Looking to purchase first MB Pro

[PUD the Ancient]

I have been looking for a new Laptop to replace my five year old Acer for over a year now but each PC laptop I look at seems to have one problem or another. I had been looking to spend about £1400 and wanted a 16-17" screen, I5 or I7 with a good graphics card. After trying five different Sony Vaio's, all with various screen problems I decided to have a re-think.

For the last few weeks I have been considering a change to Mac and therefore the Macbook Pro 17. Obviously this will require spending about £600 more for a similar spec to the PC's I had been looking at.

My thinking had been that surely spending a lot more on a Mac would obviously come with a upgrade in quality, you get what you pay for being the old saying.

Having browsed through these forums for the last week or so I am a bit concerned that that would not be the case and I would likely have problems should I go with a MB pro. There seems to be talk of yellow tinges on the bottom of screens and problems with the i5 and i7 Macbooks crashing and no apparent fixes forthcoming from Apple. These amongst other problems.

Having read these threads and seeing people having multiple replacements and still the same problems, you can perhaps understand a potential customer who is looking at spending over £2000 being a bit concerned.

I really just want to buy something and have it work as it should. So does anyone have any words of wisdom

 

[u6crash]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think it may be a case of the squeaky wheel getting the case. I'm not saying that these people don't have legitimate problems, but I bet it's not 1 in 10 or maybe even 1 in 20 that have a problem. If there is a significant problem, I'm sure Apple will take care of it inside the first year. Don't forget to look at the refurbished models available. They are significantly less and get the same guarantees as a new machine.

 

[kny3twalker]

I have a 2009 model 13" when all models had the core 2 duo and the only problem I have had is that the feet did not sit perfectly level. I ended up fixing this when upgrading my ram just by chance mostly. I learned long ago when you are bolting or screwing something together to start all the screws or bolts and then tighten them in a star like pattern. Apparently this is beyond the capabilities of the $1/day Chinese worker.
Anyways I would not worry when buying an apple notebook. Their quality of construction and precision is way beyond what any windows laptop manufacturer has attempted.
But I will say if you expect an ips quality display, you will be disappointed. Apple uses tn panels in their notebook displays, and from what I have seen, the yellow tint issue is nothing more than an uncalibrated display. The narrower viewing angles of the tn panel emphasize this.
Good luck with your decision

 

[Spartan-117]

Got an i5 15" here working perfectly, no squeaks, crashes or any general problems, battery even lasts a good 2-3 days with very light use. Currently traveling a lot so it seems to be living up to it all, X-rays from doggy airports and all

One benefit you will definitely get over other laptops is that the battery lasts much longer on a mac than on a sony or dell.

 

[demonsavatar]

Note that you are on a forum where people come to find solutions to problems they are having. Of course many of the posts will be about things wrong with their Macbook pro's. Its the usual problem of looking at support forums for a product before getting it. Sure if there is a prevalent problem you will notice a few threads with hundreds/thousands of people complaining, but there is nothing like that here.

There's maybe <50 people really complaining about a yellow tinge, and that is mostly when closely comparing the screen with reference photos. Most people don't have the problem or don't notice it.

Same deal with crashes, I would say <50-60 people really experiencing it.

As for hinge squeakiness, there are even fewer people consistently complaining about that.

 

[PUD the Ancient]

I have a 2009 model 13" when all models had the core 2 duo and the only problem I have had is that the feet did not sit perfectly level. I ended up fixing this when upgrading my ram just by chance mostly. I learned long ago when you are bolting or screwing something together to start all the screws or bolts and then tighten them in a star like pattern. Apparently this is beyond the capabilities of the $1/day Chinese worker.
Anyways I would not worry when buying an apple notebook. Their quality of construction and precision is way beyond what any windows laptop manufacturer has attempted.
But I will say if you expect an ips quality display, you will be disappointed. Apple uses tn panels in their notebook displays, and from what I have seen, the yellow tint issue is nothing more than an uncalibrated display. The narrower viewing angles of the tn panel emphasize this.
Good luck with your decision

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has kindly replied

I am unsure of the differences between an ips panel and a tn panel? should I not expect a quality display on a MB Pro? What I am looking for in a laptop panel is a reasonably uniform screen with little or no backlight bleed, no faulty pixels and good brightness and contrast. Are these unreasonable expectations?

