What do you think of Apple products?

Discussion in 'macOS' started by Katzenfreund, Apr 11, 2017.

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What do you think of Apple products?

  1. They are high quality and reasonably priced

    47 vote(s)
    11.1%
  2. They are good quality but expensive

    243 vote(s)
    57.2%
  3. They are regular quality and overpriced

    135 vote(s)
    31.8%
  1. Shayne ONeill

    Shayne ONeill MDL Novice

    Jun 26, 2018
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    Long term fan who's slowly becoming disillusioned over time. Around 2011 Macbooks where amazing pieces of hardware. Sure they might not have been the king of the hill specs wise, but they where not terrible either. However they where amazingly solid, brilliantly easy to upgrade due to the simple and understandable construction. Battery goes here, HD there, pop the memory in that slot, and yoink out the DVD, stick in a cradle and thats your second HD. OSX was powerful, well supported for software and if you paired it up with an iphone magical things happened. And it could take an absolute beating. Cue forward 2017. Finally replace it. The Keyboard sucks, the only function for the touchbar is to cause accidental pressings of vital function, literally nothing under $300 plugs into the goddamn Thunderbolt 3 ports, oh and thats the only sort of port it got. And *NOTHING* is upgradable. The rams soldered in, the SSD is soldered in, the battery IS replacable, but good luck finding one third party. And then it falls 3 foot off the couch onto the carpet and the screen cracks and no, apple wont cover that even with apple care. And then to top it off, a week after spending $400 to replace it with a third party screen, voiding my warranty, some a$##$# f##$k breaks into my house and steals it.

    So yeah, my next macintosh is gonna be a hackintosh, becuase I'm not spending another $4K AUD on something so flimsy and un-upgradeable

    edit: Oh yeah the one sour point on the 2011s are the AMD GPUs that cook themselves. Apple repairs those for free.
     
  2. goldfinger

    goldfinger MDL Junior Member

    Dec 29, 2010
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    All MBPs cook themselves to death, all GPUs and all years. Mine lasted a little bit longer because I knew this and used SMC Fan Control. But when I upgraded to High Sierra, I forget to reinstall SMC Fan Control and High Sierra killed my 2011 MBP. I went to the Apple store and got a nasty b*&ch "manager" who told me to eff off because I'm not getting my "vintage" MBP repaired. It was too late to qualify for the repair. That's what I get for taking care of my MBP.
     
  3. RenesisXI

    RenesisXI MDL Novice

    Jun 18, 2015
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    A year ago a bought myself my first Apple product, a 2012 MD101 13" and i truly love it to bits. Sure it needed a SSD and RAM upgrade to get it usable but damn it was worth it. The trackpad is mind blowing, no windows laptop can match it.


    The only downfall is the CPU, a weak dual core i5 feels like a slap in the face for the price they asked back in 2012.


    Never buy a new Apple product, look for a nice 2nd or even 3rd hand unit, it just stupid to buy the latest and greatest Apple product.
     
  4. ProTruckDriver

    ProTruckDriver MDL Novice

    Jul 28, 2018
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    Two years ago I bought the following Mac:
    Late 2015 5K 27" Mac, 4GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive.
    I bought it new and at a discount. I knew a few friends at Apple and the discount was once in a life time deal that I could not pass up. :)
     
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  5. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
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    @ProTruckDriver: So how do you like the MAC?

    @RenesisXI: That's kinda' been a rule for all computers. Never buy the top of the line.
    Although it's small, there's a risk of BIOS bugs.
     
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  6. ProTruckDriver

    ProTruckDriver MDL Novice

    Jul 28, 2018
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    @Michaela Joy I love it. It's nice not doing all the Windows updates every month. It's easy to use once you think Mac instead of Windows. lol
     
