The MacBookPro: A Version “A” Product Example
By Daniel Miessler on April 1st, 2006: Tagged as Apple | Computers
Well, it’s been nearly a month now since I received my new MacBookPro. As a few of you may know, I had to return my first unit due to a borked optical drive. I was quite upset about it at the time, but was – and am – ultimately happy with the overall experience due to the way that Apple handled it.
Now that I’ve had a few weeks to gauge the overal performance and sftability of the box, I wanted to document the problems that I’m having with the system in an organized fashion. Hell, I’ll probably forward this post to Apple support to save time.
- Processor “Whine” : This is the often-complained-about issue where the MBP will make a very annoying sound when not being pushed very hard. It’s almost as if it’s complaining about not being used to its potential. This particular problem I’m willing to wait to have fixed, i.e. I’ll give it a few weeks for things to settle down at Apple with the new release before asking for a solution. No biggie, but I’m damn sure not leaving it this way for the life of the system.
- Wireless Card Issues : I actually just found out tonight that I have this problem. I can’t stay connected to my Linksys wireless access point. Other Windows and *nix machines work perfectly with the AP, as does my old 12″ PowerBook G4. This is unacceptable. I need this fixed immediately. How could they ship a wireless system that won’t stay connected for more than 5 minutes at a time to the most commonly deployed AP in the country? Bad form indeed.
- Heat Issues : Well, I wouldn’t call it an issue. The systems are just hot. I mean nuclear hot. As in, “Don’t touch it because it’ll hurt you.” hot. This I’m actually not too worried about. It doesn’t effect performance as far as I can tell, and I am going to just chalk it up to having so much going on in such a thin case. I’ll label this an “almost non-issue”.
- Sleep Recovery : For some reason, I’ve come out of sleep a few times and been prompted for my password (I’ve set it up to do that), only to be prompted for my password again like 2 seconds into my recovered session. It’s like it didn’t register that I had already re-authenticated or something. Bad form. It’s just an annoyance, to be sure, but it lends support to the whole, “This product’s not quite ready” sentiment. I’d like to see a fix for this in the next month or so. No rush, but I don’t want to live with it forever.
What I’ve Learned
The moral of the story here is very simple — it’s true that version A products are buggy.
Millions of people already knew that, and some of them even tried to warn me, but now I know, based on first-hand experience, that it’s true. Don’t ever doubt it. Some launches may be better than others, but as a whole it’s probably going to be the case.
It’s not that I doubted it either, actually; I understood the logic behind the claim as much as the next guy. But I didn’t think the issues would be this major. I didn’t think I’d be unable to read CDs, or that my wireless would drop connection every five minutes. Those are issues that I would have bet against — and lost money.
Why I’m Still Happy
But I’m still happy. Why? Because in all of my conversations with Apple thus far I’ve heard a consistent, overriding message.
“We’ll get it taken care of. We’ll make sure you’re happy.”
This is precisely what I want to hear, and it’s what I should be hearing. What it means to me as a consumer is that I can worry less about flaws with my system. I can relax, enjoy my computer, and have faith that the company I bought it from will make things right. If it takes a few weeks then that’s cool. If there are a few glitches in the process, then that’s cool too. As long as they don’t say, “Well, you bought the first version so that’s on you.”, I’m ok with having a few problems.
Lessons
Ultimately I’ve learned two things from this ordeal thus far.
- Be wary of version A products. They really do have issues.
- You can trust Apple to treat you right — even if you do buy a version A product.
Anyway, I’ll keep this post updated as I work to get these issues resolved. Hopefully everything will go smoothly from here on out, and if you have any similar or related MacBookPro stories I’d love to hear them.:
