News - Apple indulges in MacBook Pro refresh

[HEXUS]

Quietly polishes laptop specs.

Read more.

[Roobubba]

Yup, that's still an awful lot of money for what you get. And this one I'm typing on now crashes a lot more than it should, but hey ho if work want to waste money on Apple, who am I to stop them?

[Bluecube]

Very kind of you not to stop me picking a MBP up next month. Thanks!

[Roobubba]

Very kind of you not to stop me picking a MBP up next month. Thanks!

Hope yours is more stable...

Oh, and also make sure you change all your hardware to Apple equivalent in the house, especially the router - the wifi card in these things is really truly flakey unless it's connected to an ApplePort or whatever they call their overpriced version. It can be stable for days, quite happy, on Netgear, D-Link and Linksys hardware, then suddenly decide to drop connection, and there's no rhyme nor reason to it. Oh, and the screen appears to have gone all light in the bottom corners (this MBP is 6 months old).
Also, when the battery goes like my last one, you can't just swap it out (like the last model of MBP I had through work), due to the (admittedly smart) unibody design, so that'll cost a fair whack to get a simple replacement dropped in. Same goes for the hard disk, though this SS 250GB should be okay for a while, I hope, no reported problems in that area, unlike the wireless card and the screen and the battery...

These are just some of the reasons I won't be spending any of my own money on Apple hardware. In my experience, it doesn't 'just work', it needs a lot of fighting to make it work and even then it only half works.
Only my experience, mind, they surely have a lot of perfectly rational, devoted, loyal customers (guffaw!).

[miniyazz]

Personally, I'm very happy with my XPS 15, equipped with i7 2820QM, 8GB DDR3, 2GB GT 540M, 640GB HDD (now swapped out for 256GB SSD), and of course a 1920x1080p screen with excellent speakers & good build quality, plus the usual other specs.. for £783.05 inc VAT & delivery, new from the Dell Outlet. With a year's warranty.

But sure, Apple's rough equivalent @ over £2,000 sounds good. Oh wait, you can't get the equivalent, they don't offer a 1080p 15" screen. Ah well, maybe next time.

[DeludedGuy]

Personally, I'm very happy with my XPS 15, equipped with i7 2820QM, 8GB DDR3, 2GB GT 540M, 640GB HDD (now swapped out for 256GB SSD), and of course a 1920x1080p screen with excellent speakers & good build quality, plus the usual other specs.. for £783.05 inc VAT & delivery, new from the Dell Outlet. With a year's warranty.

But sure, Apple's rough equivalent @ over £2,000 sounds good. Oh wait, you can't get the equivalent, they don't offer a 1080p 15" screen. Ah well, maybe next time.

Long ago I decided that people who buy Apple PCs/Laptops do so because of the aesthetics. My older cousin who was 19 at the time didn't know much about computers, didn't know the difference between Windows and OSX but decided she needed a computer and it had to be an iMac G3:



She tried really hard to work with it and then ended up having to buy a PC because she hated the OS.

[redddraggon]

Hope yours is more stable...

Oh, and also make sure you change all your hardware to Apple equivalent in the house, especially the router - the wifi card in these things is really truly flakey unless it's connected to an ApplePort or whatever they call their overpriced version. It can be stable for days, quite happy, on Netgear, D-Link and Linksys hardware, then suddenly decide to drop connection, and there's no rhyme nor reason to it. Oh, and the screen appears to have gone all light in the bottom corners (this MBP is 6 months old).
Also, when the battery goes like my last one, you can't just swap it out (like the last model of MBP I had through work), due to the (admittedly smart) unibody design, so that'll cost a fair whack to get a simple replacement dropped in. Same goes for the hard disk, though this SS 250GB should be okay for a while, I hope, no reported problems in that area, unlike the wireless card and the screen and the battery...

I've not had any such problems, if anything I get a stronger WIFI signal with my MBP than I do with any of my other internal wifi cards on my other laptops.

[Bluecube]

Hope yours is more stable...

Oh, and also make sure you change all your hardware to Apple equivalent in the house, especially the router - the wifi card in these things is really truly flakey unless it's connected to an ApplePort or whatever they call their overpriced version. It can be stable for days, quite happy, on Netgear, D-Link and Linksys hardware, then suddenly decide to drop connection, and there's no rhyme nor reason to it. Oh, and the screen appears to have gone all light in the bottom corners (this MBP is 6 months old).
Also, when the battery goes like my last one, you can't just swap it out (like the last model of MBP I had through work), due to the (admittedly smart) unibody design, so that'll cost a fair whack to get a simple replacement dropped in. Same goes for the hard disk, though this SS 250GB should be okay for a while, I hope, no reported problems in that area, unlike the wireless card and the screen and the battery...

Having used Macs in various forms over the past seven years I don't recognise any of the issues you're having. It sounds as if you've got a dud. I would take it back and get a replacement/ refund.

[shaithis]

Holy a grand for a notebook with integrated video....and another for £1300...

Do they come with a lifetime supply of lube?

[Roobubba]

Having used Macs in various forms over the past seven years I don't recognise any of the issues you're having. It sounds as if you've got a dud. I would take it back and get a replacement/ refund.

Maybe you're just lucky? Having worked with Macs for the past 4 years, I find that this is pretty standard fare. In that time I have had 2 macbook pros (one at a time) and 2 mac pros (concurrently for that time, I work at 2 sites). These issues haven't just plagued my machines, but at least some of the other machines in the department. Dud or not, my personal experience is one of poor consistency, massive over-pricing, very long return/repair times (I had to send my previous macbook pro back because of the keyboard-connector next to the battery giving up the ghost after a year - had to do a temporary fix with some cardboard. It took them 3 weeks to receive/replace the part/return the machine - not good enough).

So no, Apple will never be getting any of my own money, thanks very much.