started with the 16 and was a tad too big, glad I tried and ended up with the 14? perfect size and function! Beautiful machine!
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What imperfections does your new 14 or 16 inch have, that you are willing to live with?
- Thread starter The Cockney Rebel
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Apple claims they make the best products in their class, and I agree with that (although, that is subjective). The "impeccable" part is made up by users here. In fact, Apple considers most of these as acceptable cosmetic issues (they don't even service all of them), and if you understand production at this scale, 100% perfection is almost impossible and it's literally a lottery.
If the functionality is not impacted, you really shouldn't worry about these things. The computer is meant to be used. After a time, you will create some imperfections yourself anyway (the battery will reduce in capacity, you might get scratches, dust will enter the computer, etc.). It's fine. They are meant to be worked on, not displayed in a gallery. Yes they are beautiful, yes I enjoy their design and no, I wouldn't accept a giant scratch across the lid out of the box or something like that, but I wouldn't take the magnifier glass out to find issues either.
I wouldn't make compromises on functionality. But I also wouldn't return a computer because of some minor cosmetic thing like keyboard backlight leaking or anything of that scale. First, it's a hassle costing you time and energy, second - you don't know what issues the replacement will have, third - you don't really know what imperfections will appear in time anyway (even if your replacement is perfect, it may develop issues in time that your previous unit wouldn't - you just don't know). I would ask myself: why do I need it to be "perfect"? It's not a showpiece, it's a powerful creative tool. Its cost is high because of the performance and capabilities of components (chips, screen, speakers, etc), not because of the assembly perfection. If the screen had issues or if the system was unstable - that would be a different matter entirely. But if your work is not affected by any of these imperfections, my honest advice would be to spend your energy elsewhere.
I'd rather have a 4th USB-C port instead of SD card reader.
Any broken key is a critical failure as far as I'm concerned, it either gets fixed (quickly), or returned.
Keyboard backlighting, I've never seen a keyboard with it that didn't bleed light all over the place, and since there all those moving parts, not surprising.
Little scuff on the top cover. Since I never see it, I dont give a damn about it.
Other than the weird SD card reader issue (counting on a software fix), I haven’t had any issues.
No issues on my 16. Honestly I didn't even look very close until reading this thread. I can't find any imperfections though. It's worked flawlessly as well. All the applications I had on my 2015 running Catalina are working well also. I bought a iPhone Pro Max at the same time, it's also been flawless. Perhaps I've been lucky, but every product I've bought from Apple have been without issues.
what you just said hurt me .
I do ,in fact,take care of my body and mental health-at least I try to- ,but indeed those purchase decisions,doubts...they are taking a bit of my life with them.
not just from a time standpoint,that one being obvious,but also because stressing and putting energy into sth that actually doesn't really matter this much ...affects the body(at least for those who are stressed Enough I reckon lol)
I didn’t want to hurt you. 😔
I apologize.
I just wanted to remind you there are more important things than things.
ahaha well I mean it did remind me of sth I had already thought about ,but that I keep doing .I didn’t want to hurt you. 😔
I apologize.
I just wanted to remind you there are more important things than things.
being reminded of how stupid I can be may hurt sometimes lol.but it's also the way I am ,I suppose
I have a tiny little mark on the far right edge of my display, right next to the rubber gasket.
Can only see it from certain angles.
I have extended AppleCare so will get a replacement if it changes.
Can only see it from certain angles.
I have extended AppleCare so will get a replacement if it changes.
If you livelihood depends on tech its probable not bad to have some idea of a brands imperfections and issues.
To be honest I sometimes also worry too much about stuff 😂. So I was kind of writing to myself as well.
By the way my (then) brand new iPhone 13 Pro had some plastic stuck on the back under the stainless steel frame since I bought it. But I decided to keep it, as I would have to wait 3-4 weeks for the replacement…
And the replacement could be even worse.
16" M1 Max.
