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Holiday return period drawing to a close, thoughts and decisions
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Well, I have a 45 day return window with Best Buy, and I just returned the base configured $2399 i got for $1999 for the $2799 base configuration priced down to $2399, so my return period got refreshed up to mid February. I'm starting to wonder if the i9 in this computer is running a bit too hot and throttling the computer. I find that unlikely given the new thermal layout of the computer, but some things are running slower than the i7 based model I previously used. New Macs spend some time indexing the computer when they're first booted up, aye? Could that explain the performance degradation I've noticed and assure me it's temporary?
How did you get Best Buy to sell for $2399? It is showing as $2799 on the web. Amazon is $2549
keeping 8core 2.4/8gb vid/2tb/32tb.. the story:
-no coli whine
-keyboard a little noisy, but nicely responsive, not mushy.
-if there is ghosting i don't notice it
-returned separate 8 core 2.4/8gb vid/4tb/64tb, keyboard on 32tb/8gb vido/2tb was better experience and didn't need the higher specs
-screen is fine
-no coli whine
-keyboard a little noisy, but nicely responsive, not mushy.
-if there is ghosting i don't notice it
-returned separate 8 core 2.4/8gb vid/4tb/64tb, keyboard on 32tb/8gb vido/2tb was better experience and didn't need the higher specs
-screen is fine
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The main reservations I have in keeping mine are justifying the £3.6k outlay (inc AC), portability, battery life and running hot/noisy. The last point I can probably adapt my workflow to work around.
Am I right in thinking that if I raise a return/refund request by the 8th, I have another 14 days to physically return it or actually refrain from doing so if I decide to keep hold of it it?
Am I right in thinking that if I raise a return/refund request by the 8th, I have another 14 days to physically return it or actually refrain from doing so if I decide to keep hold of it it?
Careful, BestBuy can be a stickler on returning high priced items a second time. They might not give you any trouble, but I remember when I purchased a MacBook Air from them a couple of years ago. I returned it as I ended up wanting a 13" MacBook Pro. I ended up also returning that because there was a problem with the keyboard that popped up about 20 days into ownership. I'm an Elite member and even with the problem Best Buy tried to fight me on the return. I ended up having to call them and talk to someone over the phone to get them to take it back. The weird thing is that I didn't have a single return that year up to that point (and it was in November). They told me on the phone they don't like to accept back high priced items more than once per their terms and conditions.
Funny thing is I took a $50 gift I purchased for someone back in December and this printout came with the return that said I wasn't going to be allowed to return anything for the rest of the year. This was December so I didn't think it was a big deal but still seemed weird to me. I've returned items since then (none of them high priced) and have't had any other problems.
Again you may not have any issues in returning it but thought I'd let you know.
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No I think you have to have it in the mail by the 8th and definitely have to have it returned to a store by the 8th.
I tried 3 different configs (prices inclusive of AC+ and tax) during the holiday return period.
Machine #2 was a good balance of price and power, but still overkill for my workflow. This machine went back because of a sketchy battery (low max capacity) and flaky GDDR6 VRAM
Machine #3 is adequate for my workflow, but might not have room to grow / might not be as future-proof if I keep the machine a long time.
Ultimately I decided to stay with #3. I liked the #2 config but ultimately couldn't justify the $1200 price difference (equivalent to an iPad Pro 11" or an iPhone 11 Pro). The $2000 difference between #3 and #1 is nearly enough for another machine. I figured I was better off going with the base model and replacing it in 3 years if/when it no longer meets my needs.
- "Stock BTO" high-end config $5600 CAD: Space Grey, 2.4 GHz i9, 32 GB, 5500M 8 GB, 2 TB SSD
- Custom BTO config $4800 CAD: Silver, 2.3 GHz i9, 32 GB, 5500M 8 GB, 1 TB SSD
- Stock base config $3600 CAD: Silver, 2.6 GHz i7, 16 GB, 5300M 4 GB, 512 GB SSD
Machine #2 was a good balance of price and power, but still overkill for my workflow. This machine went back because of a sketchy battery (low max capacity) and flaky GDDR6 VRAM
Machine #3 is adequate for my workflow, but might not have room to grow / might not be as future-proof if I keep the machine a long time.
