Battery Life

Ouch! How much truth to this?

) Your batteries might swell, explode, or stop working due to heating problems. Your case will be warped out of shape in the process.

2) The name “Macbook Pro” is considered horrible, and generally not the new status symbol your $2000+ notebook should be.

3) Performance on old Power PC code is mediocre. All your old Mac apps will generally run slowly, slower than a G4.

4) The Macbook Pro is shoddily and quickly manufactured in China. It may or may not have manufacturing defects that will need later repair, such as a loose fan.

5) Overheating will cause serious problems for your Macbook, if it suffers from blocked vents or the infamous thermal paste problem.

6) Some Macbook Pro owners report a hissing noise from the display if it’s running at less than full brightness.

7) No Firewire 800 port, which means significantly slower external device performance.

8) Wifi support in the new Macbook Pro is somewhat sketchy; Airport doesn’t work as well as it used to.

9) Macbook Pro pricing is higher than the corresponding Dell or other Intel Core Duo notebooks.

10) Like the Sony 13.3″ Vaio’s with metal cases, the Macbook Pro also can induce an electric shock to the user, through the metal case.

What's the source?

*Moved thread to proper forum*

jacintosh said:

) Your batteries might swell, explode, or stop working due to heating problems. Your case will be warped out of shape in the process.

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Could happen, has happened, is rare, and has been fixed in those rare cases.

2) The name “Macbook Pro” is considered horrible, and generally not the new status symbol your $2000+ notebook should be.

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Didn't like the name when it first came out, but it grew on me. What's in a name? At least it isn't an Edsel.

3) Performance on old Power PC code is mediocre. All your old Mac apps will generally run slowly, slower than a G4.

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Naw, they run fine. Besides, most apps are Intel/Universal now.

4) The Macbook Pro is shoddily and quickly manufactured in China. It may or may not have manufacturing defects that will need later repair, such as a loose fan.

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Not that I've seen of what MBPs I've used. Macbooks are very nicely built.

5) Overheating will cause serious problems for your Macbook, if it suffers from blocked vents or the infamous thermal paste problem.

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All notebooks get hot. So do these. Not a problem.

6) Some Macbook Pro owners report a hissing noise from the display if it’s running at less than full brightness.

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Haven't noticed it. Probably also rare. See battery bit above.

7) No Firewire 800 port, which means significantly slower external device performance.

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The Macbook Pro does have a FW 800 port. The Macbook only has a FW400, and it works quite nicely. Haven't noticed the FW 800's absence. Much faster than USB.

8) Wifi support in the new Macbook Pro is somewhat sketchy; Airport doesn’t work as well as it used to.

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WiFi with my Macbook is excellent, pulling in signals that my Dell goes "signal? I'm fine how are you?" I can get signal in conference rooms where people are comically holding their notebooks up in the air to get online (to be fair, this was the same with a couple of PowerBooks that were there.) My Macbook chugged along online no problem. I would assume it's the same for the Pro.

9) Macbook Pro pricing is higher than the corresponding Dell or other Intel Core Duo notebooks.

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It's a little higher, yes, but not that much anymore. It's a little bit of a premium, not twice the price as people will prattle off erroneously. Spec out a Dell with the same stuff (you know, built-in bluetooth, camera, Wifi, FW800, shock sensors, mag-safe connector...oh scratch that you can't get that.)

10) Like the Sony 13.3? Vaio’s with metal cases, the Macbook Pro also can induce an electric shock to the user, through the metal case.

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My Dell zaps the crap out of me periodically, though that's more of a static thing than AC coursing through. Otherwise, haven't noticed that this happens. I think electrocuting the customers would be a pretty bad marketing move, and based on recent Apple sales, I'd have to say that the customers aren't getting zapped. Wowed by the awesomeness that are Apple notebooks, yes. Juiced by their computers, no.

1) Your batteries might swell, explode, or stop working due to heating problems. Your case will be warped out of shape in the process.
This could be true for almost any notebook. Concerning Apple, there has been a recent battery recall and the affected batteries have been replaced.

2) The name “Macbook Pro” is considered horrible, and generally not the new status symbol your $2000+ notebook should be.
What does this really have to do with anything?

