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MacBook Air M1 screen crack for no apparent reason
- luis8 4y agoMaybe it's a quality control issue?.I ordered a fully spec'd macbook pro and it had a small dent in the frame of the screen. It's really small but still piss me off that I paid 4k+ for a device that was not pristine when I opened the package
- nerdyadventurer 4y agoI wish Mac software dev was not restricted to Mac hardware. One can use cloud service but over the years it will add up to a price of a Mac.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- lewisl9029 4y agoA friend just had this happen to their M1 Air under warranty and Apple quoted him $400 for the repair claiming it was "accidental" damage, even though he didn't do anything to it, like the 50 pages of people who replied in the thread. Wanted to make a quick PSA against purchasing one of these to save a few hundred bucks vs the M2 Air which hopefully won't have this problem, and possibly put some pressure on Apple to take care of their customers for what is clearly a widespread hardware defect.
- asdff 4y agoAfter the keyboard fiasco I am very nervous about upgrading my 2012 macbook. I tried the last intel model air (same body as the m1) and that computer was an absolute lemming. This 2012 computer sure looks old and ugly, but I can replace all the components myself with a screwdriver, and the body was designed so the cpu could actually work at 100% and not end up thermally throttled. The computer gets hot and the fans get loud for sure, but it doesn't throttle any. Back then the base clocks were probably set to more sane thresholds for heat's sake versus today's turboboosted cpus in thin cases with poor air circulation that inevitably throttle under long term load.
- r00fus 4y agoMy entry-level M1 Air is faster than my mid-spec 2019 MBP. These physical design issues might be valid reason, but speed isn't one.
- Spooky23 4y agoDuring a recent heatwave, I was working on my back patio, where the temperature peaked at 104F. My 14” M1 MBP didn’t notice. No fan noise, no performance issues. My windows laptop that I was barely using to test and issue struggled. The CPUs were throttled down and the fan was throttled up. My body found itself wishing that I had an internal fan! :)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- karamanolev 4y agoGiven the number of models with the butterfly keyboards which were somewhat similar (model-wide issues, not acknowledged by Apple, blamed on the user), what makes you think M2 Air is going to fix any potential screen issues?
- Spooky23 4y agoUsually they have repair programs for major issues. My 2015 MBP was replaced twice and repaired once for screen delamination issues.
- scottydelta 4y agoApple has always tried to blame customers whenever they can. I remember when my MacBook pro 2015 started glitching and Apple voided the warranty by saying there was liquid spillage/fluid damage. So apparently macbooks have these small stickers inside them which change color upon contact with liquids to help detect liquid damage but the issue with those stickers are that they also change color if you live in a humid area. They made me pay for that repair even though the customer support guy at the store agreed that the color could change because of humidity but it was company policy to charge for those repairs.
- wizofaus 4y agoA warranty that can be voided just because some little sticker a user can't access indicates moisture detection doesn't even sound like it should be legal. If you've done something obviously stupid like drop your monitor in the bath then you're hardly going to need such a sticker to detect "unreasonable use". It seems pretty reasonable to expect consumer goods to tolerate small amounts of moisture. In fact a monitor I just bought recently got water on it due to some dripping house plants above it. It was fine. So far anyway!
- eastbound 4y agoMost electronics including Apple mention that they’re rated for 35°C while working and 40°C while off. After a single year, most of Apple warranties void out.
- geraldwhen 4y agoYou use your laptop outside a lot?
- notsapiensatall 4y agoOf course, portability is the point of a laptop. Absent precipitation, I'd rather use one in a park than indoors.
- 4y ago
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago> Page 49 of 49 That tells you something... Cupertino, we have a problem.
- sam1r 4y agoI was shocked when I saw there was 49 pages. Remember, the m1 is just a few years old!
- happyopossum 4y agoA lot of the 'me too' responses are about other MacBooks - not just the m1 air.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoI don't think this has anything to do with the M1 chip. I think the case may be a bit too tight, and flexes when it cools, and that is enough to cause the crack.
- flak48 4y agoM1 = "the 1st gen MacBook Air with the M1 chip"
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoYes, I know, but I don't think the chip is the reason for the cracking. I think it may be tolerances in the case. Maybe they also started using a different, more brittle glass, with this generation. Maybe the stress has always been there, but didn't cause cracks, with the last type of glass.
- flipdot 4y agoYou missed the point. Nobody’s saying chip is the culprit—“M1” in this context refers to the Macbook series powered by the eponymous chip. Which means those Macbooks are only a few years old at most, yet there are 49 pages of user reports that their screens are prone to cracking for no reason.
- asdff 4y agoThe current macbook air body is pretty poor. I had one of the late intel ones for a spell before overheating killed the logic board, and it developed an outline of the keyboard on the screen within a few months just from the clamshell being closed daily. I wasn't even carrying this thing in a bag, it just sat on a desk.
- Hamuko 4y ago>The current macbook air body is pretty poor. >I had one of the late intel ones The current or the previous?
- happyopossum 4y ago> I had one of the late intel ones They've redesigned the MBA since then - https://www.apple.com/macbook-air-m2/ https://www.apple.com/macbook-air-m2/
- asdff 4y agoI see, I didn't realize. It's probably for the best they left that m1 body behind then. Hopefully they solved the keyboard imprint issue as well with the redesign.
