macbook quality

[dasRatsel]

howdy:
I'm looking for a laptop for college come fall, so I was thinking about picking up a Macbook sometime in late August. What I'm curious about is whether or not August is too early. I know that those who bought the Macbook Pro in the first few months frequently complain about poor quality, or defective parts, namely the battery. Do you think that that is enough time to work the bugs out of the manufacturing process? Thanks for the advise.

 

[Brainonska511]

August isn't too early, maybe a little on the late side. You want to have time to adjust to your new laptop and make sure that it is working properly. I just got my college laptop a few days ago (Asus W3J).

As for the quality and stuff of the macbooks, they are well built from what I've read. There is probably more info out there about macbooks, but I'm not a mac person.

 

[dasRatsel]

yea, i'm just a little put off by reports i saw on slashdot of the white ones turning yellow, and the balck ones flaking, just like the black ipods; although i realize these are probably just isolated cases. I just want to be sure if i'm putting that much money into a computer.

 

[jackwhitter]

if you want a macbook pro, i would wait as apple might change the revision on the macbook pro's to include intel's new core duo 2! a regular macbook (non pro) will not likely see an update until christmas or so.. this is my guess, mind you, but apple usually updates revisions every 6 - 10 months anyways.

OH, brainonska, what do you think of the asus w3j? i've been eyeballing that laptop since i saw its announcement. how is battery life, game performance, and heat? mind doing a little mini review? thanks!

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: jackwhitter
if you want a macbook pro, i would wait as apple might change the revision on the macbook pro's to include intel's new core duo 2! a regular macbook (non pro) will not likely see an update until christmas or so.. this is my guess, mind you, but apple usually updates revisions every 6 - 10 months anyways.

OH, brainonska, what do you think of the asus w3j? i've been eyeballing that laptop since i saw its announcement. how is battery life, game performance, and heat? mind doing a little mini review? thanks!

I actually did do a minireview in another thread under the SFF/Notebook Section, just take a look there. Batterylife - haven't fully tested it yet, but unplugged, it says I can get ~3:30, gaming performance, I ran 3dMark06 and the results are in my review, but I don't know about actual games as I don't have a mouse yet and I haven't installed FEAR yet.

 

[LordMelkor]

Originally posted by: jackwhitter
if you want a macbook pro, i would wait as apple might change the revision on the macbook pro's to include intel's new core duo 2! a regular macbook (non pro) will not likely see an update until christmas or so.. this is my guess, mind you, but apple usually updates revisions every 6 - 10 months anyways.

I've been eyeing the Macbook Pro for some time now, and I've had the same reservations as dasRatsel, but about the revision... when is the core duo 2 comming out, and when can the Macbook Pro revision be expected? And since it will be a new release wont the initial computers be prone to the manufacturing defects that were seen in the early macbooks?

 

[Mikey]

as far as i know, that single blacbook that flaked was a defect. there have been zero accounts of other black macbooks flaking, as far as i've read.

as for revisions, they are not brand new releases. they are just fixes or changes to current versions. If anything, you can expect better of them then the previous version. Core 2 duo is coming out in august for notebooks, and you can expect the revision sometime around x-mas. Most notebooks wont actually have the core 2 duo in them until months and months after it comes out.

 

[LordMelkor]

Oh so there is no macbook pro revision expected before xmas? And it wont have core 2 duo? Well then I guess I should get my macbook pro now since i need it before the middle of september...

 

[erikistired]

i'm waiting til next year to upgrade to a macbook pro. they still seem to be going through growing pains, along with the macbooks. luckily i picked up my g4 powerbook right before the switch over and it runs solid as a rock. the macbooks have mooing problems and the white case problems. afaik the whining problems are being fixed (macbook pro only?) and hopefully they've correctly figured out how to put on heatsink compound by now.