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  7. MookieADR

    MookieADR MDL Novice

    Jul 24, 2015
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    Apple's older kit, prior to switching to Intel were built like tanks such as the G5 Towers etc. I had the joy of getting the data off and over to Windoze for my cousin as he made the switch. He found once Apple launched iPhone and went all consumer with their Apps, they were no longer what graphic designers needed to create etc. He wasn't happy about his Macbook Pro failing due to solder cracks on the NVidia graphics chip leaving him with a black screen and a £3000 repair bill either, so other than an iShuffle he won't touch them no more! I refurbished his G5 tower and his old Mac Mini and bought a Intel Mac Mini just for testing on. I can't say I like OSX much as compared to Windows, everything is backwards, minimise,shutdown windows etc over on the left, whilst on PC they're over on the right, does my nut in! I had to drill a hole through my Uncles iMAC due to poor ventilation on the GPU, no fan direct to the GPU, only one on the CPU and a heatsink going over to the GPU. I added a mini fan to the GPU, took the power from the hard drive connector and put silicon pads on lots of the chips on the GPU PCB, possilby hardest repair to any bit of tech I've done and I wouldn't be in the rush to do more! Black plastic backs on iMACs, keep all the heat in. So Apple have made plenty of design flaws, butterfly keyboards in new Macbook Pros etc. but they just make more money out of such flaws and never admit to any design issues, even when group action lawsuits go against them. Their free battery upgrade for Apple iPhones saw most people pay £70+ as they were told their phones had other faults that must be fixed before they could have the free battery fitted. I think you get the picture of how Apple operate and they charge whatever they believe they can get away with as that's Capitalism for you. At least on PC with the OEM price wars they practically make pieces of cheap plastic rubbish but you put up with that for the price. More quality looking PCs like Surface cost similar prices to Apple and still have the hardware design issues etc. All modern kit is mainly a repairers nightmare, as they're all becoming less repairable. EMC flash for storage instead of SSD or Hard Disk Drive, RAM soldered directly to PCB etc. The more people buy these flash looking bits of tech, the more they'll make. Currently got a Macbook Pro in for repair off my Physio, it has a crappy Toshiba hard disk drive in it, Toshiba drives are terrible for bad sectors, but at least being a 2010 Macbook Pro it will take a non Apple approved hard disk drive without throwing a wobbler and crippling his machine. At least his machine is easy to get to hard disk drive, not like needing a sink plunger to get into a iMac or a scraper to get in a Mac Mini ;)
     
  8. lewcass

    lewcass MDL Senior Member

    Mar 10, 2018
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    :poop:
     
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  9. lewcass

    lewcass MDL Senior Member

    Mar 10, 2018
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    £3000 repair bill? :laie: :laie: :laie:
     
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  10. MookieADR

    MookieADR MDL Novice

    Jul 24, 2015
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    Yeah, Apple's Repair costs for products not under their Apple Care Warranty tends to be slightly lower than buying a new one, so most people with more money than sense, just buy a new one from Apple I guess. I think they just pick the highest number they can think of and see if you accept it! It was a week past their extended 3 year warranty as they knew the Nvidia chip and lead free solder had issues, as had a group class lawsuit against them in America. An Apple authorised repair centre would have done a more realistic quote, £500 for a new logic board (motherboard) but by the time he'd booked an appointment to see someone at an Apple Store, waited for them to go away and come back with their diagnostic and a stupidly high repair bill, he lost the will to continue using Apple computers. Under UK law, luxury items which is basically what Apple's items are priced at, should have an expected lifetime of 6 years approx. and he could have taken them to a small claims court (I guess) but like many he got tired of banging his head against a brick wall! The only people I know that have had reasonable priced repairs caused an absolute hissy fit inside the Apple Stores so to shut them up in front of new potential customers, they gave them free repair. Those who shout loudest, get the best quotes I guess!! Apples repair quotes are not consistent, I monitored other people with his issue and whilst some were given free repairs, others were charged for logic boards and others were told there were more faults. Watchdog's report of Apple's Free Battery replacement scheme showed some people quoted anything from £74 to £250 to repair, I don't recall anyone actually getting a free battery from them, everyone had something to pay! There's a reason Apple are worth 1 trillion :eek: dollars and it's not because they put people before profits :rolleyes: Their customer service is pretty perfectic, you can see that with threads on Apple forums on non happy customers being quoted £1000 to replace their butteryfly keyboards on the MacBook Pros as a slight bit of dust and your keys stops working, although Apple have finally agreed to look at the keyboard issue after another class action lawsuit over it. What was wrong with scissor springs?!

    Treat them mean, keep them kean!!
     
  11. lewcass

    lewcass MDL Senior Member

    Mar 10, 2018
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    A fool and his money are easily parted.
     
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  12. MookieADR

    MookieADR MDL Novice

    Jul 24, 2015
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    I wish I could find some fools! My Physio gauped at £80 for a 500GB WD Black HDD and MacOS High Sierra installation and all his data going back on! Just cos he's moved up North, he doesn't have to become as tight as the rest of us! ;)
     
  13. lewcass

    lewcass MDL Senior Member

    Mar 10, 2018
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    Spend when you need to. Spend on a treat once in a while.
     
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  14. SilverRook

    SilverRook MDL Novice

    Jun 20, 2014
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    I had got a job as a computer repair technician, and learned a fair bit about fixing Macs. Fixing and troubleshooting them, is what made them appeal to me, because they were always so easy to fix. So I built a Hackintosh to get a feel for normal every day use, on El Capitan. My background goes way back to Ubuntu 8.04, so opening a terminal on macOS, and seeing familiar things, like vim, already built in... just made me feel right at home. Troubleshooting commands that I used on Linux, also functioned on macOS like a charm. When I learned about Homebrew, I was sold.