- giancarlostoro 4y agoDear Apple, Its okay to not have to make your laptops ultra skinny if it means you avoid these sort of issues. Sincerely, A customer waiting to buy a decent laptop that is sturdy and comfortable to type on.
- closewith 4y agoI love the drive towards lighter and thinner laptops. Long may it last.
- deanCommie 4y agoDear Giancarlo, Please buy a MacBook Pro - the new M1 and M2 models are nice, thick, sturdy, comfortable, fast, and have a beast of a battery. The Macbook Air line is specifically for the non-Pro consumer who values portability and size over everything else. Sincerely, Anyone that can Google this.
- 0000011111 4y agoI think the keyboards are sub par on the pro and Air models.
- samatman 4y agoThe keyboard on the 16" M1 is my favorite laptop keyboard Apple has manufactured, of the ones I've used. Which is all types, and the majority of models, they've produced since the aluminum 12" G4 Powerbook. YMMV.
- _ph_ 4y agoThe keyboard on the M2 Air is probably the best laptop keyboard I ever had.
- buzzy_hacker 4y ago[flagged]
- noodlesUK 4y ago
- kelsolaar 4y agoAny clue of what is causing that? Is it the aluminium chassis expanding as a function of temperature and causing stress on the glass?
- djmips 4y agoMaybe in a fraction of the cases but from reading the thread, I, pessimistically estimate that most of the problems are user induced or a different issue.
- AmVess 4y agoI'd have to agree. I don't know how many companies supply Apple with MBA M1 screens, but I've had mine since they came out. Dragged it all over the states and still no crack. I always open it in the middle, and I don't wrench it open. For some reason, some people don't understand that thin and light doesn't mean indestructible.
- samatman 4y agoMostly likely culprit, if this is a real problem, is a poorly-annealed batch of screen glass. If the glass is under internal tension, it's only a matter of time before cracks show. Conversely, screen glass is ordinarily pretty hard to damage and screens are designed to handle any expansion in their frame as a matter of course. At this point, there's no way to tell if this is an actual issue, or if it's just the enormous customer base of Apple amplifying owners who damaged their screen and would like Apple to replace it for free. I'm sympathetic after owning one of the cursed butterfly decks, but I'm pretty wait-and-see about it. I'm not nervous about my 16" M1 Pro, which is the most tank-like laptop Apple has made since the days of removable batteries and built-in DVD-R.
- peppertree 4y agoImpact at the edge of screen created microscopic crack. Thermal change caused the crack to spread. It happens all the time with vehicle windshields.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoThen why hasn’t it happened for other macbooks? The corners of my 2012 are noticeably deformed from impacts and the screen is fine
- kayodelycaon 4y agoHell, the newer iPads flex a bit and we don’t have screens break constantly.
- monocasa 4y agoScreen glass breakage is very dependent on the shape and vector of the stress. Flexing is generally not that bad, nor are light impacts or scrapes on the front, but a remarkably tiny pressure on edge will cause a crack.
- kergonath 4y agoExactly. The surface treatment of these glasses make their faces very resistant to fracture, but the layer in the middle inside is much less tough. An impact on the side is really bad for this type of glass pane.
- peppertree 4y agoThe fracture pattern depends on the direction of impact. It's easily verifiable under a microscope. From the thread it sounds like Apple did indeed verify them with a microscope. However people are not always rational, especially when money is involved.
- minxomat 4y ago
- mupuff1234 4y agoDoesn't the M1 air use the same chassis as previous Intel based MacBook airs?
- kayodelycaon 4y agoIt does, but the screen or how it is attached is probably different in some way. There is no way the M1 gets nearly as hot as my Intel machines.
- hedgehog 4y agoI have an M1 Air, under enough load it'll run right up towards 100C and that heat is localized over the processor. It seems possible there's something about the thermal design that makes this configuration more prone to this problem than previous machines. Aluminum expands more than glass so the problem would most likely be something around the chassis / hinge area.
- Bolkan 4y ago> There is no way the M1 gets nearly as hot as my Intel machines. Maybe that's why it's breaking.
- madrox 4y agoSounds like a manufacturing or sourcing issue. I can only imagine Apple hasn't recalled or notified customer support to be on the lookout for this because Apple themselves isn't even aware of the issue. How would they know? Techs writing up these issues are probably attributing them all to user damage. Unless someone is actively looking for a noticeable uptick in user damage cases I doubt it even comes up.
- conductr 4y agoThey should know it's not normal to replace this many screens on a ~2 year old product line, they should be monitoring this type of data. It shouldn't have to bubble up from the front lines of tech support
- madrox 4y agoThey absolutely should, but I would not be shocked if they weren't
- viraptor 4y agoApple is notorious about keeping information secret. We won't know if they know about the issue or not until they act on it. There's next to no chance that they'll say "we've noticed this issue increasing and are discussing internally how to handle it". It took years to acknowledge the keyboard issues.
- blagie 4y agoI stopped by Sony phones because of the same issue. Sony Xperia Z-series phones would spontaneously develop serious screen cracks. I thought it was a fluke, but it happened over, and over, and over. The last Sony phone I bought was in a padded case in a padded bag when the screen cracked. Similar forum threads later appeared. It'd be interesting to know the root cause.
