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New MacBook Pro Teardown Reveals 'Shoddy Assembly'
CWmike writes "Apple's new MacBook Pro shows some build-quality problems that shouldn't be seen in a notebook that costs $1,800, a teardown expert said on Monday. iFixit.com found several signs of substandard assembly while disassembling a 15-in. MacBook Pro. Among them: A stripped screw near the subwoofer enclosure and an unlocked ZIF (zero insertion force) socket for the IR (infrared) sensor. '[These] should not be things found inside a completely unmolested computer with an $1,800 base price,' iFixit said in the teardown description. iFixit also spotted an unusual amount of thermal paste applied to both the CPU and the GPU. 'Holy thermal paste! Time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the road,' iFixit said. The refreshed MacBook Pro models launched last Thursday in what one analyst called a 'ho-hum' upgrade."
Unlike those quality, American-made laptops.
Oh wait... those don't exist.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
The first-generation Macbook Pros were nothing special in terms of build quality, but up until now, the unibody machines had been rather good. If you're not paying for build quality, what ARE you getting (hardware-wise) for the extra money, given that most of Apple's components are industry standard now? I suppose this is a good reminder that regardless of the brand, most electronics are coming out of the same crappy Chinese factories.
...does this mean suicides will be up at whatever sweatshop Apple is building these or will they do what they did at the iPhone factory that had the same problem: put up more nets to catch the jumpers
They found a bad apple. So that makes our sample size is n=1 so far. Can anybody cite evidence of additional issues, or is this being hyped up like the iPhone 4 antenna story?
You now have to be a fan-boy to buy Apple products? They are no longer available to the public? Since when? Do I need a badge? To join some kind of club?
Oh wait, maybe Apple came around your house and clubbed your puppy to death? No?
Perhaps take a deep breath and relax. People are free to choose Apple, Linux and even Windows. Each has strong points and reasons why they are good at what they do, so no need to start dropping both your IQ and elitist tech wang on the table by throwing the term 'fan-boys' around.
A complex/intricate design makes one tend to strip screws and leave ZIF sockets open? Sounds more like a lazy assembler to me.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I asked a friend; he said the line between this one data point and his preconceived notions shows a definite trend.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
They found a bad apple. So that makes our sample size is n=1 so far. Can anybody cite evidence of additional issues, or is this being hyped up like the iPhone 4 antenna story?
Well, they found at least 3 independent problems on a single sample. Since each of these problems is possible separate from each other, the fact that all 3 show on a single item could indicate that the rate each problem is fairly high in general. There are other possibilities besides high problem rates, but it does raise the chances that this isn't just a single isolated incident.
We have 4 Macs (2 iMac, 2 Powerbook) that have been in the shop a total of five times (1 iMac twice, everything else once). Their build quality has gone down a lot.
You had me at zero insertion force
>>>Lets try open an equivalent HP/Dell then eh?
Damn straight! This whole Slashdot Summary should be modded troll. Apple would never, ever, never have "build quality problems" in their $1800 machines. Everybody knows their laptops are better quality than my - I mean those half-price $900 PC laptops.
That's why we Apple users pay so much for them!!! It's like buying Lexus/Acura instead of Toyota/Honda, even though they are made by the same engineers in the same factory with identical engines & chassis.
(kneels before porcelain Jobs)
Did I do alright master?
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Blaming China or low quality is misplacing the blame in any case. The low quality of so many Chinese-made goods isn't because China is unable to make good quality; it's because Americans are addicted to buying shiny cheap junk and the Chinese give us what the retailers ask for. The market segment that is willing to pay more for quality is quite small in America.
That said, Apple *does* target the quality minded consumer with its computers. Normally the design and build quality on Apple stuff I've seen is first rate; this example comes from a sample size of one. Even a top notch manufacturer can have a bad unit. Except for the unclosed ZIF socket the problems listed don't seem to be the kind that are easy to spot in inspection. Probably the worst issue was the excessive thermal paste, and that's under the heatsink.
Does this one unit mean that build quality is slipping at Apple suppliers? Possibly, but not necessarily. The negative publicity about Foxconn could mean Apple has more on its plate than quality these days when dealing with its suppliers, but that's pure speculation.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
That screw wasn't stripped! It's Apple's new screwdriver design. They take their ordinary pentabular screws, and apply a drill to eat out the head of one of them, forcing you to drill the screw out if you open it yourself.
