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Your three worst Apple products or services ever
- Thread starter Jeeve Stubbs
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
At number 3:
2014 Mac mini -- some models were weaker than the ones they were replacing. Specifically the base model having 4GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM hard drive and a dual core 1.4Ghz Intel CPU in 2014 was just unusable.
At number 2:
Butterfly keyboards, how easily those keyboard broke stained the reputation of the entire MacBook line and poisoned the enthusiasm for the Touch Bar and exclusively having USB-C ports.
And at Number 1:
The App Store. With Apple being the sole arbiter of software on iOS it gives the platform an attitude that I feel has hampered its true potential.
2014 Mac mini -- some models were weaker than the ones they were replacing. Specifically the base model having 4GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM hard drive and a dual core 1.4Ghz Intel CPU in 2014 was just unusable.
At number 2:
Butterfly keyboards, how easily those keyboard broke stained the reputation of the entire MacBook line and poisoned the enthusiasm for the Touch Bar and exclusively having USB-C ports.
And at Number 1:
The App Store. With Apple being the sole arbiter of software on iOS it gives the platform an attitude that I feel has hampered its true potential.
The three worst I've ever seen? Or the three worst I've owned? Haha. Oh boy.
1. It's a toss up between The $1000 Apple Pro Display XDR stand. Or the $700 Mac Pro wheels. I just can't. I get that there's people here happily rocking $50,000 watches and probably driving a $300,000 weekend car or whatever, who are the ACTUAL intended audience for those things... but even still. I've had a mac pro and a few powermacs over the years.. that day felt like they were giving me the middle finger and sticking their tongue out lol.
2. The plastic core duo/core solo macbooks. They scratched up easily, the plastic would get brittle and crack around the edges, the palm rests would discolor, and they had the worst LCD on anything made after like 1998. With a like 5 degree vertical viewing angle. And the shiny screens had orange peel too!
3. Any cable made during that 1998-2017 era. Apple kept experimenting with different plastics and rubbers and never seemed to get it right.
Worst I've ever owned?
1. Plastic macbook
2. PowerMac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors. It had its merits but it was an uglier quicksilver. Somehow adding a huge heatsink and a bunch of holes didn't make it any quieter lol.
3. iPod Hi-Fi. It sounded good if you blasted the volume but was very "meh" otherwise. The 30-pin dock connector was very delicate. If you used the minijack input the speaker would never go to sleep unless you unplugged the minijack.
Best I've owned or had family own?
1. 2012-2017 11"/13" macbook air. Those are the epitome Apple laptops. They feel great, they have great keyboards, great trackpads, awesome battery life, and are stupidly durable for how thin and light they are.
2. Power Mac G4 Quicksilver. I was blown away by the design language Apple had in the early 2000s.
3. Mac Minis (all of them, yes even the 2014 everyone hates). Small, cheap, indestructible, dependable. They seem to last forever. They're basically worthless used because nobody wants them lol. Even now I see people groaning over the prospect of buying an M4 Mac Mini because it's the cheapest Mac, but nobody can argue with the merits and the low price lol.
1. It's a toss up between The $1000 Apple Pro Display XDR stand. Or the $700 Mac Pro wheels. I just can't. I get that there's people here happily rocking $50,000 watches and probably driving a $300,000 weekend car or whatever, who are the ACTUAL intended audience for those things... but even still. I've had a mac pro and a few powermacs over the years.. that day felt like they were giving me the middle finger and sticking their tongue out lol.
2. The plastic core duo/core solo macbooks. They scratched up easily, the plastic would get brittle and crack around the edges, the palm rests would discolor, and they had the worst LCD on anything made after like 1998. With a like 5 degree vertical viewing angle. And the shiny screens had orange peel too!
3. Any cable made during that 1998-2017 era. Apple kept experimenting with different plastics and rubbers and never seemed to get it right.
Worst I've ever owned?
1. Plastic macbook
2. PowerMac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors. It had its merits but it was an uglier quicksilver. Somehow adding a huge heatsink and a bunch of holes didn't make it any quieter lol.
3. iPod Hi-Fi. It sounded good if you blasted the volume but was very "meh" otherwise. The 30-pin dock connector was very delicate. If you used the minijack input the speaker would never go to sleep unless you unplugged the minijack.
Best I've owned or had family own?
1. 2012-2017 11"/13" macbook air. Those are the epitome Apple laptops. They feel great, they have great keyboards, great trackpads, awesome battery life, and are stupidly durable for how thin and light they are.