- 1970-01-01 4y ago"for no apparent reason" is valid, and will be extremely hard for an owner to prove. It's happened before in several television sets: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/samsung-s4253-plasma-screen-crack.808531/post-17199946 https://www.avsforum.com/threads/samsung-s4253-plasma-screen...
- alliao 4y agoI'm such a fanboy for Panasonic Let's Note, look it up I don't mind it if Apple made one for slightly heavier duty
- scrlk 4y agoGlad to see other Let's Note fans out there! I'm a big fan of the SV Let's Note line - they are the last of the "no compromises" style of ultraportables. > 12.1" 16:10 1920x1200 display > 1.1 kg > Blu-ray drive > WLAN support > Thunderbolt (USB-C), USB-A, Ethernet and VGA > Removable battery > Hardware wireless switch > Activity/status LEDs Downsides: odd circular trackpad, Japan only, extremely expensive. Last time Apple made anything like this was the 12" PowerBook G4.
- curious_cat_163 4y agoI have had mine crash on me multiple times now. Last it happened was today, in the middle of a Safari browsing session.
- maerF0x0 4y ago> it is frustrating that apple doesn’t believe its costumers. What's notable here is there is 49 pages of seemingly mostly "me too". It should give Apple at the very least pause for reevaluation of their stance. One guy saying "I didn't do it man" is not evidence, but a clearly non coordinated global trend of people claiming the same thing? Pretty compelling.
- jug 4y agoYeah these kinds of en masse reports have resulted in an Apple response in the past so here’s hoping for everyone subject to this. They use to be awfully reluctant though. An article in mainstream news and sustained pressure should help.
- trophycase 4y agoThey likely know and don't care. My old macbook pro updated to the latest OS and it completely bricked the machine. Every time I'd try to watch a video the thing would overheat. Reverted the OS and the issue was completely fixed. Bought a new iphone recently and the camera simply can't focus at short range.
- cycomanic 4y agoWhy would it? Seriously a large proportion even of the users bitten by this will still run to buy the next shiny apple device they release and then there is the other part of the users who are not affected and will blame the affected users for doing something wrong, because apple can't be in the wrong. I never understood the personal attachment and identification that some brands elicit it people (but credit to Apple to achieving this, and I don't mean this ironically. They must be doing something right to gather such a following).
- thomas-st 4y agoMy 14" M1 MacBook Pro screen repair cost was $809. Supervisor refused the waive the fee. The screen cracked for no apparent reason and then completely stopped working. Some firm already filed a class action complaint, and I submitted my details: https://classlawdc.com/2021/08/04/m1-macbook-screen-crack-investigation/ https://classlawdc.com/2021/08/04/m1-macbook-screen-crack-in...
- umvi 4y ago> My 14" M1 MacBook Pro repair cost was $809 My custom Ryzen 7/RX 570 Linux PC built from parts cost less than this, so a repair of this magnitude just boggles my mind. At that point just buy yourself a new computer.
- wtallis 4y agoIs a desktop whose price doesn't include any display really the best comparison you could come up with for a discussion of laptop display repairs?
- brewdad 4y agoThe beauty of the desktop is that you can buy a display that fits your budget and needs. A desktop monitor that's equal to a typical 1080 laptop display can be had for $150. If you need something better, you can spend more but very few people will need to spend more than $500. If it breaks, you plug in a new one at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the laptop repair with the only downtime being how long it takes to drive to the store.
- acdha 4y agoThis is like saying that you don’t think formalwear is a good deal because your Costco jeans are more durable. Desktops are great, I heartily recommend using them instead of laptops for most people, but it’s not especially revelatory to point out that laptops make design trade offs to hit their size & battery trade offs.
- 4y ago
- sschueller 4y agoI miss the old non-reflecting plastic screens we used to have on laptops but I guess shiny glass sells better. Form over functional IMO.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoApple used to offer that in 17” even
- jabbany 4y agoActually most budget laptops still use plastic screens... It's only the high end models where things become glass. It almost makes sense, since if you're buying an expensive laptop, you're probably OK with higher cost of ownership too (as seen by the other replies on this thread of people spending multiple hundreds to repair their screens).
- martyvis 4y agoTouch screens need to be glass, which is also in a lot of higher end non-Apple laptops.
- jabbany 4y agoActually they don't at all. I have a few older tablets that have plastic screens and touch works just fine (not great, but good enough). The main benefit of glass is just that it looks nicer (clearer) and maintains the flatness of the screen better (compared to even harder plastic which will still deform a lot under pressure). On phones there is an additional benefit of scratch resistance, but that's less of an issue for laptops.
- pmontra 4y agoMy 2016 car's touchscreen is plastic and capacitive (I operate it my my fingertips, not with nails.)
- TacticalCoder 4y ago> (as seen by the other replies on this thread of people spending multiple hundreds to repair their screens) I'd rather buy a 500 EUR non Apple laptop than pay the 490 EUR I was quoted to repair my M1 MacBook Air's screen. I mean: I get it fixed, than what? It's still a prone-to-crack screen I get. And there's no way I'm thinking: "Oh well, rather than pay 490 EUR to fix the screen, I'll buy another M1". Well... I considered just buying a new M1: but not after having read about all the people having similar issues. Now I know I wasn't just unlucky and I know it wasn't my fault. I'm not interested in a fragile laptop.