Yes, but you are a fanboi, that's what you're *supposed* to do, for God's sake - in fact, how you escaped the hypnotic clutches of Steve's Charisma Beam and lasted two years without an upgrade is probably worthy of some deeper investigation by the clerics of the Holy Church of Apple.
The problem with the Apple haters here is the rampant hyperbole. He upgraded his two year old computer, but you have to spin it into some sort of insanity. It's strange that you first call him a "fanboi", then note that he somehow managed to avoid this imaginary mystical superbeam emanating from Cupertino which would have made him a fanboi.
In other words, you just called him a fanboi while noting that he wasn't a fanboi. Fantastic!
Look at it from my perspective - if I proudly crowed about standing outside queuing in the rain the day before a new Dell Laptop or Ubuntu Linux 11.04 was released, you'd call me a sad loony!
Ignoring the fact that he didn't say anything about lining up in the rain a day in advance for the new MacBook Pro (in fact, no one has ever done this, the lines have only been for the iPhones and iPads, more on this in a sec), yes, you would look insane waiting for Ubuntu or a Dell laptop.
Why do people line up for iPhones and iPads? Because demand far outstrips supply. People in line know that if they don't line up, they will have to wait some uncertain amount of time before they can get one. Has this ever happened with a Dell laptop? Is this even possible with Ubuntu?
On the other hand, there have been plenty of geeks downloading Ubuntu (and other distros) the day of availability. Haven't you ever tried to download an ISO on release day only to find download speeds horribly slow? Do you hurl the same "fanboi" insult at people who line up for video games, concerts, movies, etc?
But no, only Apple users are "fanbois", because, well... "Fuck you, that's why"? That's all it really boils down to. What sort of insecurity leads someone to throw about effeminate insults to someone who upgraded his two year old notebook? What is it about other people's computer choices that bothers you so much?
So, you spend $1800 on a status symbol, and you expect quality too?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Thermal paste increases thermal conductivity between chip and heat sink.
Overclocked your first gaming rig, huh? No. Thermal paste is a crappy conductor. From Wikipedia:
So, "good" silver compound will be approximately 1% as conductive as aluminum. The only thing near a CPU less conductive than thermal paste is air. You want to use the bare minimum necessary to fill the minor imperfections in the surfaces of the CPU and heatsink. Any more than that and you might as well wrap your processor in a nice cozy wool sweater.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I don't know if lazy is really the appropriate word to use when talking about cheap labour.I think it's much more likely that they're actually hard-working people who are overworked and underpaid.
And we have 5 Macs (3 iMacs, 2 MacBooks/Pro) that have never been in the shop. Out of the about 30 different Mac owners that I personally know and interact with regularly, only one has had his Mac in for repairs. My anecdote is just as valid as your anecdote. Further, based on my anecdote, I can argue (just as validly as you argued) that the build quality of Macs has at least remained stable or even increased.
My point with my reply is that when we look at objective data (I'm not commenting on the quality of these data but they have to be better than your anecdote and my anecdote), Apple computers are the most reliable: http://www.rescuecom.com/2010-annual-computer-reliability-report.html
Here are some somewhat subjective data (but still data with a larger sample size) showing Apple on top: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368167,00.asp
Maybe Apple's build quality has gone down but objective data don't seem to show that at all.
It is the same old story, people comparing a top end Mac with a bottom end PC and then complaining about the price difference. Mac is now the first with the new intel stuff, so HOW exactly do they come up with this price comparison when there isn't a regular laptop out there with the same hardware?
Not that I think Apple is all that hot myself. They are to me the old sony. You pay a bit more then you should but know you get reasonable quality in return. In the real world, that matters. I might get the same cheaper but it might be crap or I can lots more and it can still be crap. Old Sony made good mid quality stuff that gave you the insurance that you got decent gear for an okay price. I would be wilinng to pay more for my ordinary hamburger if I knew that the service would always be great, the hamburger always hot etc etc. That MID range, decent quality for a decent price is VERY hard to nail. Cheap and crap is easy, expensive and good is easy. Hitting the middle reliable, that is where you can make a fortune.
Until you start cutting costs. Sony went bye bye. Apple is not imune to this. For all the Sony haters now, once they were a darling just like Apple is. The mighty do fall.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"Rushed" is probably more like it. I bet Apple has ordered a large number of items in a short time.
Good, Fast, or Cheap. Pick one.