Is this current generation of 16" reliable compared to previous generations of MacBooks?

[NT3327]

I've ordered the MacBook Pro 16" with base i9, 16gb of ram and the 5500m 4GB and it came in on Wednesday.
The device had mayor issues out of the box so I had to return it, the store sent out another one and it arrived yesterday, unfortunately the replacement turned out to be having a faulty fan, apple support ran diagnostics on it and advised me to return the device from where I bought it asap.

I've had several apple devices and MacBooks before, this is the first time I've experienced something like this. Is this current 16" model one that I can rely on or have I just been very unlucky? I did see that both devices were manufactured on the same day (28th of October, 2019). Could it be a faulty batch maybe?

Apologies for my bad English, it isn't my native language

 

[Wolfgang Aston]

This, first gen 16'' had a lot of problems(unlike a lot of reviewers said), I'm thinking about return mine and waiting for the 2nd gen for 16''.

 

[randomgeeza]

What problems are those? I have a 1st gen 16" 2019. And it is almost flawless... The popping has been fixed in 10.15.4. The keyboard is vastly improved. The ghosting is no worse than any other previous model and the speakers are pretty damn good.

OP: enjoy your replacement machine. You have been unlucky....

 

[leman]

Since there is no official statistics, we don’t know for sure. So far, I have not seen any data suggesting that the new macs are either more or less reliable that the previous models. I was in charge of IT for a med-size office (about 60 people) for a couple of years and I did not notice any significant changes in failure rate over time. There are statistics that suggest that all premium-grade laptops, no matter the brand, have comparable failure rates. Overall, expect 1 in 5 premium laptops to suffer a failure within 3 years of purchase.

 

[Wolfgang Aston]

What problems are those? I have a 1st gen 16" 2019. And it is almost flawless... The popping has been fixed in 10.15.4. The keyboard is vastly improved. The ghosting is no worse than any other previous model and the speakers are pretty damn good.

OP: enjoy your replacement machine. You have been unlucky....

Coil whine and display ghosting, I can live with coil whine but ghosting is making my eye strained. Here's two images for ghosting comparison.

 

[pshufd]

There may be increased QA issues due to COVID which may be impacting supply chains and manufacturing. We haven't had quality issues with MacBook Pros and we've bought quite a few of them over the years. We're still on 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pros and they all work just fine. I am looking forward to a 16 at some point but I might just wait for the second iteration or when COVID is over.

 

[dapa0s]

It is reliable, especially comparing to the 2016-2019 gen.

Bad units just happen. I had to return 3 (!) Mac Mini's in a row, but most people don't complain about them and consider them reliable. I had a horrible experience personally, but it's just anecdotal evidence.

We'll have to wait for some official reports on the Macbook Pro 16 though and keep in mind that you'll only hear and read about situations like yours since people that have units that work just don't talk about it.

 

[pshufd]

It is reliable, especially comparing to the 2016-2019 gen.

Bad units just happen. I had to return 3 (!) Mac Mini's in a row, but most people don't complain about them and consider them reliable. I had a horrible experience personally, but it's just anecdotal evidence.

We'll have to wait for some official reports on the Macbook Pro 16 though and keep in mind that you'll only hear and read about situations like yours since people that have units that work just don't talk about it.

We've purchased 8 MBPs over the years and have never had a QA problem. We've had to get video cards replaced but those are component defects, not QA issues. No problems with an iMac, Mac Mini, PowerMac, Mac+.