Case flexing?

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Hi,

I have had my MacBook for just under a month, I am very disappointed with the build quality. Especially when compared to CHEAPER Dell's.

At the bottom, on the screen half. If I press, carry, or touch it I can hear creaking. And soon I bet a crack will appear.

This is very disappointing considering this laptop cost £950.

Is this normal wear-and-tear? Or do I have serious problem. There is a very small amount of flex in the left side, and above the touchpad.

I did ring Apple, completely useless. I don't have the time to go to the Apple Store.
 
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Hi,

I have had my MacBook for just under a month, I am very disappointed with the build quality. Especially when compared to CHEAPER Dell's.

At the bottom, on the screen half. If I press, carry, or touch it I can hear creaking. And soon I bet a crack will appear.

This is very disappointing considering this laptop cost £950.

Is this normal wear-and-tear? Or do I have serious problem. There is a very small amount of flex in the left side, and above the touchpad.

I did ring Apple, completely useless. I don't have the time to go to the Apple Store.

I would say don't worry about it. Mine does it too. I will admit, though, that it is quite embarrassing to hand your friend your brand new mac, and it creaks during the handoff. All he said was, "Dude, why does it creak like that?" All I could say was I don't know... Oh well though, to me it's no big deal.
 
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I get none of that, and I'd hold my MacBook build quality up against the Dells we use at work any day. There's no comparison, the Dells are rattly, the keyboards loose and flexible, poor quality mouse buttons.

As long as you are handling your MB correctly I doubt anything will happen. Mine gets carried around one-handed with the lid up regularly and I've had no trouble.
 
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I get none of that, and I'd hold my MacBook build quality up against the Dells we use at work any day. There's no comparison, the Dells are rattly, the keyboards loose and flexible, poor quality mouse buttons.

As long as you are handling your MB correctly I doubt anything will happen. Mine gets carried around one-handed with the lid up regularly and I've had no trouble.

yours doesn't creak? and you carry it with on hand (like a waiter,or holding one of the edges?) oh my, i wonder why mine creaks then...
 
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Mine doesn't so much creak as it's chasis seems to to be greatly effected by torsional flex. For example: if I have a DVD playing in it while it's in my lap, then I decide to get up to pour some more coffee, I grasp it on either side of the trackpad to put it on the table. This causes the chasis to flex as if the back part of the laptop is heavily weighted down by the display. The result is the DVD rotational speed slows down and eventually stops playing and tosses an error. I can actually hear the DVD's rpms slowly spinning down. Oddly, if I slowly lift it by the front, placing more and then less torsional stress on the chasis, I can actually hear the DVD gradually slow down and speed up, as if the DVD is being progressively gripped more tightly or loosely by a vise. I laugh a bit thinking that if DVD's were analogue instead of digital, I could speed up or slow down the playback of movies or audio by doing this. However, if I pick up the MacBook by the left front and right rear (by where the display hinge meets the base) there is no slowdown of the DVD and no errors/stopped DVD problem. Obviously the simple fix is to pick up the MacBook carefully, though I was surprised that I had to even worry about it at all. Nothings perfect in life I suppose.
Dave
 
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Right it is just wear and tear, at the end of the warranty I may go to the Genius Bar.

Oh, Dell Latitude notebooks probably beat a MacBook in build quality.
 
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In fact the cheapest Dell Inspiron beats this MacBook.
 
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In fact the cheapest Dell Inspiron beats this MacBook.

Beats on what grounds? Build quality? Hardware? there are a ton of items to judge the two by.

I would say that the Dell wouldn't "beat" the Mac simply because the Dell doesn't run OS X. As soon as Windows gets on the level of OS X (meaning efi boot system and no registry, and such things), I will gladly run a faster OS on a slightly slower CPU (or whatever) and a less solid build quality :)
 
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I agree, build quality on the macbook is a joke
 
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I agree, build quality on the macbook is a joke

Did you all buy something else called a MacBook? My MB is like it's been hewn from a block of granite compared to a Dell notebook.
 
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No, I got the cheapest Dell for my sister. It is sturdy, unlike my MacBook.

I just think this is wear and tear, or a rubbish product? It is just when the laptop is closed that plastic thing (I think it is a hinge) in the right corner flexes.

I am not a fan of Dell, they are built well but very unreliable.

If other people have the same problem then I won't worry too much.
 
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I just think this is wear and tear, or a rubbish product?

Which is of course a subjective comment. I'd guess you're not being too careful/careful enough with the MB if you think Dells are better built, as every Dell I've been exposed to here at work is cheap and nasty. Perhaps if you treat a few Dells the same way you treat your MB, they'll be just as "rubbish."
 
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My macbook creaks every which way and my mouse button also creaks and feels like theres something under it, which I don't get cause I've always been careful. To me it feels like a really nice computer surrounded by a pretty crappy enclosure. It doesn't bother me too much as I think I'm careful enough to keep it from actually cracking, but it's a slight annoyance.

As for Dells, I can only agree that they're nasty. This was a desktop mind you, but a Dell I have at home once had a power supply that caught fire...:)
 
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Actually I take care of this MacBook like I would if it was my baby.

I think it is built well, I was playing on another Dell... I don't take care with Dell's.

The Inspiron 6400 has a similar problem, but I can live with it. It is just usage.

I am going to buy another Mac laptop sometime next year, hopefully a 12".

I like the Dell Latitude D420, but that is just for typing a Word document. No fun! I also like the IBM ThinkPad's but they cost the earth!!!

