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MacBookPro? Probably not...

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windglider

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After buying MacPro I was ready to buy MacBookPro to complete the switch from PC.
But it looks like MacPro laptops have major reliability issue.

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks.html

For travel laptop reliability is the number one priority and it seems like Toshiba and Fujitsu are much more reliable.
 
FWIW, most of these statistics include a large amount of the initial problems with the very first 15" MacBook Pro model (most of them dealing with noise and heat issues - not nice, but no reliability issues either) - this does certainly not represent the current status.

Overall - looking at internal statistics of large IT departments - Apple laptops rank head-to-head with IBM/Lenovo top models (T-series) in reliability - the rest of the market is far behind. Basically the same is true for service and spare part availability. Toshiba makes nice machines, but reliable? Our three managing directors received Toshiba subs (at over 3k each) less than 2 years ago - not a single one is still alive and we are waiting for one spare part since 7 months - just to be able to at least sell it for almost nothing. Resale value of Apple machines is significantly better, service is normally first class once you managed to pass first-level support (which is as good as asking your butcher).

Cheers,
Uwe
 
windglider said:
After buying MacPro I was ready to buy MacBookPro to complete the
switch from PC.
But it looks like MacPro laptops have major reliability issue.

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks.html
Click to expand...
I ran into some of Apple's quality controls issues when I bought my 17" MPB a couple weeks ago. The first one had no functioning backlights for the LCD. I could faintly make out the images under bright lights. Fortunately it was a short trip to the store to get a replacement. New one is great.
windglider said:
For travel laptop reliability is the number one priority and it
seems like Toshiba and Fujitsu are much more reliable.
Click to expand...
I would never put Toshiba on a list of reliable laptops. Granted they might be better now, but only a few years ago, you couldn't get much worse. See my comments in this other thread. Someone else posted similar views (read what he said about the Toshiba reps... very telling)
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=23797691

--
Joe

My craptacular photos: http://www.pbase.com/pyogenes/favorites

Any perceived rudeness, condescending tone, or insults are not intended, but rather the result of my inability to properly express myself with the written word.
 
That report was published Aug. 2006, which means that the MBPs bought were before that. Again, as the others have said, that was with the inital Core Duos, not Core 2 Duos. But go ahead, get a Toshiba.
--
George Tseng
NAPP
PPA
Pictage.com

Serious Amateur Photographer/Previous Nikon user, now Canon and Epson User, Saint Louis, MO
Equipment on Profile
http://www.pbase.com/GTseng67
 
One thing you should notice in the MacWorld poll is that there is a very high percentage of people who had a problem and were also very happy with Apple's service.

At the moment, Apple is currently on the third iteration of MacBook Pros. First change after the first batch was to the Core 2 Duo processors. Now they have upgraded the processors again, and added an LED backlight for the display. Long term performance for the display is unknown, but that would be true for all laptops with an LED backlight. Reliability an life of an LED backlight should be better than the cold anode flourescent. And power draw from the LEDs is way lower than the flourescent, so that should make the laptop last longer on battery power, and lower the normal heating of the power supply. Nobody knows for sure, but I would guess that the latest iteration of MacBook Pros will be the best yet.

And truthfully, do you really want to use a Windows laptop now that you have a Mac Pro as your main system? Take the plunge. The water's perfect!

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
 
Compared with what figure for Toshiba and Fujitsu using the same methodology? I don't understand what you're basing your comparison on.
 
Methinks the OP was just talking stuff.

There are very few reliable non-sponsored surveys of laptop repair in the consumer space.

Probably the most comprehensive is published by Consumers Reports. Between 2002 and 2006 they surveyed over 51,000 laptop owners to see which brands had ever been repaired or had a serious problem. Statistically all the major brands were the same. Sony had the best record with 15% repairs, but Apple, Toshiba, Dell etc brought up the rear with 18%. Differences of 3% were not meaningful, so they are all lumped together. Fuji was not listed.

While I am not enamored with Consumer Reports' qualitative rankings of many products, their straight data-based surveys are valuable and most likely more credible than users moaning to a website.
 
Considering all the manufacturers tend to buy the same parts from the same vendors (including Apple), I think the failure rates tend to reflect the parts more than the brand.

