Apple's lawyers argued that an angry customer "omits details" about a so-called "walk" where condensation built up in his AirPods Max, and that moisture in the company's flagship headphones is simply "more noticeable" than in competitors' models.
I think their engineering is pretty good, personally. I travelled a lot with a laptop from 2000 to about 2020, and my windows laptops would always die after 2 years - hinges, cracks in the body, screen cracks and so on. Moving to apple’s laptops in about 2011 meant I got 5 years out of each (air then a pro). I’m now on a second pro, but the old pro is still trucking along.
I’m not going to defend all their decisions, there’s a lot of questionable stuff in there (keyboards, sticking to lightening, mice…). But their hardware, both laptop, mini and pro) has been solid.
You are right about repairability. I think that has never been a key feature for them hence the glue, security screws and other crap. Fortunately there are governments around the world that are pushing for repairability, consistency with usb-c, replaceable batteries and more. So I think all manufacturers will be upping their game now, which is awesome.
All manufacturers reduce cost - supply chain management and manufacturability are the processes to drive that. Apple are really good at the supply chain side, that was Tim Cook’s focus as COO. What I don’t like is that they are able to keep their incredibly high margins (far higher than any other manufacturer) thanks to their software, interoperability and walled garden.
and my windows laptops would always die after 2 years - hinges, cracks in the body, screen cracks and so on. Moving to apple’s laptops in about 2011 meant I got 5 years out of each
I got sick of my Windows laptops falling apart tbh, needed a laptop that could actually handle being used as a laptop, and not destroy itself over time from heat cycling and excessively stiff hinges.
This ended up driving me to purchase a used Mid 2012 MBP (a1278) and running Linux on it because I’m not really a MacOS person.
Why this model? Replaceable RAM, replaceable battery, replaceable SSD, disk drive can be removed to make the machine lighter OR outright replaced with an additional SSD/hard drive.
Louis Rossmann has a gigantic library of repair videos for this model, which was another major contributor driving my decision.
I still use it today - it’s charging beside me with one of those USB C PD to Magsafe 1 adapters 😅
IIRC weren’t some of the peripheral drivers a bit dodgy.
Sadly some are, but neither are dealbreakers for me - the SD card slot runs at USB2.0 speeds most of the time, the Wifi driver has to be modified and recompiled to run on newer kernels. Aside from those I haven’t had any problems really.
I also swapped out my keyboard drivers for an alternative that turns the Eject button into a “delete” key, and swaps around two of the modifier keys for a more familiar layout.
I find it pretty neat that the caps lock light is programmable, and that the machine has an IR receiver!
It could well be survivorship bias, but I did represent the examples as personal.
Having said that - I did a quick google for « laptops with longest lifespan » and most of the reviews had apple at #1 or 2.
In common with you, most of my previous laptops (5 or 6) were thinkpads like yours, usually the tablet style for OneNote (which is awesome BTW).
They never survived the rigours of the road. Perhaps that’s why I had a different result to yours - I used to travel 3-6 months a year.
not an apple product fan for sure ) see comment before
but if you take a look at the (of course overprized) mac pro i think the overengeneering is understandable … thats pure hardware porn, even the venting holes are drilled to reduce sound
as said i only own one apple “product” … the stock, because zhey have a crazy fanbase which will cultishly defend every messup … but the mac pro is a masterpiece of hardware
nah friend … the opposite of a victim of marketing campaign … i don’t touch apple devices because of the walled garden they built and the prices they do
i was mainly talking about the mac pro’s case design and the modular setup … thats extremely appealing in my personal perspective.
i do not know if they stand the challange of time, but the mac pro for sure impressed me even if i get called a apple-hater in my personal circle of friends
so don’t mistake me for a fanboy - but i do pay respect for things which imoress me.
if you check my prev comment you’ll see that i especially point oit that they ask for crazy prices (monitor stand, mac pro wheels, thunderbold cable … god even the whipes carry something like 1000% apple tax) … still the mac pro case seems pretty cool to me
i do know them … they even get a step further and are wirking on a “box” where you can use your mainboard if someday they offer an updated one for the laptop case, so you can use the old one for a server box or sth
i do like those as well … i just wanted to make my point that even for a company where i refuse to buy something from, there are some things which impress me
I’m an old Linux-head (actually started out developing tools for 10’s of variants of unix - compilation flags providing custom versions). I would love to have my mac mini running linux though, that would be awesome. I don’t think you can yet.
I actually have one right here sitting in front of me which was used to develop iOS application (as Apple forces you contractually to use Apple machines for, at the very least do the final build of an iOS app to push to their store) and I actually bought a lower specced model and upgraded the memory myself as that was the cheaper option.
However if I’m not mistaken the model generation after that (or maybe 2 generations) came with soldered memory.
