No longer a fan of Apple computers - Am I off base here?

Is this a religion discussion or camera/lens discussion?

Battery life - on my 13" macbook pro, I can get 8 or 9 hours easy when taking notes with one simple app running and the screen brightness turned down. Coming from a windows laptop that dies in under an hour, this is wonderful.

Running aperture and other programs (but especially notice this with Aperture), I think I can run the battery down in a couple of hours, and the heat generated goes through the roof too...so 2 hours or less could be reasonable given heavy demands from a bigger screen and beefier processor than I have...if the OP is expecting the advertised 10 hours under any conditions, I'd think again...

This is pretty normal--I've purchased several dozen laptops from various vendors, and they all pretty much deal with problems in that manner. They never flat out offer you a replacement--they attempt repairs, often 2-3 times before they give up and hand over another unit. One time HP swapped out the motherboard twice in a row without solving the problem (on the 3rd sendin they gave me a new unit)

Sorry to hear about your computer problems. I would take it to another Apple store if I were you. I've had two HD's die on the same computer. The first one died 2 years after we bought it in Australia. Our local Apple shop in Hawaii replaced the HD no questions asked and cost us nothing even though warranty was over. The same computers HD died again 6 months later. They replaced that one as well with a newer version and cost us nothing.

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

Should have bought Applecare when you bought it. Adds 2 years to the warranty and they usually just replace it. Especially since you're willing to get the $4000 system, but not a $100 warranty? That makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, I've been using macs all of my life, I've never had to deal with crashes with my 13 inch MBP and frankly I never shut it off.(I know that's bad for it but I'm lazy). Super stable machine.

My sister had to replace a hard drive after dropping the laptop from a pretty high distance.(an older plastic mbp), and apple had great service and replaced the drive pretty quickly.

I had to get a dvd unstuck from the drive a few weeks ago and they even sped up that process so that I could have my computer back before the school week started for me so that I could use it for homework.

Long time IT security pro, PC and Mac user professionally, switched to all Macs at home (two iMacs, two Macbooks, iPad, iPhones etc) by choice.

Every single device I've bought that I don't consider disposable (so, all the computers, phones and the iPad) have AppleCare. Any time I've had a problem, the store has switched the part, repaired the equipment or replaced it outright, very few questions asked, very little hassle - and thats multiple stores in multiple states.

From my experience, Macs and PCs when new are just different shades of gray. My Macs have tended to age better than my PCs, with a G5 17" iMac still running 24/7 in my kitchen, having bought it brand new 5 or 6 years ago. I moved to Mac to get away from the constant rat race of buying new processors, more memory, bigger drives, faster video cards etc.

It's a choice, much like shooting Canon over Nikon - the fan boys will rip you to shreds for expressing an opinion thats different, even though ultimately, it's just different tools for the same job.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience - sounds like you've got yourself a lemon. It happens. I'm a platform agnostic - I use an ancient NT 4 / Access database at work which has been unconditionally stable for 10 years, running 24/7. It's great! At home, I've been an Apple fan since 1995. In that time, I've had seven machines and suffered one HD failure and one duff power supply. After the introduction of OS X, my Mac machines have also been unconditionally stable. I run an OnyX maintainance app once a fortnight.

I'd pursue this - Apple support is generally excellent. Don't let this bad experience warp your perception of a very fine platform.

ETA - I realise it's a pain in the posterior, but losing your machine for a fortnight seems a small price to pay if they sort out your problems for good'n'all.

xhack wrote in post #11299412
I use an ancient NT 4 / Access database at work which has been unconditionally stable for 10 years, running 24/7. It's great!

This reminded me of a funny IT story - I was working with a school who had a Netware server on the network running some function that had been going for 10 years ... except they didn't know where it was ... the new IT admin tracked it's RJ45 cable down, and followed it from the switch into the brick wall behind - literally - at some point in the past, someone bricked it in! Never rebooted, never broke, just sat there ...

and we think OSX is stable

I do have the extended apple care. I am going to send it in and have them attemp to fix it but it frustrates me it has not worked properly since I purchased it and after months of them having me trouble shoot they say it's to far from purchase date to get it replaced

The crashes are totally random. The computer is also very slow and it lags and spins more then my 4 year old mac

Tommydigi wrote in post #11299969
I do have the extended apple care. I am going to send it in and have them attemp to fix it but it frustrates me it has not worked properly since I purchased it and after months of them having me trouble shoot they say it's to far from purchase date to get it replaced

The crashes are totally random. The computer is also very slow and it lags and spins more then my 4 year old mac

Considering everyone's good or excellent Applecare stories, it amazes me that a laptop that is behaving as you describe wouldn't be replaced yet - not doubting your description, but it sounds like you have a lemon, and Applecare isn't known for being bad ... try a new store / person / escalation route, and good luck!

Oh hey, it just works....right?

pcj wrote in post #11300009
Considering everyone's good or excellent Applecare stories, it amazes me that a laptop that is behaving as you describe wouldn't be replaced yet - not doubting your description, but it sounds like you have a lemon, and Applecare isn't known for being bad ... try a new store / person / escalation route, and good luck!

I have been calling apple direct but maybe trying a store is a better plan. I have owned Apple products for as long as I can remember maybe 17 or 18 years now and this is the first time I have had a bad experience. To me it just seems like the nature of big business today.

Off topic a bit but we booked a big family trip with about 50 people, strangely enough with Apple vacations, and after the date so to close to give a refund they magically switched the times of the flight to late at night. Don't know if any of you have kids but traveling at midnight with a bunch of kids, some under a year old, many under 5, is not fun not to mention riding a bus through Jamaica at midnight to and from. Oh we can get a new flight and pay a $100 penalty not to mention the new flight adds another $400 to each persons price.

I guess an apple a day is not for me :-}

Now call a company like ThinkTank where you get great service on a product that cost around $150. We wonder why America is not doing so well.

Rey wrote in post #11298970
You sure about that?

Credibility took a hit in my book.

Not sure what you mean here. Its the Intel Core i7. I thought it was quad core, either way its an expensive machine that should at least run a full day without the screen turning grey and me having to hold down the power button to restart it.

pcj wrote in post #11299706
This reminded me of a funny IT story - I was working with a school who had a Netware server on the network running some function that had been going for 10 years ... except they didn't know where it was ... the new IT admin tracked it's RJ45 cable down, and followed it from the switch into the brick wall behind - literally - at some point in the past, someone bricked it in! Never rebooted, never broke, just sat there ...

and we think OSX is stable

That's too funny but I believe it! I was a big supporter of Netware because, apart from a hardware failure, it just kept going and going and going ....

Tommydigi wrote in post #11300102
Not sure what you mean here. Its the Intel Core i7. I thought it was quad core, either way its an expensive machine that should at least run a full day without the screen turning grey and me having to hold down the power button to restart it.

No, none of the current MBPs use quad-core chips. Even the i7 upgrades options are dual-core chips.