How a company deals with the problems is probably a better metric. That's one of the reasons I despise Toshiba - they had some obviously defective hardware and but only did repairs when needed rather than just replace the known bad parts (motherboards for the laptops at my old job) before there was a problem. I can see any company deciding to screw over individual consumers in that situation (makes sense financially), but doing that to a major software company? That's a management error if you ask me. In the end it cost them millions in hardware and support revenue since they didn't get to renew the contract.

Sony's support is notorious, but have been decent in my experience (too small of a sample size to have any significance other than showing they are capable of being good)

--
Joe

My craptacular photos: http://www.pbase.com/pyogenes/favorites

Any perceived rudeness, condescending tone, or insults are not intended, but rather the result of my inability to properly express myself with the written word.
 
Thank you all for the replies.

I did not find any good statistical data about repair rate for Fujitsu and Toshiba laptops. I know few people who are very satisfied with them and, of course, it is not enough to make any conclusions. I do not know anyone who owns MBP therefore I share my doubts on Mac Talk and very interested to hear all the opinions (again, statistically irrelevant).

I was convinced to try Mac (good OS, softwares, etc; I do not care that much about nice design and 'being cool') and have replaced my desktop with MacPro. Anything goes wrong - AppleCare hopefully will fix it in a matter of days.

But the picture of me sitting in front of the dead laptop thousands miles away from the closest Apple store terrifies me.

Still trying to find success stories about reliable MBP working in the middle of nowhere before I spend another $2000 :)) .
 
I guess it doesn't really say anything about MacBook Pros, but I have had a g4 Powerbook (pretty much the same as a Mac Book Pro except for the processors,) for over three years. I have dragged it everywhere. Spilled a root beer in the keyboard, plugged it into a bad power outlet and fried a memory chip, dropped it twice from a height of about 3 feet onto a wood floor, putting permanent dents in the corners of the case, but it just keeps chugging along. Never ever had such a reliable laptop. Had many older powerbooks, and a whole slew of really bad, crappy Dell laptops. This is the best I have ever had, and I will replace it with a new Mac Book Pro when finances allow.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
 
windglider said:
After buying MacPro I was ready to buy MacBookPro to complete the
switch from PC.
But it looks like MacPro laptops have major reliability issue.
Click to expand...
...1st generation MacBook Pro. As the article states it is understandable that first generation is not that reliable. The current models are 3rd generation, and i would think their reliability is as good as any mac.

--
Henri Karapuu
http://www.karapuu.com
 
Thanks.

Any similar story about MacBookPro? :))).
 
windglider said:
Thanks.

Any similar story about MacBookPro? :))).
Click to expand...
Did you take a look at the 2nd survey? (December 2006 vs. August 2006)

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2.html

This one included data for the 1st generation MacBooks as well as the Core 2 MacBooks. You should notice that according to the 2nd survey the reliability of the Core 2 MacBooks is much better than the 1st generation:

From the survey:
windglider said:
On average, 22% of all MacBook and MacBook Pro
computers in the survey required repair. We found 27%
of the original Core Duo laptops were repaired by Apple,
while 6.3% of the new Core 2 laptops have already
needed repair.
Click to expand...
That's quite an improvement.
--
Dave Thorup
Bibble Labs
http://bibblelabs.com
 
I presume this is a response to my "torture" of my G4 laptop. I assure you that any damage to the laptop was in the field, camped in places like Moab, Utah and doing nightly processing in my camper. Laptops really take beating in general when out photographing in the field. My Dell's never, ever took such a beating as they were used in business, but they still fell apart.

I have been able to repair everything I have done to the laptop myself also. I ordered a new back for the case and a new keyboard and installed them myself. Good as new.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/
 
When I am talking about reliability I am talking about laptop working in more or less normal conditions (may be a little bit more dusty, hot, humid, but not extreme). I do not expect it to work after I dropped it from 4ft or dipped it into a pool (but it's a big relieve when it does ;))).

I am talking about 21% problem rate for 15" MBP (according to June 2007 report). And I do not think accidental damage cases contributed to this 'problem' rate. As well as the things that we can fix without AppleCare.

May be 21% is an excellent mark for laptops and I do not know the rates for any other manufacturers, but it was a surprise for me that it's that high and the problems are that severe (motherboard, hard drive, display).
 
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