- mkagenius 4y agoMy 10 day old Macbook with M1 Pro died suddenly last week. In India we don't have Genius bars like in the States, what we have is a franchise model where in small repair shops are given the right to repair (only part to part replacement) and they probably get some commission. The guys in these shops are very afraid of Apple and its policies. Even things which normally would get fixed in Genius bars without any second thought, these shops will outright refuse to repair with the fear that Apple would revoke their license. Now this has directly affected the customers like me. Moreover, the staff in these shops are highly incompetent and do not have good knowledge about Apple in general. In my case, the shop lady put a big scratch on the top of my Macbook while she was rotating it after putting it upside down on the table to take pictures from all angle. Apparently it is required. Not sure if they have this procedure in the US when you go to submit the laptop. Now, the staff at the shop told me they do not want to involve the management and they would do something about it. Had this been completely managed by Apple, this wouldn't have made a single dent in Apple's profit if they just decided to give me a new laptop but since its a franchise model, they behave differently, and do not want to lose a single rupee and hence refuse to replace or even change the top case having the scratch caused by them. Moreover, they will take around 2-3 weeks to replace your logic board / battery / screen / keyboard. Just about anything. I don't know if Apple will survive if they did this in the US. Apple support informed me that they are waiting for a reply from the shop, about the scratch and status in general before they could take any action - its been 5 days (including the weekend) already.
- webmobdev 4y agoSpot on. Apple direct customer support really suck in India. In my city, the authorised store and service centre always act entitled like they are doing me a big favour (probably because we don't buy it from them directly). Last I went there to find out if a discoloured iPad screen could be repaired, and they said they can't examine my device unless I pay Rs. 500 (around US $5-$6) first. So I shell out the money, and they look at the screen and ask me if I have factory reset the iPad. I said yes, I had done that. The service "engineer" then returns the iPad to me and says, "Apple does not repair any iPad hardware in India. If it is under warranty, they will replace the device with another iPad." I asked him why he didn't tell me all this before charging me Rs. 500. He looked at me like he was staring at a jackass (which I guess he was :).
- xt00 4y agoBut the screen is probably 0.25mm thinner people, the reduction in reliability / fragility is definitely worth that folks!!!
- doodlesdev 4y agoBuy Apple Care!!!! It's a no-brainer!!! (as in you must have no brain to think it makes any sense to be okay with this)
- raincom 4y agoApple care can deny accidental coverage. Maybe, applecare+ can cover with $99 for screen or $299 for other accidents
- caboteria 4y agoSounds like another round of "you're holding it wrong" - https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/ https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- thedougd 4y agoI had an M1 Macbook Air screen delaminate for no apparent reason. I'm guessing that was the reason, but it looked like a giant bubble formed right in the middle of the screen. I'm guessing all the edges delaminated? It looked like water damage, but of course was never in contact with water. The screen was replaced for free.
- amelius 4y agoPerhaps the object/impurity that caused the contact point crack was behind the screen, not in front of it.
- usaphp 4y agoI've had the same happened to mine because of the camera cover. When lid is closed - it rubs against the trackpad edge and a little pressure from the top, when it's closed, will cause it to crack.
- sidyapa 4y agoI have another issue. Randomly my M1 Macbook Air's frames drop below 20fps and I can see a trail behind the cursor and when I swipe between diff apps. Happens quite regularly with cpu idling at 97% and 6-7gb of memory left unused
- 3-cheese-sundae 4y agoI've had this happen once so far in my 2-year ownership. A reboot resolved it and it hasn't returned (yet). Feels like it could be a display driver bug.
- zizee 4y agoEarlier this year I threw my son his USB earbuds container. Not a heavy thing. I threw it in a high arc, and on its way down it glanced off the edge of his MacBook screen. It seemed like the lightest of touches, but it must have hit in just the right (or wrong) spot, and the screen ended up with a large crack, and stopped working. I was super surprised how fragile the screen was, especially given how tough iPads and iPhone seem to be. When it happened, I couldn't believe such a light glancing blow could have done it. I was definitely responsible for cracking the screen through my actions, but it did highlight to me that macbooks are not robust at all, not the high quality I had come to expect.
- traveler01 4y agoThis is a widespread issue, it's almost like the computers are designed for this to happen. I've seen Windows laptops without any glass protection at the front with better durability.
- xtracto 4y agoApple is the king of planned obsolecense in the computing segment.
- traveler01 4y agoThis is already beyond planned obsolescence. This is purely scamming the users to pay a buttload of money in their repair centers. Here a new screen is about 650€, when the MacBook itself comes out of the shelves for about 1500€. You can see how Apple managed to make itself one of the richest companies in the world. It wasn't for being customer friendly, they have a support even worse than some chinese brands.
- ortusdux 4y agoIt's things like this that make Framework laptops sound more and more appealing. An OEM replacement screen is $180 and swaps out in minutes.
- opan 4y agoIf only they had high-end ARM chips as an option.
