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Is the quality of MacBooks going down? (broken units, coil whine or other noises)

Moebius24

Moebius24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2024
3
1
In 2021 I got my first Macbook and it was an M1 Air 13" base model. It was an absolute revelation how perfectly a machine can run while being absolutely silent. With it I got heavily into Logic as a music student and now I wanna produce an album for my degree. 8GB of Ram and 256 SSD have got me this far but my projects are just getting too big now so I thought this would be the perfect time to get myself a pro level Macbook that would fulfill all my Production needs and run my studio for years to come.
I ordered a 16" MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24gb 1TB. When it arrived I noticed it had a screen defect (small area where the LEDs were flashing) and I thought this was just bad luck and I knew I had to return it. But I also noticed that there was a subtle noise coming from the center of the keyboard which I never heard from the M1 Air. Electrical buzzing like from a cheap power supply. It was more audible the more demanding tasks I ran. In a silent room I could hear it from 3 feet away or more just from running Logic without any plugins loaded in.
So my replacement arrived after 3 weeks (yay for shipping from China when you want more storage than 512gb...). And again the unit was obviously faulty: One of the keys is lacking finish and the backlight is shining through. How could they not have noticed this at Quality control?
But what's worse is that the machine is also producing these noises so I assume this is to be expected now. People seem to refer to this as 'coil whine' although there is a lot of arguing about the correct term for it. It is also argued that there is no way around this because the chips are just getting too powerful. I visited friends who have the 16" M1 PRO and MAX models and compared the noise level. Both the very powerful M1 Pro and Max don't have these noises. They are just as silent as the M1 Air. You can only hear a faint buzzing when you put your ear right on the keyboard which is like having no noise at all.
Is it really about the additional power that these chips have or has the quality gone down over all? That would explain the 2 faulty units I got.
I am now considering returning this one as well and maybe just get a 15" M4 Air when they come out. I'd settle for less power if I can just have that beautiful silence that the M1 generation has... Need a large screen though, so 14" M4 is not an option.
I am really disappointed right now. How are your M4 Pro machines? Are they dead silent like the M1s?

TL;DR: Got 2 M4 Pro faulty units with obvious defects and I also worry about the coil whine they produce. Is this normal or is yours dead silent like an M1?
 
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It’s hard to make a conclusion about what direction the quality is going with a sample size of two or three.

I haven’t noticed a change in quality, but of course my sample size when it comes to MacBooks is three. I can’t remember what year it was but I want to say 2004 when I got my first MacBook and the CD drive failed within two weeks. Was that a quality issue or just a one off? I can’t say. What I can’t say is they fixed it immediately so that’s one thing I really appreciate about Apple the quality of support. My second MacBook was a 2015 MacBook Pro. I had it for about a year with zero issues. My current is a M2 MacBook Air and I had it since launch with zero issues.
 
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Moebius24 said:
I am really disappointed right now. How are your M4 Pro machines? Are they dead silent like the M1s?
Click to expand...
You were probably just not lucky and my advice would be to avoid playing any lotteries. :):)

I have owned three Macs. The first a M1 Air. After six months the display got a little wonky. I took it to the Apple Store and they said I damaged the screen and would fix it for $450. I stood my ground and worked my way up to the store manager. The best they would offer is to give me a new M2 Air for $500, which I accepted. I had zero issues with that machine. I now own a M4 Pro, bought the day after launch, and have zero issues.

In something that is mass produced, in the hundreds of thousands, some clunkers will get through. It happens.

My advice is to purchase from the refurbished store. You get a discount on price. More importantly you get a machine that has been carefully examined by a human and has a much better chance of being defect free.
 
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As stated before i do not have a big enough sample size, but I have had no problems with my Mac.
 
I've owned four Apple laptops, 2 iMacs and my current M1 Mini. Two had issues; one minor, one requiring expensive repair. I think, like @raythompsontn stated, all mass-produced items have a percentage of bad ones that slip through. I read an article yesterday lamenting how the reliability of home appliances has slipped over the years. It's the way of things now.
 
Thanks for your replies :)
I am considering the refurbished store. Unfortunately they don't have the model I want here in Germany. I will return this unit and see what the coming MacBook Air M4 has to offer. I assume the M4 will have less coil whine than the M4 Pro. Less power but also much less expensive. When I pay this much money for a piece of gear I want it to be flawless. But I'll surely miss the those glorious speakers and display. Also the M4 has 6 E-Cores which Logic doesn't even utilize so I would only get the power of 4 p-cores instead of 10...
 
It is fine.
I had purchased Air m1, Air M2 and Macbook Pro m3. All three are fine and in no way worse than previous Intel Macbook Pro 2016 which I had.
 
I have an M4 Pro MBP 14 with the nano-texture display and it's been perfect for the past month. I have not noticed any odd sounds nor build issues. Actually, I think it's feels more solid than my previous M3 Max. The M3 Max MBP 14 didn't exhibit any issues either but there's just something about the M4 Pro MBP 14 that feels even better than my last one.

The M4 Pro has outstanding performance and battery life and the nano-texture display is brilliant, both indoors and out. I really love this generation of the MBP...but will definitely be curious when Apple redesigns the MBP to make it thinner and lighter. It would be awesome if they could shave a pound off the MBP 16 and make it 1/3 thinner.
 
sandip8879 said:
You’d think a high-end MacBook wouldn’t have these issues, but two faulty units in a row? That’s rough. The coil whine thing is weird too, especially since the M1 models don’t seem to have it.

If silence is a big deal for you, maybe the 15” M4 Air is the way to go. Have you checked with Apple Support to see if this is normal for the M4 Pro? Might be worth testing a few units in-store if possible. Hope you get a solid machine soon!
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I just did. What I did was run Logic at 32 Buffer size on the MacBooks at the store and put my ear very close to the keyboard. However it was still too loud at the store to be able to properly hear the whining and tell the difference to my unit. Employees didn’t know what I was talking about until I tried it on the MacBook Air M3. To my surprise it was waaay louder on that model and they could hear it as well. I thought the noise would be a result of the M4 being so powerful. The M3s were all the same btw so I assume it all depends on which chip you have and it is not a defect.
I returned it anyway and now I still don’t know how to proceed. Order another one because third time’s a charm? Or try another configuration? Or just deal with it?
If anyone who owns a MacBook and Logic would like to do me a favor:
Launch Logic, set the buffer size to 32 and listen if there is noise coming from the keyboard. Changing the buffer size changes the frequency of the noise. Quitting Logic eliminates the noise.

What I learned so far:

M1 Macbook (Air, Pro, Max) are all dead silent or it is so quiet that it’s impossible to hear from a normal distance.

M2?

M3 MacBook Air: The loudest so far (by a lot)

M4 Pro: Audible from a normal distance in a totally quiet room but not as loud as M3 Air
 
Yep, I can totally relate. I had the exact same experience. Returned two M4 Pro units because of the noticeable coil whine, and finally switched to the M3 Air. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier.
 
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