines, have no idea which is better.
 
I beat the hell out of my First gen Macbook. My 2 year old has jumped and stepped on it several while closed and so far no problems. One day while carrying it out of the office i hit the steel door jam. just a small dent. no crack no issues... I toss it in and out of my backpack several times a day and fling it into the back seat of my truck. sure its a lil scratched up but if I would have gotten a macBook Pro. I think there would be dents all over it!

I love my macbook. The only issues that required service was the wrist pads yellowed very quickly and the DVD-r drive died on me due to a firmware update.

Chris
 
I would venture to say that the ToiletBook was the most sturdy laptop that Apple has ever produced.

They were cool! :)

As for today, probably the MBA > MB > MBP
 

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The current gen Mac notebooks which one is more durable. The Macbook or the MacBook Pro? I tend to like taking my note book a lot of places and I've had some accidents with my old PC notebooks one was a fatality with the screen cracking, but I'm just wondering how Mac Notebooks stand up in comparison.
 
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