5 ms·

I guess I got lucky too. Because I bought a 2012 MBP (the first generation that had the HiDPI Retina displays) and it lasted me over 6 years of daily, hard use.

by dimmke 4y ago

I guess I got lucky too. Because I bought a 2012 MBP (the first generation that had the HiDPI Retina displays) and it lasted me over 6 years of daily, hard use. It was still in decent condition but my job at the time got me one of the newer ones. Of course, that one had the bad keyboard and had to be swapped. 2016-2020 the dark ages but outside of that 4 year period (that Apple has firmly reversed course on), Apple's reputation for excellent laptops is well deserved.

smoldesu 4y ago
The #1 thing preventing Apple from getting into S-tier is user-serviceable storage. Baking on the memory? It's frustrating and gimps the device lifespan, but arguably unavoidable with the bandwidth Apple is targeting. Without replaceable storage though, every Apple Silicon device is effectively a ticking time-bomb. These devices will all hit their TBW limit long before they're unusable, and Apple refused to anticipate this because... it side-steps their pricing scheme? The current Macbook lineup is a step in the right direction, but far from perfect. Even ignoring my hundred gripes with MacOS, I think there are clear hardware improvements they can make with future iterations. None of these improvements seem particularly profitable though, so I'm not counting on Apple adding them.
- Retric 4y ago
  High speed internet has largely rendered local storage obsolete for most users. However, Apple’s base model is frankly silly. A solid 2TB NVME drive is only 150$, slapping the equivalent of 20$ worth of storage on a 1,500$ laptop is crazy.
- stametseater 4y ago
  Constant backups are essential when using a computer without user-serviceable storage. That or mounting another [network] drive and doing all your work from that instead of internal storage. Otherwise you'll be without your data for hours if not days/weeks whenever something inevitably goes wrong (not even with the storage itself) and you can't simply pull the drive to continue working on another computer.
  - KptMarchewa 4y ago
    Or just not caring about any data you have locally.
  - vetinari 4y ago
    M1 won't boot without internal storage. The point of the parent comment was not about saving data from the drive, but that the devices are landfill material once they hit tbw limits on their drives, even if they were otherwise in good condition.
    - stametseater 4y ago
      Well you'll not hit TBW limits if you're using another drive anyway.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        Unless you have configured your Macbook to not use Swap, it will constantly write to the built-in drive when memory pressure is high enough.
    - ehutch79 4y ago
      Sure it will. Just checked, found a bunch of articles with 5 step instructions where one of the steps is hold the power button down.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        > The M1 boot process requires a working SSD to boot macOS. The SSD contains a Signed System Volume that is cryptographically sealed by Apple. No seal, no bootable System. > So if the internal drive on your M1 Mac fails completely, even an external bootable drive won't boot. Yep, your Mac is bricked. https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-bad-is-the-m1-macs-ssd-failure-problem/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-bad-is-the-m1-macs-ssd-fai...
  - rbanffy 4y ago
    > Constant backups are essential when using a computer without user-serviceable storage. Constant backups are a necessity even if your computer has RAID-6 storage built on enterprise-grade storage. Your office can catch fire. You can be hit by ransomware. Multiple devices in the array can fail in rapid sequence (happened to me once). Your computer can get stolen (happened to me, twice). Have an offsite backup always on hand.
olyjohn 4y ago
Maybe you were lucky, maybe I was unlucky... Even before 2016-2020, I had 3 MacBooks that just straight up crapped out on me. Two were the nvidia graphics chips that would come desoldered or something. Another one just died one day for no reason. I am not trying to say that they are bad laptop, but on average, I think they are just as prone to dying as any other laptop. I don't think they are particularly "excellent." I've worked on hundreds of laptops, and I can't really say one brand does any better than the rest. Some make expensive laptops that are total garbage, some make cheap laptops that are really good. Assuming the laptop is spec'd how you need it, the quality is going to come down to your luck, and that's about all.

by dimmke 4y ago

smoldesu 4y ago

The #1 thing preventing Apple from getting into S-tier is user-serviceable storage. Baking on the memory? It's frustrating and gimps the device lifespan, but arguably unavoidable with the bandwidth Apple is targeting. Without replaceable storage though, every Apple Silicon device is effectively a ticking time-bomb. These devices will all hit their TBW limit long before they're unusable, and Apple refused to anticipate this because... it side-steps their pricing scheme? The current Macbook lineup is a step in the right direction, but far from perfect. Even ignoring my hundred gripes with MacOS, I think there are clear hardware improvements they can make with future iterations. None of these improvements seem particularly profitable though, so I'm not counting on Apple adding them.

Retric 4y ago
High speed internet has largely rendered local storage obsolete for most users. However, Apple’s base model is frankly silly. A solid 2TB NVME drive is only 150$, slapping the equivalent of 20$ worth of storage on a 1,500$ laptop is crazy.
stametseater 4y ago
Constant backups are essential when using a computer without user-serviceable storage. That or mounting another [network] drive and doing all your work from that instead of internal storage. Otherwise you'll be without your data for hours if not days/weeks whenever something inevitably goes wrong (not even with the storage itself) and you can't simply pull the drive to continue working on another computer.
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  Or just not caring about any data you have locally.
- vetinari 4y ago
  M1 won't boot without internal storage. The point of the parent comment was not about saving data from the drive, but that the devices are landfill material once they hit tbw limits on their drives, even if they were otherwise in good condition.
  - stametseater 4y ago
    Well you'll not hit TBW limits if you're using another drive anyway.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      Unless you have configured your Macbook to not use Swap, it will constantly write to the built-in drive when memory pressure is high enough.
  - ehutch79 4y ago
    Sure it will. Just checked, found a bunch of articles with 5 step instructions where one of the steps is hold the power button down.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      > The M1 boot process requires a working SSD to boot macOS. The SSD contains a Signed System Volume that is cryptographically sealed by Apple. No seal, no bootable System. > So if the internal drive on your M1 Mac fails completely, even an external bootable drive won't boot. Yep, your Mac is bricked. https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-bad-is-the-m1-macs-ssd-failure-problem/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-bad-is-the-m1-macs-ssd-fai...
- rbanffy 4y ago
  > Constant backups are essential when using a computer without user-serviceable storage. Constant backups are a necessity even if your computer has RAID-6 storage built on enterprise-grade storage. Your office can catch fire. You can be hit by ransomware. Multiple devices in the array can fail in rapid sequence (happened to me once). Your computer can get stolen (happened to me, twice). Have an offsite backup always on hand.

olyjohn 4y ago

Maybe you were lucky, maybe I was unlucky... Even before 2016-2020, I had 3 MacBooks that just straight up crapped out on me. Two were the nvidia graphics chips that would come desoldered or something. Another one just died one day for no reason. I am not trying to say that they are bad laptop, but on average, I think they are just as prone to dying as any other laptop. I don't think they are particularly "excellent." I've worked on hundreds of laptops, and I can't really say one brand does any better than the rest. Some make expensive laptops that are total garbage, some make cheap laptops that are really good. Assuming the laptop is spec'd how you need it, the quality is going to come down to your luck, and that's about all.