    I bought a 2016 Mac Mini, an Early 2015 Macbook Pro, an AppleTV, and later on an iPhone SE.

    I replaced the traditional HDD in the Mac Mini, with a 500GB SSD... because screw running macOS on a traditional hard drive. It's an absurd, terrible experience with a traditional hard drive.

    As a note, I have never, EVER, bought an Apple product at full retail price. That's also absurd.
    Once you get a good deal, and find a way to circumvent Apple's foolish pricing, then you're in for a decent experience.

    I gave the Mac Mini to my parents... They stick to specific software from Microsoft (Office), and a number of apps from the App Store... boom. Done. I never have to worry about them. I regularly check up on them, and I don't have to worry much, because the way they use it, there are simply never any problems.
    They never even really browse the web. They just use their apps, and get on with their lives.
    It has been serving them perfectly and flawlessly for years. My folks are competent enough to back up some of their important documents on iCloud, more delicate stuff is saved to an external hard drive, and they handle simple maintenance (like updates) on their own.

    I bought my MBP, after servicing quite a few of them... and I find the interface and control to be very fluid. Fantastic battery life. I never have to turn my MBP off. I just charge it when the battery gets low, like my phone. It is *always* at full speed, and always responsive. My previous laptop, an Acer running Windows, had similar responsiveness when I installed a solid-state drive, but the battery life was not as good, and over time, it increasingly experienced random freezing... this was due to failing RAM... (probably due to me never shutting it down). This happened with my Acer, and I barely had it for 2 years. By comparison, I've had my MBP longer, and I abuse the hell out of it, and it gives me no issues. Battery cycles are holding up well, and it handles *everything* I throw at it... compiling, video editing and processing, and even some modest gaming off of Steam. Macs are awesome... they are just as reliable as a well-configured Linux system, and are to me, the ideal non-Windows experience. (Sorry ChromeOS.) I'm not a huge fan of the latest Macbooks though... USB-C is cool and all, but MagSafe was gold, and has saved my ass more than once.

    Apple TV is nice. It enables remote control of smarthome accessories. And I don't mind playing video games on it.

    I don't have very positive thoughts on iOS however.
    I value having administrator and root control and access on my devices... and that authority just doesn't exist on iOS. Like Linux, macOS will allow you more than enough administrative rope to hang yourself, if you're careless. You're in control at all times. On iOS, you have no such authority. For a long time, it didn't even have a File Explorer/Manager. Then they introduced this "Files" thing, that really ISN'T a file explorer... My iPhone experience has been positive. I like the iPhone SE because of its size. It's really fast and the phone simply works. It has all the functionality that I like (compact size, NFC, BT, battery life, reliable email client, calendar, regular security updates/support, Apple TV control, smarthome control), but I am bothered that I cannot access root control as I see fit.
    I'm just not a fan of iOS for this reason. I like knowing that I can f**k around under the hood, even if I don't really have a reason to.

    Overall, I'd say my experience with Apple products has been favorable. I am a die-hard macOS fan. I swear by macOS, especially if you're a developer. macOS runs so smoothly on Mac hardware, that running additional operating systems in a VM is a non-issue. So you can code and compile for any platform, and the system will just work.

    macOS > TVos > iOS

    I'll probably be going back to Android soon.
     
  15. xujiabao

    xujiabao MDL Novice

    Aug 2, 2018
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    the apple does not have the open attitude and the Cost performance is very low.
     
  16. onorevole

    onorevole MDL Novice

    Nov 7, 2012
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    #96 onorevole, Aug 16, 2018
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2018
    ....the poisoned Apple is the most advanced PAY FOR EVERYTHING OS in the World and the Holy Universe.....!!!!!!
     
  17. Enthousiast

    Enthousiast MDL Tester

    Oct 30, 2009
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    What durability, they are made, like almost all new hardware, with an expected EOL time (limited lifespan), no free warranty in many countries, etcetc....
     
  18. palemdl

    palemdl MDL Novice

    Dec 4, 2015
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    They are overpriced, but that is the offer/demand market rule.
     
  19. se7ensense7en

    se7ensense7en MDL Novice

    Apr 17, 2012
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    Previously, the total build quality of the hardware and software is great. 4 year-old iMac can be upgraded to the latest version without any performance penalty. It is also true in the world of iPhone and iPad. There maybe some negative reviews on the recent products that let me down a little bit. Moreover, its royalty and customer-oriented attitudes pay my trust. I would love to ask for at least 20% cut in price for the latest products if applicable.
     
  20. Forest_13

    Forest_13 MDL Novice

    Nov 4, 2018
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    Nearly most of apple's products are of good quality. But their magic mouse and keyboard are noting but slim. Some alternative devices like logitech wireless keyboard and mouse with gesture control are much better.