2. Power Mac G4 Quicksilver. I was blown away by the design language Apple had in the early 2000s.
3. Mac Minis (all of them, yes even the 2014 everyone hates). Small, cheap, indestructible, dependable. They seem to last forever. They're basically worthless used because nobody wants them lol. Even now I see people groaning over the prospect of buying an M4 Mac Mini because it's the cheapest Mac, but nobody can argue with the merits and the low price lol.
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The Worst (That I have personal experience with)
3. Trashcan Mac Pro. Limited and expensive expansion, thermal issues that baked the twin GPUs, thermal constraints that kept it from getting a single upgrade for six years, it's the Mac that epitomizes Apple's bad run of machines from 2013-2019 or so. I still have mine, but these days it's on a shelf next to my G4 Cube as a very pretty Mac.
2. iMac G5 (non-iSight). While these machines were blessedly easy to open and work on, the heart of the capacitor plague years paired with an overly-hot G5 CPU made for a wombo combo of misery. I have recapped the logic board of mine and had to replace the internal PSU twice now to keep the poor thing limping along for playing old PowerPC games.
1. First-gen Apple Watch. As someone that got one on launch day, it was so slow to use. The hardware wasn't there to keep up with the software, and it shipped with a clearly unfinished watchOS given the massive changes that came in watchOS 2.0 a mere 5 months later. Throw on top that it stopped getting software updates in under two and a half years and it was probably the biggest disappointment of a launch device I've used. I enjoy and still use Apple Watches, but man, not this one.
3. Trashcan Mac Pro. Limited and expensive expansion, thermal issues that baked the twin GPUs, thermal constraints that kept it from getting a single upgrade for six years, it's the Mac that epitomizes Apple's bad run of machines from 2013-2019 or so. I still have mine, but these days it's on a shelf next to my G4 Cube as a very pretty Mac.
2. iMac G5 (non-iSight). While these machines were blessedly easy to open and work on, the heart of the capacitor plague years paired with an overly-hot G5 CPU made for a wombo combo of misery. I have recapped the logic board of mine and had to replace the internal PSU twice now to keep the poor thing limping along for playing old PowerPC games.
1. First-gen Apple Watch. As someone that got one on launch day, it was so slow to use. The hardware wasn't there to keep up with the software, and it shipped with a clearly unfinished watchOS given the massive changes that came in watchOS 2.0 a mere 5 months later. Throw on top that it stopped getting software updates in under two and a half years and it was probably the biggest disappointment of a launch device I've used. I enjoy and still use Apple Watches, but man, not this one.
Off the top of my head:
Ping has to be #1 for me
Ping has to be #1 for me
From a 90's repair tech perspective: the AppleVision 750/750AV and their big brother the AppleVision 850/850AV.
CRT monitors are dangerous machines to work on. My "genius"🙄 manager had the bright idea to have the only single tech in the shop do all the monitor repairs.😑 There are no kids to weep if the poor sod gets electrocuted.😒 Every frakking week there was always 2 or 3 750's in the shop. Because of the defective design, Apple gave the 750/750AV a 2 year warranty. Guess who was tasked with working on these 60lb behemoths? Me. You'd expect 2 years of manhandling 60lb monitors on a daily basis would turn a 98lb weakling into Charles Atlas.🤩 Nope. It made me into a 98lb weakling with a bad back.🤕
Once in a blue moon the 90lb 850 would come in. I would kick that ticket down the list until one of my 200lb co-worker would help me lift it onto the workbench.😙
CRT monitors are dangerous machines to work on. My "genius"🙄 manager had the bright idea to have the only single tech in the shop do all the monitor repairs.😑 There are no kids to weep if the poor sod gets electrocuted.😒 Every frakking week there was always 2 or 3 750's in the shop. Because of the defective design, Apple gave the 750/750AV a 2 year warranty. Guess who was tasked with working on these 60lb behemoths? Me. You'd expect 2 years of manhandling 60lb monitors on a daily basis would turn a 98lb weakling into Charles Atlas.🤩 Nope. It made me into a 98lb weakling with a bad back.🤕
Once in a blue moon the 90lb 850 would come in. I would kick that ticket down the list until one of my 200lb co-worker would help me lift it onto the workbench.😙
1. 2006 Mac mini. The Core Solo one. That thing was my first Mac, and it was super slow. I have two and they're practically useless.
2. iPad mini 1st gen. That thing is also just misery to use. It's slow. My iPad 2 feels faster than it.
3. Activation Lock. I get it's there to keep things from being stolen, but it will lock me out of my iOS 9 iPads every so often.
2. iPad mini 1st gen. That thing is also just misery to use. It's slow. My iPad 2 feels faster than it.