I don't like what I see from Acer at all, so I guess my MacBook is very good!

At the end of the day the Dell is unreliable, and my Mac is. So what if a little creak appears. The end value is worth it.

Dell are mass-produced quickly. I think the Mac's are built with pride.
 
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I know the build quality on my MBP is some what mediocre. The screen has the problem of not closing completely flush as a lot of people have reported and the second keyboard that is on it now still has crooked keys. They're not as bad as the first, but they are crooked. My Dell Inspiron has not had any build quality issues and if fairly sturdy. It does weigh more and is a bigger machine though.

And there has been no abuse to mine. It's been in protected by a Speck case since day one.

I do have until April to get it fixed. I may hit up the apple store next time I go to my friend's place in Baltimore. Sucks that it's 90+ miles away.
 
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I think the Mac's are built with pride.


That's funny. I'm pretty sure that most Dell's are built to spec as they have a much larger customisation process when ordering and most of Apple's computers, except the Mac Pro, are pretty much cut any dry pre built systems with the exception of memory and HD options.

Either way, I doubt the employee's on Dell's lines are sitting there with the thought of "Let's just get this junk out of here", while Apple's are thinking "Man we're proud we packed this into a box and shipped it out".

I would also expect a lot less complaints on build quality issues if this was the case.
 
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I find it quite hard to believe the MBP is poorly made, I have seen those and they beat ANY PC notebook I have ever seen.

Considering the MBP is made of metal and the Dell plastic, the argument is already over.

Dell do get the junk out of here, I had Dell Support hang up on me 4 times. I have had the touchpad changed 3 times, motherboard once, HD twice, keyboard once, case once. Complete junk.

Oh and for a computer to arrive scratched from ordering, then to come back even more scratched from repair. It's no wonder why their name rhymes with H3LL
 
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I find it quite hard to believe the MBP is poorly made, I have seen those and they beat ANY PC notebook I have ever seen.

Considering the MBP is made of metal and the Dell plastic, the argument is already over.

Dell do get the junk out of here, I had Dell Support hang up on me 4 times. I have had the touchpad changed 3 times, motherboard once, HD twice, keyboard once, case once. Complete junk.

Oh and for a computer to arrive scratched from ordering, then to come back even more scratched from repair. It's no wonder why their name rhymes with H3LL

What I find funny is that even though people complain about Dell support, they will eventually get the job done and unlike apple, who also provides a one year limited warranty, they will still talk to you on the phone after the first three months of it. 45 minutes on the phone beats 3 hour drive (round trip), $40 in gas, and the feeling that you're getting screwed because the store has to either ship it off (which that's all you really wanted to do in the first place) or keep it over the weekend until they're able to repair it on Monday or Tuesday, making you take 8-16 hours of leave to stay there, or spend another 3 hours driving and $40 in gas.

So as hard as it is to believe, no other notebook that I've laid eyes on besides the MBP has had problems with crooked keys or bent casings. Sure they may crack with abuse, but to have them just warp under normal operation constraints is not what I would call good quality.

And the keys that were affected were misaligned vertically and horizontinally, with some sloping at odd angles or being "twisted" to sit different than the rest. It came out of the box like this and the second keyboard placed on it was like this too.

Oh...and the power button dropped down in the case once before as well.
 
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No, Dell waffles on and on, transferring you from department to department.

I never knew a motherboard failure was a software issue.

Yeah, Dell sucks.

I know that a MBP treated with care would outlive a Inspiron in any case. I think you probably abused yours.

How can a pile of plastic, that uses software to get all the hardware working beat a aluminum working notebook?

Oh those Indian call centers suck aswell, no offense to anyone.
 
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No, Dell waffles on and on, transferring you from department to department.

I never knew a motherboard failure was a software issue.

Yeah, Dell sucks.

I know that a MBP treated with care would outlive a Inspiron in any case. I think you probably abused yours.

How can a pile of plastic, that uses software to get all the hardware working beat a aluminum working notebook?

Oh those Indian call centers suck aswell, no offense to anyone.

:|

I guess you misread that part where I said it came out of the box with the crooked keys and after I open the box from having it repaired and sent back to me, the second keyboard had crooked keys on it as well?

I abuse none of my material possesions and sold an old notebook last October as I was getting my Dell. It was a 3 year old HP that worked perfectly. The new owner is now happily using it for browsing the internet and using microsoft office. I even had a P3 that I gave away to some one that never had their own computer. All they needed was a web machine and something to write reports on. It was nearly 10 years old. Sure it's not the latest and greatest, but it was as good as new.

You're assuming a lot about me for not even knowing me. I guess it's too hard for you to admit that Apple doesn't make perfect products all the time and will still suffer from products that have flaws in them and that are just not built like they should be. Every manufacture does it. Unless they spend as much on QA as they do on making the machines, then they're probably not going to have 100% of the items being shipped out for work 100% correctly.

In fact, this is the 2nd MBP I've bought. The first one was a refurbed that came with the little piece of the case above the latch bent outward and lines running through the LCD.

Now if you're going to get upset about it and argue, you should first look at all the post of problems that people have on this forum and that way you don't have to take my word for it. You'll see DOA computers and other equipment. iPods, definitely having iPhone problems, power cords that like to catch fire, the whole battery fiasco (which duh, they were sony batteries, but still), and other hardware and software issues. It's a fact of life. Products aren't going to be perfect 100% of the time.
 

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