I'm a long-time Thinkpad user who is thinking of making the move to a Macbook Pro 15" Retina model. I'm wondering whether people with experience can comment on durability and ease of service.
Are keyboard swaps possible? I'm one of those guys who always seems to end up with grungy keyboards. I keep a couple of spare on hand for my Thinkpad, and a swap is a ten-minute job. I'm guessing that a swap is not even possible on a Macbook. Is that correct?
What about liquids and spills? I wish I could say the never happen, but stuff happens, right? Let me share a couple of recent examples:
1) I'm on a flight working when the flight attendant reaches across to pass a glass of soda to the person next to me. Some spills onto my laptop. Is a Macbook likely to withstand an accident like that?
2) And then a more dramatic example is when I last year knocked a full glass of Coca-Cola onto my keyboard. That flooded the keyboard, and the Coke ran off over the sides across the speaker grills. I never even had to shut the machine down. I blotted off the keyboard with some towels, drained off what liquid remained, continued for another hour in order to get some critical work done. Then the next morning I swapped in a spare keyboard that I keep on hand. Only two or three drops of liquid got past the keyboard tray, and they landed on the CD drive, so big spill and no harm done, no productive time lost.
How would situation #2 play out with a Macbook? Would I need to send the thing in for service? How fast does Apple typically turn things around?
I really like what I see when I go into a store and look at these Macbooks. Great design. An operating system that isn't a kludgy mishmash. Two and a half Gs is a lot to spend though, and the issues of durability and ease of service are concerning.
Are keyboard swaps possible? I'm one of those guys who always seems to end up with grungy keyboards. I keep a couple of spare on hand for my Thinkpad, and a swap is a ten-minute job. I'm guessing that a swap is not even possible on a Macbook. Is that correct?
What about liquids and spills? I wish I could say the never happen, but stuff happens, right? Let me share a couple of recent examples:
1) I'm on a flight working when the flight attendant reaches across to pass a glass of soda to the person next to me. Some spills onto my laptop. Is a Macbook likely to withstand an accident like that?
2) And then a more dramatic example is when I last year knocked a full glass of Coca-Cola onto my keyboard. That flooded the keyboard, and the Coke ran off over the sides across the speaker grills. I never even had to shut the machine down. I blotted off the keyboard with some towels, drained off what liquid remained, continued for another hour in order to get some critical work done. Then the next morning I swapped in a spare keyboard that I keep on hand. Only two or three drops of liquid got past the keyboard tray, and they landed on the CD drive, so big spill and no harm done, no productive time lost.
How would situation #2 play out with a Macbook? Would I need to send the thing in for service? How fast does Apple typically turn things around?
I really like what I see when I go into a store and look at these Macbooks. Great design. An operating system that isn't a kludgy mishmash. Two and a half Gs is a lot to spend though, and the issues of durability and ease of service are concerning.
