MacInTouch Apple laptop survey results
The MacInTouch survey spanned every laptop capable of running Mac OS X, encompassing 41 models sold over seven and a half years. More than 10.000 readers reported their experience along with thousands of comments. Their detailed results show, that the first revisions of new Apple laptops have a significant higher failure rate.
By contrast, 17″ and 15″ Aluminum PowerBooks, PowerBook G3, and iBook G4 12″ models all appear to have become more reliable as new versions were introduced. This may indicate that Apple engineers were able to learn from early problems and fix them.
This is also our own experience. Our fist Apple notebook was a white 500Mhz G3 iBook from 2001. Just after warranty had expired the hinge problem started, which means, that the display turns black at a certain angle. This is a common problem with the internal video cables. I hardly know any iBook user who does not have this failure or the defective motherboard. The 1.25Ghz 15″ PowerBook suffers from the latch problem – it often doesn’t stay latched. I tried some of the repair tips but it only helped a bit. I am writing this article on a 10/2005 1.67Ghz 17″ PowerBook and until know did not have any problems. Some early AirPort connectivity problems where solved by a software update. So I cross my fingers and hope, that the results of the survey are correct and that this PowerBook will be as reliable as one would expect for the price they cost.
All of this is also the reason why I don’t really care much about the recent MacWorld 2006 rumors about new Macs with Intel processors. We all know that Apple will introduce new hardware with Intel processors in 2006 but I would and will wait at least until 2007 before buying any of those.
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