- piyh 4y agoAnd fix the idle battery drain
- ortusdux 4y agoThey are a new hardware company that shipped their first product less than 12 months ago. They are not going to make everyone happy in their first year. What they are selling is reparability and upgradability in a good formfactor. If they launch a high-end ARM chipset next year, you can buy it and then install it in your mac-book air sized laptop in 10 minutes. You can then take the old MOBO/CPU and use it as NUC. When they launch better screens, you can take the stock one out and spend $40 on a USB-C adapter to turn it into an external monitor. I'll take that over Apple's "you get what you get, and you will like it, because we know better" approach any day.
- z9znz 4y agoThis is obviously a serious issue, perhaps with manufacturing or a batch or two in the supply chain. Thankfully my M1 Air has been fine (aside from one fully dead pixel from day one), and it has traveled around the world with me. Apple should take responsibility for this, but for this current risk and possible owner-fault risks, I do find AppleCare+ worth it. There's almost no repair that can be done which would cost less than the plus warranty costs, so it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
- xyst 4y agoOwned a 2015-2016 MacBook for college. It shit the bed 2-3 years later. The cost of replacing the motherboard vs buying a brand new one was nearly identical. Ended up just splurging for a 2017 MBP. Besides the butterfly keyboard going to shit (fortunately, replaced under warranty) 2 years ago. It has worked wonderfully for me so far.
- Kalanos 4y agoIsn't this what happens when you close any laptop when there is something on the keyboard?
- doodlesdev 4y agoNo.
- nbzso 4y agoFirst rule of a longtime Apple user: Never be an early adopter. Second rule of a longtime Apple user: Always use AppleCare+. Third rule of a longtime Apple user: When you have a problem with your beloved Apple hardware, always have a pile of cash on you, just in case.
- sitzkrieg 4y agoif only there was some other approach!
- least 4y agoI'd imagine most people deliberately using Apple products have made considerations for other options. Unfortunately there is no panacea like you seem to be alluding to, just a different set of tradeoffs.
- amelius 4y agoThere is. If you find a defect, just hold a heat-gun near your screen for a while. Apple will not be able to explain the cause of the resulting damage. You will get your money back, as you should. Here is a script: You: there is a crack in my screen. It appeared spontaneously. Genius bar guy: that's a point contact crack; it's caused by the user. You: well, how do you explain this burn mark behind it? It's more likely that it overheated and then the screen snapped. Genius bar guy: err, ok, we will have it fixed. You: sorry, but I lost trust in your brand. The device could have started a fire. I want my money back.
- jmull 4y agoBad advice, IME. First Intel Mac, first iPhone, first Apple Watch… for that matter, second Mac ever, and, however you want to rank it, an Apple ][. I don’t regret any of them (my mother paid for the early Apple and Mac, but I know she didn’t regret the either).
- nbzso 4y agoJust one of many examples in my 20+ years of using Apple computers and hardware, personally and professionally, for my company employees. First Cinema Display 30". In my country of origin, at the time, the cost was comparable to a second hand good car. Only 5 displays were sold, 4 of them for a local telecommunication provider for their luxury offices. One for me. The screen was unevenly lit and on white/gray background introduced a visible pink to blue shift. After several unsuccessful attempts for calibration with the Spider Pro 2, the local Apple authorized representative filled the forms for replacing the unit. Thanks to AppleCare+ after 3 displays with the same problem, finally I had a luck and received the perfect display. Still using it in my art studio to this day.
- r3012 4y agohttps://9to5mac.com/2021/09/16/class-action-lawsuit-screen-cracks/ https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/16/class-action-lawsuit-screen-c... Filed in Sept 2021. "A class-action lawsuit is being planned on behalf of M1 MacBook owners who say that screen cracks were occurring during normal use, with both the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro affected. Apple has mostly claimed that the cracks are the result of accidental damage, including in the case of the 9to5Mac reader who first contacted us"
- ravenstine 4y agoI own an M1 mac and, although I haven't exactly abused it, there's been multiple times where it fell pretty hard both flat and on corners, and it's held up extremely well. However, it being a very thin laptop I think puts it at greater risk of catastrophic damage, which is why I back up most things in my home directory and treat the Air as something that will either break or be traded in. That way if anything goes wrong, I can get a new laptop and be minimally affected. This isn't to say that Macbooks should crack so easily, but I think this is the right way to approach basically any consumer grade device.
- legitster 4y agoI still don't understand the appeal of aluminum/glass construction. I couldn't think of a worse set of materials to make a laptop out of. For comparison, nearly every other ultrabook manufacturer has moved onto magnesium or carbon fiber for chassis construction. Both materials are much physically stronger, lighter, and (most importantly, imho) offer more intrinsic shock protection. I know people enjoy the "luxury" look and feel of a Macbook and criticize other manufacturers for using composite materials. But I don't think most people understand that for other manufacturers, moving to aluminum unibody construction at this point would probably be a cost-saving measure. Apple does not offer a single product that is MIL-SPEC tested, despite nearly every other manufacturer having some or all of their product line submitted to standardized endurance testing.
- r3012 4y agoThere are trade-off there to consider. One get's ruggedness but carbon fiber is generally not a good thermal conductor which could be a problem for a laptop with no fans. And titanium is very expensive compared to aluminum. Like all engineering. It's about priorities.
- zik 4y agoHe said magnesium, not titanium.
- invalidname 4y agoI guess he was referring to the old titanium macbook pro (during the G4 era) which was amazing. I had one in my motorcycle sidebags and it survived amazing abuse.