 

[HLdan]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has kindly replied

I am unsure of the differences between an ips panel and a tn panel? should I not expect a quality display on a MB Pro? What I am looking for in a laptop panel is a reasonably uniform screen with little or no backlight bleed, no faulty pixels and good brightness and contrast. Are these unreasonable expectations?

The screens on the MBP's are some of the best in the industry for a notebook computer. Very good viewing angles and black levels. Backlight bleed isn't something that happens often but dead pixels are something you can't avoid, you're either going to get them out of the box or not so we can't help you here about that as dead/stuck pixels are typical for any LCD.
You don't have a choice in terms of TN or IPS, all MB's comes with TN panels. If you live near an Apple store or Best Buy or Fry's go take a look at their demos.

 

[kny3twalker]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has kindly replied

I am unsure of the differences between an ips panel and a tn panel? should I not expect a quality display on a MB Pro? What I am looking for in a laptop panel is a reasonably uniform screen with little or no backlight bleed, no faulty pixels and good brightness and contrast. Are these unreasonable expectations?

IPS are professional displays basically. They have a wider color range, wider viewing angles, little to no color shift, and higher contrast many times.
That said the macbook pros have some of the best displays for a notebook, and in fact the displays played a large role in my decision to look at the macbook pro and later buy one.
Since you are unaware of the differences between IPS vs. TN, you should know that nearly all notebooks use TN panels. There are only a handful which do not.

 

[opera57]

Yeah you definitely get what you pay for, especially in terms of display. To be honest on forums like these you probably hear more of smaller problems that the minority have as people that are happy and have a problem free laptop generally keep quiet. That and apple have excellent customer care so would take care of any problems if you were to have any!

 

[PUD the Ancient]

Thank you very much for the replies

The PC laptops I have looked at have had mediocre displays, be it backlight bleed or bad uniformity, even in expensive £1600 models.

The MB Pro screens seem to get very good press and user reviews. This is one of the reasons I have started looking at the MB Pro's rather than PC laptops.

 

[kny3twalker]

The PC laptops I have looked at have had mediocre displays, be it backlight bleed or bad uniformity, even in expensive £1600 models.

The MB Pro screens seem to get very good press and user reviews. This is one of the reasons I have started looking at the MB Pro's rather than PC laptops.

Great Minds Think Alike

 

[shoppy]

Get a 17" i5 you will not regret it, it is great for travel and use at home, screen size is amazing for work.

 

[PUD the Ancient]

Get a 17" i5 you will not regret it, it is great for travel and use at home, screen size is amazing for work.

Yes I have been looking at the 17" I5 2.53ghz 500gb (7200rpm) but I am not sure if I should go Glossy or AG, leaning towards AG at the moment.

 

[ruffi]

Got an i5 15" here working perfectly, no squeaks, crashes or any general problems, battery even lasts a good 2-3 days with very light use. Currently traveling a lot so it seems to be living up to it all, X-rays from doggy airports and all

One benefit you will definitely get over other laptops is that the battery lasts much longer on a mac than on a sony or dell.

that what i have and i love it... best computer purchase ive made....

 

[djasterix]

Got an i5 15" here working perfectly, no squeaks, crashes or any general problems, battery even lasts a good 2-3 days with very light use. Currently traveling a lot so it seems to be living up to it all, X-rays from doggy airports and all

Same here, zero problems, great machine...

 

[squarcles]

MacBook Pro 15 inch i7 mid 2010 no issues except for the weak hinge which has gotten better since the mid 2009 model but still isn't strong enough to keep the screen up when tilting the base of the laptop like for example when laying on a bed or sitting on a couch. Other than that a pretty amazing machine!

http://www.squarcles.com

 

[iambasil]

MacBook Pro 15 inch i7 mid 2010 no issues except for the weak hinge which has gotten better since the mid 2009 model but still isn't strong enough to keep the screen up when tilting the base of the laptop like for example when laying on a bed or sitting on a couch. Other than that a pretty amazing machine!

http://www.squarcles.com

No problem with my hinge! In fact if anything the magnet is slightly too strong making it a little hard to lift the lid. I'm not complaining! Mac build quality was always fantastic and has only got better.