Small imperfections. Bottom crease right side. Doesn't bother me at all. IMO, would be a dumb reason to return.
My camera picks it up much better than my eyes can see.
Small imperfections. Bottom crease right side. Doesn't bother me at all. IMO, would be a dumb reason to return.
My camera picks it up much better than my eyes can see.
On mine there are two spots where the micro gap between screen bezel and rubber band is visible if you shine light on it. However, aside from that the laptop is as close to a perfect Mac as I ever got, and a BTO machine replacement currently takes a very long time, so it was a no brainer to keep the laptop. I have AC+ in case anything goes wrong.
It's totally fair to exchange for a functional or macroscopic defect, but microscopic imperfections? No thanks. You don't know how the QA lottery will go. Imagine if you waited two months for a replacement and it had a bad panel or a visible scratch. I do have OCD for this kind of stuff but I also value my time and energy enough not to spend them to play this kind of game.
It's totally fair to exchange for a functional or macroscopic defect, but microscopic imperfections? No thanks. You don't know how the QA lottery will go. Imagine if you waited two months for a replacement and it had a bad panel or a visible scratch. I do have OCD for this kind of stuff but I also value my time and energy enough not to spend them to play this kind of game.
Every Apple device I buy, there's always some little thing about screen uniformity that bothers me. For the 16" M1 Pro, it's the off-axis brightness/color shift, which I can tell is more pronounced on the right third of the screen. I came close to returning a couple of times, but each time, I'd load a solid-white test image and think "you could show this to 1000 people and I would be the only one who sees anything wrong with it."
Wow, it would be ultra annoying having such amateur build quality issues for a $2000+ machine. Even worse in countries like mine where return policies are not the norm, and the support from the official authorized service providers are sketchy (they are more interested in selling than supporting). It's a shame Apple just seem to care less about who they're partnering these days.
I am pretty anal when it comes to my tech. I can't really say anything to anyone based on their perception of flaws.
That being said I have seen some people complain about things that I would have to get a microscope to find! I haven't even looked at the bottom of the case where there are seams because it looks fine. If I were to look with a magnifying glass I am sure I would find flaws too.
The mind is a funny thing. If you have in mind that you will get a flawless machine and that has been your experience and expectation most likely you will end up with what you expect. If you have in mind that you are the one who gets flaws then most likely you are going to find flaws.
What you look for you will find. So look for the positive aspects of the device.
My general rule is if it looks good enough for resale then I am fine. A lot of times I have sold electronics and something that bothered me about the device; the person I sold it to didn't even care or notice?
On the flip side if I see something that looks like an obvious defect and is messing with function OR looks bad enough it would affect resale value then it goes back.
You do you.
That being said I have seen some people complain about things that I would have to get a microscope to find! I haven't even looked at the bottom of the case where there are seams because it looks fine. If I were to look with a magnifying glass I am sure I would find flaws too.
The mind is a funny thing. If you have in mind that you will get a flawless machine and that has been your experience and expectation most likely you will end up with what you expect. If you have in mind that you are the one who gets flaws then most likely you are going to find flaws.
What you look for you will find. So look for the positive aspects of the device.
My general rule is if it looks good enough for resale then I am fine. A lot of times I have sold electronics and something that bothered me about the device; the person I sold it to didn't even care or notice?
On the flip side if I see something that looks like an obvious defect and is messing with function OR looks bad enough it would affect resale value then it goes back.
You do you.
If I'm buying a premium product which prides itself on quality/workmanship/etc (and is priced as such) then I will return it for these types of flaws. That's also why Apple offers the 14 day returns for any reason (at least in Australia).
No different to other premium or luxury goods. My wife bought an expensive leather handbag that had stitching which looked slightly misaligned from the front and we returned it both because it was hard to unsee, and it would also have impacted resale values in the future too. Had it been a cheap $1k handbag I don't think we'd care since that is a bag which would probably get regular use and exposure to elements such that a minor workmanship issue wouldn't be a cause for concern... but when you're buying things which are in the premium league and you're clearly paying for quality/workmanship, it seems sensible not to accept anything which is imperfect.