- LordDragonfang 4y agoIt's their brand. Apple continues to use aluminum because they've invested a lot into it and they're good at it. I occasionally hear a quote get thrown about on apple-centric tech podcasts that Apple probably has the greatest concentration of aluminum material science expertise not just of tech companies, but of any company that exists. So much so that Elon Musk poached one of their engineers to work on aluminum for Tesla.
- varenc 4y agodigression: the linked URL seems to be using some internal apple domain. The "proper" link is: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252794122?page=49 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252794122?page=49 My guess is that the `origin-discussions2-us-dr-prz` subdomain refers to a set of servers which the main discussions.apple.com host would dynamically route you to based on IP location?
- _gtly 4y agoI know someone who put a square of gaffer's tape over their Macbook Pro's video camera (in theory to protect their privacy) and one day they lifted up the screen and it was cracked. It seemed like that little bit of tape might have been the culprit.
- stereoradonc 4y agoAnother reason to avoid Apple. Manufacturing defects! Why isn't that being called as so?
- sackerhews 4y agoMy friends iPhone got replaced 3 times, every single time the same fault. Something to do with audio interface going missing and mic not working. His next phone was an Android. I remember looking it up and there were rumours that Apple had initially acknowledged this fault and replaced them with no questions asked but then withdrawn the memo.
- londons_explore 4y agoMany faults like this are caused by some behaviour of your friend that none of Apples internal testers did. For example, maybe your friend used a specific app that no tester every used. I remember once a big company doing an emergency product recall because they hadn't tested putting the product in fleece lined pockets. If you put it in fleece lined pockets, it wouldn't boot anymore due to the static discharge of the fleece rubbing on the plastic surface as you walked around. Yet they had 1000+ beta testers, yet were somehow unlucky that not a single one used fleece lined pockets!
- drusepth 4y agoIn other words, OP was just Using It Wrong.
- namecheapTA 4y agoMy Pixel 4XL, that I bought second hand, had it's battery replaced TWICE under warranty. Then, it started failing against, and I got an OS level alert saying they're detecting another battery fault and that I was eligible for a warranty extension at no cost, and to go and get it fixed. I just take it to the nearest UbreakIfix (or something like that) and they fix it in an hour sometimes, once it took a few hours because they were extra busy. I was so impressed I bought my dad another used Pixel 4xl because I trusted them. And I'm someone that in general dislikes Google for losing their way the last 5-10 years.
- estiven2006 4y ago
- lawgimenez 4y agoThis is worrying, my wife just bought the same exact model a few months ago. In my country there is no Apple Store.
- 999900000999 4y agoI can say without a doubt, the Mac minis are really good though. It should be illegal to sell a desktop computer with a hard drive that can never be replaced. All hard drives go bad eventually, and while my 2012 Mac mini allowed me to keep swapping out the hard drive. Which made it a great computer up until I kind of retired it when I bought a new m1 Mac mini. The current m1 Mac minis are all guaranteed to die within 10 years when the hard drives fail. Sure, you can do an aftermarket replacement, sure, I guess you could weld a new hard drive in . But most people are going to just throw them out and buy new ones. I imagine depending on your usage, you might blow out your unreplaceable hard drive even sooner. Won't surprise me if these drives start failing within five or even 3 years for people storing tons of large files Say you make a lot of 4K and 5K movies, I can't imagine a tiny 256 SSD getting files written to it, and delete it from it over and over again will last that long.
- tokamak-teapot 4y agoCan you connect an SSD via USB-c and boot from it instead, once the internal drive dies?
- CharlesW 4y ago> Can you connect an SSD via USB-c and boot from it instead… Yes, if it's Thunderbolt 3 or 4. > …once the internal drive dies? No. https://tidbits.com/2021/05/27/an-m1-mac-cant-boot-from-an-external-drive-if-its-internal-drive-is-dead/ https://tidbits.com/2021/05/27/an-m1-mac-cant-boot-from-an-e...
- CharlesW 4y ago> I imagine depending on your usage, you might blow out your unreplaceable hard drive even sooner. It's possible, but seems unlikely since TBW ratings are super-conservative. > Say you make a lot of 4K and 5K movies, I can't imagine a tiny 256 SSD getting files written to it, and delete it from it over and over again will last that long. Honestly, that wouldn't be enough to do much anyway. I'd venture that pros are more often using external TB3 SSDs (often in RAIDs) or a DAS. I understand that the boot drive may be used for caching even in that case. Some real-world data: My M1 Air /w 1 TB SSD has written 368 TB total, and SMART thinks it's got 88% of its lifetime left. Depending on how good SMART is about estimates like these, that would give the Air SSD a TBW of 3,000 or so.
- AussieWog93 4y agoReally interesting to hear so many people having had experiences with Apple support. I recently bought a 10 year-old iMac second hand from Cash Converters, which I promptly softbricked the day after purchase (bad Bootcamp install + firmware password). I took it in to the Apple Store, and despite the fact that it was 10 years old and used, they contacted the engineers in Cupertino to get the firmware unlock key, reformatted it and updated it to the latest supported macOS, and didn't charge a cent for the service. I was blown away and told people I knew about the experience. Apparently they did something similar for a friend's iPhone 6 a couple of years ago. Didn't charge a cent to service a 5 year-old smartphone.