Removed by mod
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I think their engineering is pretty good, personally. I travelled a lot with a laptop from 2000 to about 2020, and my windows laptops would always die after 2 years - hinges, cracks in the body, screen cracks and so on. Moving to apple’s laptops in about 2011 meant I got 5 years out of each (air then a pro). I’m now on a second pro, but the old pro is still trucking along.
I’m not going to defend all their decisions, there’s a lot of questionable stuff in there (keyboards, sticking to lightening, mice…). But their hardware, both laptop, mini and pro) has been solid.
You are right about repairability. I think that has never been a key feature for them hence the glue, security screws and other crap. Fortunately there are governments around the world that are pushing for repairability, consistency with usb-c, replaceable batteries and more. So I think all manufacturers will be upping their game now, which is awesome.
All manufacturers reduce cost - supply chain management and manufacturability are the processes to drive that. Apple are really good at the supply chain side, that was Tim Cook’s focus as COO. What I don’t like is that they are able to keep their incredibly high margins (far higher than any other manufacturer) thanks to their software, interoperability and walled garden.
I got sick of my Windows laptops falling apart tbh, needed a laptop that could actually handle being used as a laptop, and not destroy itself over time from heat cycling and excessively stiff hinges.
This ended up driving me to purchase a used Mid 2012 MBP (a1278) and running Linux on it because I’m not really a MacOS person.
Why this model? Replaceable RAM, replaceable battery, replaceable SSD, disk drive can be removed to make the machine lighter OR outright replaced with an additional SSD/hard drive.
Louis Rossmann has a gigantic library of repair videos for this model, which was another major contributor driving my decision.
I still use it today - it’s charging beside me with one of those USB C PD to Magsafe 1 adapters 😅
That was an awesome laptop with upgradable components. Nice!
IIRC weren’t some of the peripheral drivers a bit dodgy.
Yepp, I really like it personally.
Sadly some are, but neither are dealbreakers for me - the SD card slot runs at USB2.0 speeds most of the time, the Wifi driver has to be modified and recompiled to run on newer kernels. Aside from those I haven’t had any problems really.
I also swapped out my keyboard drivers for an alternative that turns the Eject button into a “delete” key, and swaps around two of the modifier keys for a more familiar layout.
I find it pretty neat that the caps lock light is programmable, and that the machine has an IR receiver!
That caps lock light is so cool, but I guess it makes sense since keyboard drivers need to change it.
A great form factor with a superior OS (IMHO).
Removed by mod
It could well be survivorship bias, but I did represent the examples as personal. Having said that - I did a quick google for « laptops with longest lifespan » and most of the reviews had apple at #1 or 2.
In common with you, most of my previous laptops (5 or 6) were thinkpads like yours, usually the tablet style for OneNote (which is awesome BTW). They never survived the rigours of the road. Perhaps that’s why I had a different result to yours - I used to travel 3-6 months a year.
not an apple product fan for sure ) see comment before
but if you take a look at the (of course overprized) mac pro i think the overengeneering is understandable … thats pure hardware porn, even the venting holes are drilled to reduce sound
as said i only own one apple “product” … the stock, because zhey have a crazy fanbase which will cultishly defend every messup … but the mac pro is a masterpiece of hardware
… shoud run linux thou
Removed by mod
nah friend … the opposite of a victim of marketing campaign … i don’t touch apple devices because of the walled garden they built and the prices they do
i was mainly talking about the mac pro’s case design and the modular setup … thats extremely appealing in my personal perspective.
i do not know if they stand the challange of time, but the mac pro for sure impressed me even if i get called a apple-hater in my personal circle of friends
so don’t mistake me for a fanboy - but i do pay respect for things which imoress me.
if you check my prev comment you’ll see that i especially point oit that they ask for crazy prices (monitor stand, mac pro wheels, thunderbold cable … god even the whipes carry something like 1000% apple tax) … still the mac pro case seems pretty cool to me
Removed by mod
i do know them … they even get a step further and are wirking on a “box” where you can use your mainboard if someday they offer an updated one for the laptop case, so you can use the old one for a server box or sth
i do like those as well … i just wanted to make my point that even for a company where i refuse to buy something from, there are some things which impress me
I’m an old Linux-head (actually started out developing tools for 10’s of variants of unix - compilation flags providing custom versions). I would love to have my mac mini running linux though, that would be awesome. I don’t think you can yet.
You’d never be able to upgrade it though.
Don’t they have soldered RAM?
They sure do, and its a complete bastard. Soldered ram and disk.
My latest laptop has 96GB RAM (I run a lot of VMs) and 4TB SSD. I think I should get the full 5 years out of it.
The old ones didn’t.
I actually have one right here sitting in front of me which was used to develop iOS application (as Apple forces you contractually to use Apple machines for, at the very least do the final build of an iOS app to push to their store) and I actually bought a lower specced model and upgraded the memory myself as that was the cheaper option.
However if I’m not mistaken the model generation after that (or maybe 2 generations) came with soldered memory.