Ultimately I decided to stay with #3. I liked the #2 config but ultimately couldn't justify the $1200 price difference (equivalent to an iPad Pro 11" or an iPhone 11 Pro). The $2000 difference between #3 and #1 is nearly enough for another machine. I figured I was better off going with the base model and replacing it in 3 years if/when it no longer meets my needs.
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Just initiated a refund here in the UK and it says the machine must be in Apple’s hands by 19th Jan. So that gives more breathing space for anyone to change their mind and keep it up to 14 days after 8th Jan cut off.
This is correct, the last day of return is actually the last day you can set up a return, if you are returning it by mail; so effectively you get an additional couple weeks if you so wish.
I'm keeping mine. Happy all around with the machine and I think even the base model will last 4-5 years.
Not sure yet. I have till Thursday to decide. Pretty upset with the driver issues which haven’t been fixed with 10.15.2 (speaker popping and iGPU lag). For anyone saying the speaker popping is fixed - check what hz the format of the speakers is on in audio midi settings. Try setting it to 44Khz and it should go back to its normal popping ways.
Nobody should be saying the popping is fixed because Apple hasn't released the update to fix it. Anyone who thinks 10.15.2 was supposed to be the fix when Apple only acknowledged the issue 3-4 days prior to releasing 10.15.2 is an idiot.
They did try and cover it up by switching the external speaker and microphone from 44khz to 48 but they didn’t change anything else
I considered returning mine due to some issues that I had with weird behavior while trying to recreate the desktop setup I was using with my 2014 15" MBP. I think these are primarily related to Catalina (the old machine was still on High Sierra). Catalina in general just seems buggy. It was frustrating to spend a lot of money on a new machine and have it essentially be less convenient than the old one (to say nothing of the issues involved in transitioning to an all-USB-C lifestyle), but a lot of these are temporary. Either Apple will fix the bugs over time, or I will figure out how to get around them. And of course there are a lot of advantages to the new machine as well. Honestly though, if I could just put High Sierra or Mojave on this machine I would do it in a heartbeat and wait out the growing pains associated with this OS release.
Also, at this point I've done so much work switching everything over, including spending money on new cables and buying new software for Catalina, that it would seem silly to try and go back.
Also, at this point I've done so much work switching everything over, including spending money on new cables and buying new software for Catalina, that it would seem silly to try and go back.
I feel the same way. I’ve already entered dongle life upgraded to 64 bit finale etc. I might return it to play lottery with coil whine but the issues all seem software related
Well, what Apple did here is to get the fix ready first before acknowledging this issue. It is a common industry practice for handling such scenarios, unless it is security/privacy related or otherwise mandated by law.
The popping is indeed gone for me (and many many others) with 10.15.2.
I’ll repeat what I said, go to audio midi settings and format the speakers to be on 44Khz instead of 48khz and see if it’s gone. It’s certainly not gone for me when it’s on 44Khz and I doubt it will be for you.
What @Viamusic10000 said : it's gone because the update changed audio output to 48Khz. Put is back to 44Khz and the popping sound is back. Nice trick, Apple!
Will this be fixed or can't this be fixed?
Will this be fixed or can't this be fixed?
It probably can be fixed the question is: will they? I don’t know I’m deciding whether to return in the next few days at my period expires. Switching over the ecosystem, and there’s still a chance of QC issues.... I don’t know
Same thoughts here, but I have still 4 weeks to go. Maybe in the meantime Apple will fix some bugs, and create some new......
they said that they would fix it in an internal memo which is positive. I’m probably going to keep this computer and I might install a Linux distro on it. I find windows ugly but am admittedly unfamiliar with, still don’t know if I wanna switch
expecting 10.15.2 to fix it is dumb imo because it didn’t say anything in the notes on the site and we got the update a few days after the internal memo.