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y agoCash Converters is a pawnshop for those wondering.
- Gigachad 4y agoUsually referred to as Crime Converters in Australia.
- KennyBlanken 4y agoI've owned macs for decades and every single time there's been a problem or defect, they have been gaslighting assholes the whole time. Things were particularly bad when the only way to get a laptop repaired was to ship it to their repair facility in Texas. Weeks of waiting, only to get the machine shipped back to you with a letter saying they found nothing wrong. Apple is infamous for "secret" recalls that staff will never mention unless you specifically know about them in advance. One example: I had a Retina MBP with the infamous antiglare-flaking problem, which Apple was sued over and initiated a secret warranty extension program for people who complained...but the settlement did not require notifying owners of said extension. I assumed they weren't doing repairs until I heard about the program second-hand...a year after they stopped doing it.
- WWLink 4y agoSad thing is, in my experience, they're still one of the best when it comes to service lol.
- estiven2006 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32474827 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32474827
- eastdakota 4y agoI had a brand new MacBook Air M2 whose trackpad arrived cracked. Didn’t even know there was glass in the trackpad. For the first few hours of using it I thought it was a hair or something that had fallen on it. Kept trying to wipe it away and triggered all sorts of gestures.
- SCUSKU 4y agoDid you keep it? Or did you return it? What did you end up doing?
- krono 4y agoThis also happened to my own 2019 16" Intel MacBook Pro, and an acquaintance with that same model laptop even had it happen twice - to both the original and the replacement screen. In all cases it wasn't a full crack but rather some sort of depression/fold mark, starting near but not touching the bottom edge, and all shared a similar bendy shape. We both individually got the standard "first time we're seeing this" when first contacting support, and also both felt there was some sort of unnatural/forced tight-lipness or non-responsiveness in response to any speculation as to the cause. To me this behaviour indicated that they were not particularly happy with either the responses they were giving, the nature of the request, or whatever obvious or non-obvious consequences any of this would have for either party.
- noipv4 4y agoThis has been going on since 2017, when they first started thinning their laptops to the limit or maybe beyond as far as the LCD glass reliability is concerned. My Macbook pro 2017 screen also cracked for no apparent reason and had to pay Apple the full price for a screen replacement for no fault of mine. https://youtu.be/Z--7YRRhCWg?t=38 https://youtu.be/Z--7YRRhCWg?t=38
- eshack94 4y agoIs this a defect that's also in the MacBook Pro 16" M1 model? Or is it limited to the MacBook Air M1s? Does anyone know?
- jonaswouters 4y agoThere is at least one report in this HN thread, and some in the forum. 16" is less popular, so fewer reports, I guess. I'm somewhat afraid for it because there is no AppleCare+ in our country, and I had to pay up to 700 euro for the keyboard problems in the last model before they replaced it for free.
- mh8h 4y agoThere are many people that are complaining about this issue. But the total number of owners are way higher than the typical laptop. The MacBook Air M1 is allegedly the world's best-selling laptop. I'm curious. How many screen cracks is too many, and should be considered a design/manufacturing defect? How is something like that determined?
- justinator 4y agoYikes! I've noticed the lower left corner of my M1 Macbook Pro 13" is brighter than it should be - I only noticed it when watching a movie and what should have been black, wasn't. I'm not looking forward to that getting worse.
- LAC-Tech 4y agoShould have bought an ASUS instead.
- supernova87a 4y agoHas anyone tried their hand at replacing a cracked screen/display themselves? I've looked at the ifixit videos and it's just a lot of screws to remove, but seems doable. The main thing is that for spending $300, I cannot tell on Ebay/Amazon which sellers are actually selling legit display assemblies versus those that are "offbrand" or have some issue where the Truetone setting is no longer available (to name one issue they point out). It's even hard to tell whether the unit you order will have the Apple logo on the aluminum cover. Anyway, it's $300 + potential aggravation do it yourself versus $600 have the Apple service "genius" do it.
- ericabiz 4y agoYou certainly can, and more technical folks will have an easier time with it. A happy medium is an independent repair shop (not Apple affiliated.) Check Yelp near you for one with good reviews. Try to avoid franchises.
- jamesbfb 4y agoWhat's with all the comments on that Apple thread where people are saying "I didn't have a grain of cereal, rice, etc between the screen"? Are Macbook screens that fragile now?
- ericabiz 4y agoMany laptop screens are that fragile. We repair computers and it’s quite common to see a broken screen because someone closed something inside the clamshell accidentally. I’ve seen everything from pencils, pens, erasers, paper with staples, paper clips…
- kayodelycaon 4y agoSome models have little to no clearance and if you close the lid with a grain of rice and apply pressure it'll break the screen. Closing the lid probably isn't enough, but picking it up could be.
- goosedragons 4y agoYes. The tolerances between the top case and the display are that tight when closed. Apple has a literal support page telling you not to close the laptop lid with anything thicker than 0.1mm. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211148 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211148
- sizzle 4y agoAny reports of screen cracks on the M2??
