Apple Hardware Reliability?

[dringkor]

My wife and I switched over to Mac within the past couple years. OS X is great, "it just works," and we love the aesthetics of the hardware. But I'm starting to question the reliability of the hardware.

Our first Mac was a Mini, which we had to take in twice to be repaired. Turned out to be the hard drive. Then I got an iBook G3 from a friend. It had to have its logic board replaced under recall. So we got my wife a Powerbook G4, and it hasn't had any problems. But we got her mother a Macbook 2.0GHz, which just had its battery replaced under recall (it wasn't being recognized at all).

And I just got myself a Macbook 2.2GHz, which is now in the shop due to the Superdrive having mechanical trouble ejecting discs, and most worryingly, the LCD having the color banding/gradient problem. I just heard from Apple's repair shop, which said they couldn't reproduce my problem. Well all they have to do is compare the display side-by-side with another Macbook, like the geniuses did in the Apple store and all agreed looked really bad.

Now, I know that hard drives fail and battery recalls aren't uncommon for any PC manufacturer. Apple probably doesn't make those things itself. But as much as I love the Macs we've purchased, when I think that four out of the five have had hardware problems it's annoying.

What is everyone else's experience? Have I just had bad luck?

 

[pazreal]

I've had both good and bad luck with various bits of hardware. What I found that set Apple apart (in a positive way) from other companies was the speed and thoroughness of their response. They've made it right (including a few times I was out of warranty).

Sorry to hear about your troubles, hopefully there will be no more.

 

[f1]

Well an iBook G3 is pretty damn old, about time it breaks. Also, portable computers are more prone to failure, every laptop i've ever owned, mac or PC has always required at least 2 repairs. But Every desktop i've owned, mac and PC have always been solid for years and years.

 

[dringkor]

The iBook G3 is 800MHz, runs Tiger fine, and is still useful -- and has value on these very forums. It wasn't that old when the logic board was replaced. And it was a recall for a known design flaw anyway. It's not as though it was abused and just broke. In fact Apple replaced the logic board at no cost to me. Which is a good thing. Apple support has been great in fact. All I'm saying is that there's a difference between something getting old and worn out, and it being prone to problems.

And my wife's mother's Macbook and my Macbook aren't old at all. I just bought mine in January! I can understand that portable computers are more likely to require repairs due to their being lugged around in potentially harsh conditions. But a defective battery and a sub-par LCD aren't the result of wear and tear. Our Macbooks came that way in the box.