Maybe if I was earning millions it wouldn't be worth my time to return it, but I'm not.
No different to other premium or luxury goods. My wife bought an expensive leather handbag that had stitching which looked slightly misaligned from the front and we returned it both because it was hard to unsee, and it would also have impacted resale values in the future too. Had it been a cheap $1k handbag I don't think we'd care since that is a bag which would probably get regular use and exposure to elements such that a minor workmanship issue wouldn't be a cause for concern... but when you're buying things which are in the premium league and you're clearly paying for quality/workmanship, it seems sensible not to accept anything which is imperfect.
Maybe if I was earning millions it wouldn't be worth my time to return it, but I'm not.
My MacBook pro 16" was perfect. Just a little scuff on the trackpad because my little aluminium flashlight accidentally dropped on it. But now I've got a defect problem. The left speaker is cracking sometimes and when it's bad it changes how it sounds like crazy. Made a whole thread about it.
Since i bought mine before it's official here. They need to bring it to another country. Which will take about 7-21 days. And even longer if the parts aren't available.
I can't do that since i need to use it for 6 months straight. And I only have an old MBA 2014 11 inch to use if I sent my new MBP away. It's too slow and I can't do anything with that little screen. So I think I'm gonna keep it until 6 to 7 months from now . Sad I know. But what can I do?
The frustrating thing is. The timing of all of it. If it happened like on December. I can still send it. But it happened like days ago. And next week or so I need to use it for 6 months straight. So yeah. Bad timing..
Also just for info. I bought my MacBook and set it up on November 1st. The problem happened like few days ago . Only on the left speaker and first happened when watching a twitch stream. Thought it's Software so tried relaunching coreaudiod . Rebooting. Safe mode. Nothing worked. So yeah definitely hardware issue
Since i bought mine before it's official here. They need to bring it to another country. Which will take about 7-21 days. And even longer if the parts aren't available.
I can't do that since i need to use it for 6 months straight. And I only have an old MBA 2014 11 inch to use if I sent my new MBP away. It's too slow and I can't do anything with that little screen. So I think I'm gonna keep it until 6 to 7 months from now . Sad I know. But what can I do?
The frustrating thing is. The timing of all of it. If it happened like on December. I can still send it. But it happened like days ago. And next week or so I need to use it for 6 months straight. So yeah. Bad timing..
Also just for info. I bought my MacBook and set it up on November 1st. The problem happened like few days ago . Only on the left speaker and first happened when watching a twitch stream. Thought it's Software so tried relaunching coreaudiod . Rebooting. Safe mode. Nothing worked. So yeah definitely hardware issue
I've had my 14-inch MBP almost two months now (received it on 24 November). I noticed one small imperfection in the anodizing right away. It's a small dot in the left side near the headphone jack. It's really only noticeable in certain lighting conditions, but is definitely there.
I called up Apple to see what could be done. Since it is only a small cosmetic issue, and everything else worked perfectly, I was reticent to get a replacement. They said I could get a replacement but I would have to send my current machine back first. Since I have a CTO model (M1 Max/32GB RAM/10 CPU/24 GPU), I was quoted a 3-4 week wait time.
Apple offered me an alternative in the form of a $200 refund due to customer dissatisfaction. I took the refund and have been happily using my Mac since without any issues.
I called up Apple to see what could be done. Since it is only a small cosmetic issue, and everything else worked perfectly, I was reticent to get a replacement. They said I could get a replacement but I would have to send my current machine back first. Since I have a CTO model (M1 Max/32GB RAM/10 CPU/24 GPU), I was quoted a 3-4 week wait time.
Apple offered me an alternative in the form of a $200 refund due to customer dissatisfaction. I took the refund and have been happily using my Mac since without any issues.