3. Activation Lock. I get it's there to keep things from being stolen, but it will lock me out of my iOS 9 iPads every so often.
my AirPort Extreme (the router with the HDD) was the worst router I ever had, at the end needed rebooting almost daily.
Time Machine - when I needed it, it failed on me. I had a large Aperture library that got corrupted, Time Machine was unable to restore
Time Machine - when I needed it, it failed on me. I had a large Aperture library that got corrupted, Time Machine was unable to restore
1. The Butterfly keyboard - kept around for far too long, even after the problems became apparent
2. MobileMe - I used to have loads of sync issues with it
3. iCloud - still only has 5GB on the basic tier in 2025, forcing most to pay monthly.
2. MobileMe - I used to have loads of sync issues with it
3. iCloud - still only has 5GB on the basic tier in 2025, forcing most to pay monthly.
I really, really hate Apple Photos as of late. I didn't like it pre-iOS 18, but it became worse in 18 and didn't meaningfully improve in 26. The way it works is entirely opposed to how I think of photos - especially the "recents" (which is more like a neverending stream of every photo that has ever crossed any of your devices).
On Mac I can pretty safely ignore it but that's not an option on iOS.
On Mac I can pretty safely ignore it but that's not an option on iOS.
I just say never sign up with subscriptions through Apple, before you checked up if there’s another way.
Obviously you have to if you subscribe to anything of Apple’s services, I would assume at least.
But they also want you to use their service with YouTube subscriptions, and probably elsewhere too.
So they can add some extra cash for their own benefits. Gree--y f--kers.
It’s has been Apple’s alternative that comes up first - 'sign up through Apple.
Took enough time for me to realise this **** - and find Sign up with YouTube instead.
They add approx. 25-30% above what YouTube charge for example.
Obviously you have to if you subscribe to anything of Apple’s services, I would assume at least.
But they also want you to use their service with YouTube subscriptions, and probably elsewhere too.
So they can add some extra cash for their own benefits. Gree--y f--kers.
It’s has been Apple’s alternative that comes up first - 'sign up through Apple.
Took enough time for me to realise this **** - and find Sign up with YouTube instead.
They add approx. 25-30% above what YouTube charge for example.
I'll name the online Apple store in Australia.
- Showed W6800X Duo GPUs to be in stock, letting me order two of them (at nearly $15,000)
- Delivery delayed, then the support people claimed that I would absolutely get them (I questioned them directly)
And finally cancelling the order after a stupidly long time. They never had them in the first place. Waste of time.
I ended up buying another perfect condition 28 core 2.5ghz 2019 Mac Pro (from iPowerResale) with one W6800X Duo (and the fabric link) they got from Apple brand new and the other I got from elsewhere.
I still have mine, it still runs perfectly as well - it is the maximum spec. Still have the original box and even the little stickers they give you. But it's way slower than my 2019 Mac Pros. I also have an M4 Pro Mac Mini, but the 7,1 Mac Pros do the heavy lifting still, I cannot fault them.
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My worst Apple product ever is the Smart Keyboard for the first and second generation iPad Pro 12.9”. Its terrible design of using unplated copper embedded in the folding fabric hinges instead of ribbon cable meant that all Smart Keyboards ever would will die due to corrosion in normal humidity in about 18 months. Unrepairable and utter garbage.
My 2019 16inch has been the worst experience I’ve ever had with a MacBook. The lethargic intel iGPU is underpowered and can’t run the built in display properly, resulting in frame skips which is noticeable when you’re typing. You can force the discrete GPU to always run, but kills your battery.
It gets too hot under normal operation to use on your lap (lap-top you can’t use on your lap???).
It was double salt in the wound because I bought it to replace a 2011 13inch. That thing was and is still rock solid but not supported anymore. I had replaced the HDD and upgraded the ram at one point (remember when you could do that?) The battery on it is shot but I can plug it in and it will boot up today no problem.
The 2019 stays permanently docked in clamshell mode so it can get hot and make noise and suffer out of sight while it tries to do the impossible (drive two 1080p monitors)
It gets too hot under normal operation to use on your lap (lap-top you can’t use on your lap???).
It was double salt in the wound because I bought it to replace a 2011 13inch. That thing was and is still rock solid but not supported anymore. I had replaced the HDD and upgraded the ram at one point (remember when you could do that?) The battery on it is shot but I can plug it in and it will boot up today no problem.
The 2019 stays permanently docked in clamshell mode so it can get hot and make noise and suffer out of sight while it tries to do the impossible (drive two 1080p monitors)