3) Performance on old Power PC code is mediocre. All your old Mac apps will generally run slowly, slower than a G4.
PowerPC apps will run under Rosetta emulation. They will run a tad slower. Good new is that by now most apps have been upgraded to meet the Universal standard.

4) The Macbook Pro is shoddily and quickly manufactured in China. It may or may not have manufacturing defects that will need later repair, such as a loose fan.
Again, almost all notebooks from any manufacturer are made in China or some other country overseas. Any computer can possibly have defects. This is why you have a warranty.

5) Overheating will cause serious problems for your Macbook, if it suffers from blocked vents or the infamous thermal paste problem.
There is no thermal paste problem and vents are only blocked if you block them.

6) Some Macbook Pro owners report a hissing noise from the display if it’s running at less than full brightness.
Never heard of this one, though I highly doubt any credibility to it.

7) No Firewire 800 port, which means significantly slower external device performance.
There is a Firewire 800 port.

8) Wifi support in the new Macbook Pro is somewhat sketchy; Airport doesn’t work as well as it used to.
Never heard this one, either. Not a fact, but rather an opinion at best.

9) Macbook Pro pricing is higher than the corresponding Dell or other Intel Core Duo notebooks.
The pricing is the same for an equally equipped notebook from another manufacturer.

10) Like the Sony 13.3″ Vaio’s with metal cases, the Macbook Pro also can induce an electric shock to the user, through the metal case.
False.


And here is a side note for you:
Almost everything you listed is a subjective opinion of someone, not a fact or an actual issue. Many of them are baseless statements. They aren't based on any actual fact and have no situations to back them up.
No matter what product you are looking at, negative opinions are the minority. You see more negative opinions because people with negative opinions are much more likely to post a blog, write an article, or complain to as many people as they possibly can.
Take these opinions with a grain of salt.

In order...False except for Sony recalled batteries (and obvious mistreatment), True, half true, true of all laptops, true of all laptops, true-but-emphasis-on-the-some, false, mostly false, false, and false as written.

Have a good one.

Let me tell you my personal experience on each of those points: NO!

MacHeadCase said:

*Moved thread to proper forum*

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Still got it wrong, MHC. This needs to be moved to a Windows fanboy forum site!

fleurya said:

Still got it wrong, MHC. This needs to be moved to a Windows fanboy forum site!

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Hahaha! That was good. Quite similar to what I was thinking myself.

Thanks for the apple response.....it feels good to be home, after 25 years with the dark side.

Wow!! 25 years.... Congrats on makin' it back!

About a year ago I priced out a Dell laptop with the same specs as a 17" MacBook Pro, and it came out to be about $1000 more expensive, not to mention twice as thick and probably twice as heavy.

D3v1L80Y said:

6) Some Macbook Pro owners report a hissing noise from the display if it’s running at less than full brightness.
Never heard of this one, though I highly doubt any credibility to it.

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Actually this was quite a valid but limited issue to some mbp's that were shipped to customers mainly in the midwest and some eastern states. The issues were mostly contained to a few specific areas and last I heard for the most part the issues were all resolved without question.

Number 2 is just stupid. Who cares? I don't consider it "horrible".

I tried to find a laptop that had the performance of a MBP in that price range, I couldn't. As someone stated above, it was easily $1000 more, sometimes as much as $1500+....It gets hot, but no hotter than the crapper $2000 Toshiba that literally burned my leg at one point, and it gets over twice the battery life. After reading/witnessing a lot of the horrors that is Vista, I am SO happy I went OS X. I have countless friends that went back to XP Pro because of the problems....I just can't see paying $3500-$4000 for something that is going to be a constant headache.

As a new owner of a MBP with Leopard, I've used my computer for over a week. I can just watch the battery drain as I type away. It's like driving a car with a huge V8 engine. I'm not used to seeing such a fast battery drain. My old Dell didn't come close to draining like this. I understand how powerful this computer is, however, it just seems incredible how quick it does drain. Anyway this is what is said under my system profiler. "Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0102
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0200
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4418
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5375
Health Information:
Cycle count: 6
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1437
Voltage (mV): 11971
does this seem within normal range?

How much battery life, in hours, are you getting?

How high is your screen brightness? Are you using any kind of fan control software? Whar apps do you have open...what are you using it for?

-Nick

I get around 3 hours of life. No other issues.