- TacticalCoder 4y agoI had it happen to me ten days ago, just before going on vacation. I'm going to the shop where I bought it tomorrow to see if any warranty is available. The first quote I had (from a close by shop) was half the price of the brand new thing (for a 30 min job: the guy tells me it's simply the part that's super pricey). We went to sleep, woke up in the morning: open the lid, was all messed up. It looked exactly like several pictures/videos I saw on the net. I'm super pissed off: lasted 10 months of very light use. On the other my old LG Gram which, granted, is military grade rated (whatever that means), is still going strong. It doesn't have a retina display but it has the benefit of still working.
- johnny_canuck 4y agoInteresting... I recently had to take in my 2021 MacBook Pro for a cracked screen repair. Mine had a reason mind you, but one that I'd never seen before... My cat bit into the screen while relaxing behind it. A very mild play bite. She does this whenever she wants attention but I'm in front of a screen. I heard a crack and immediately it went black. It was like a delicate pane of glass cracking. She bit my previous computers (MacBooks) without issue, cell phones, etc. First time I'd ever seen it happen. On a two month old laptop too. Didn't pay a cent for service luckily, it was covered. I didn't let them know what happened, and the crack was so subtle that I guess the tech didn't catch it.
- TacticalCoder 4y agoHow comes this thread with 420 votes just jumped from 2nd (?) to 23th position?
- lynndotpy 4y agoI got a 14" MBP M1 recently. It felt so incredibly fragile that I was anxious moving it or opening it. I'd really like to emphasize the word "incredibly". That is, I don't think I could credibly describe how fragile these laptops are without having one as an example. I already considered Macbooks to be a fragile series of laptops, given longtime users insist their insurance-subscription "AppleCare+" is a necessity. (This is not normal for laptops.) So, I searched to see if it had durability issues, and found this, and immediately returned it. Not worth the risk!
- tomxor 4y agoLatest comment is very telling at the level of apologism that goes on in Apple's userbase: > Aug 15, 2022 3:01 PM in response to Iau88 > Isn't this what happens when you shut any laptop when an object is sitting on the keyboard? Not when it's imperceptibly small, people are not putting bricks in their laptops.
- pipeline_peak 4y agoIt almost sounds like they’re cheaping out in build quality to compensate. I can’t help but hope this is the beginning of Apples commercial decline. That consumers will finally see them for the mediocre culture hoarder they really are, but I dream.
- cutler 4y agoThis is the dark side of dealing with Apple. They won't take responsibility for anything. I bought my partner and iPhone 11 Max Pro and shortly after the warranty period ended a vertical band of light appeared spontaneously on the screen. No concession from Apple so £309 for a repair. Gouged doesn't come close.
- kaushalendra 4y ago$800 for screen is ridiculous. This issue is not limited to Apple products. My Asus laptop's screen cracked overnight. My laptop was out of warranty period. But the new authentic ASUS display only cost me $100. So I got it repaired and its working fine since then. The point is expensive doesn't always mean good.
- dreamcompiler 4y agoI've replaced two screens now on my 2019 MBP. The first one happened when I was cleaning the camera before a video call. Apparently I pressed just a bit too hard with the cloth and that pressure broke the connection to the screen and it went black with intermittent white lines. It was under AppleCare so Apple fixed it for $99. The second time it happened my cat lightly bit the right edge of the screen and that was all it took to kill the entire screen. Again, repaired under AppleCare. There's clearly a fragility problem with Apple's recent screens. My hypothesis is that in Apple's zeal to make a borderless screen, there's no longer any protection for the connectors at the edge of the screen. A little bit of pressure on the edge could never have killed the older MacBook screens because they had a border of metal around them. The lesson is that one must be extremely careful with the screens on late-model Apple laptops. Any pressure near the edge beyond a very light touch can completely destroy them. Any dirt or debris on the keyboard deck when you close the laptop can destroy the screen. I'd love to find some kind of case for the laptop that protects the edge of the screen to make it a little more robust, but it seems like any such solution would be too thick to allow the machine to close.
- danpalmer 4y agoIt’s possible that there are some issues here, but the fact that these comments talk about a wide variety of laptop models with completely different screens, form factors, manufacturing processes, etc, suggests that there may not be a systematic issue. One model having the issue would suggest a manufacturing issue. However it’s unlikely that completely different models all exhibit the same issue in the same way. More likely, screen damage is a common form of accidental damage, and anyone googling for support will find threads like this and pile on with their own experience despite no actual link.
- commandersaki 4y agoI'm glad someone said it. But having said that Apple would never admit to such a widespread fault even if it did plague their laptops. I fondly remember the 2015 A1502 trackpad cable failure where the keyboard and trackpad fail because of a deteriorated cable. It's a well known issue, but Apple just refused to acknowledge fault. Took them forever to admit that their butterfly keyboards were faulty too. Having said that, this apple discussion forum is probably a terrible way to organise around a supposed model being prone to screen cracking. The quality of the reports are bad. Also for every reported m1 air that has a screen crack, it would be nice to see pictures so a pattern -- if one exists -- could be identified.
- commandersaki 4y agoLouis Rossman's take from September 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JcBpgIFf6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JcBpgIFf6k Spoiler: everybody lies.
- commandersaki 4y agoThis was posted on reddit awhile back, took me awhile to find it. There's was this gem of a comment [0] that thoroughly debunks this thread. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vx9ysa/theres_a_47_page_thread_on_apples_forums_about_m1/ig1i6xp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vx9ysa/theres_a_47_p...