4 ms·

Ah yes, like my 2016 MBPr that's still working like new, and had the battery replaced afresh for pretty cheap last year at the Apple Store.

Taywee 3y ago
How cheap is "pretty cheap"? They wanted $300 to replace the trackpad that suddenly stopped working on its own on my 2019 one. Looking at the price estimator, battery service is like $250. That's not cheap.
- glenngillen 3y ago
  They did a full motherboard and keyboard replacement of my 2016 MacBook last year for no cost even though it was wwaaaayyyy out of warranty because the fault was a known issue.
  - bombolo 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - Taywee 3y ago
      They'll do free replacements if it's a known defect, and especially if it's widely experienced. Even Nintendo does that if they sniff a potential class action and want to avoid it.
      - ddtaylor 3y ago
        Usually only after a very large public spat about how they are not being responsible for the problem. They have in the past denied problems that were widespread (board warp, keyboard, etc.) until either lawsuits or extreme push-back from the community - usually when they release a new product with those mistakes removed and it's impossible to deny them any more. Painting Apple out to be a company that "does the right thing" without being forced to do so isn't accurate.
      - ElFitz 3y ago
        Even without that. I won’t go into details, but they went out of their way quite a few times, without me having to pay a dime, and no defect whatsoever was involved. But perhaps I’m just lucky.
      - bombolo 3y ago
        > They'll do free replacements if it's a known defect Opposite of what happened to me. "oh yes this happens all the time… it will be 80€" Amazing service :D
    - ddtaylor 3y ago
      It's kind of always like this when it comes to arguments against Apple. It's kind of a Stockholm Syndrome problem.
    - leviathant 3y ago
      I've been pretty anti-Apple for a long time. Look me up, I've been using the same handle forever, and I'm sure I've talked shit about it publicly over the decades. I've always lamented their proprietary connectors and formats, the premium they charge, and perhaps worst of all, their seemingly mindless fans. I've been using Microsoft as my daily driver OS since moving away from a TI-99/4A. When I changed jobs in late 2020, I got to keep the 2015 Macbook Pro that I used for work. I'd been using a Mac since the company switched to Ruby on Rails, while continuing to run a Windows machine for things like gaming, video editing, Photoshop, etc. By 2021, the battery on this 2015 Macbook Pro was noticeably swelling. I decided to try my luck, and took it to the Apple Store in Philadelphia, where they looked up the serial number, collected the machine, and a few days later, notified me that my battery had been replaced, free of charge. Because of the design of the MBP, this meant replacing the keyboard and all that surrounded it. Physically, it was like a new machine. This is on a machine that I hadn't even bought. My understanding is that it's kind of a crap shoot. For known issues like the 2015 battery, there are typically windows of time when they'll fix the problem for free. I was well past that window. I was actually willing to pay for a battery replacement - until the debut of M1 architecture, the 2015 15" MBP was the best of the before-times - so I was pleasantly surprised that I got so much refurbishment for just showing up to the store.
      - bombolo 3y ago
        When I had battery swelling, they were super familiar with the problem, didn't even inform me it was a risk, just quoted the price for a new battery.
  - Taywee 3y ago
    Oh yeah, I remember they did a free out of warranty replacement on one of my MacBooks a bit back, but there was a potential battery explosion issue on that one.
- AYBABTME 3y ago
  250$ maintenance cost on a 5k$ machine from 2016 is cheap. I work with this thing, and I make a crap ton of money with this thing.
  - Taywee 3y ago
    $250 is the same amount of money regardless of what the laptop cost or what you're doing with it.
  - ddtaylor 3y ago
    The vast majority of the time you bring a device into the Apple store they want to sell you a new one and scrap the old one.
zimpenfish 3y ago
I believe my parents are still chugging along with my ~2010 MBP after a couple of home-done battery swaps. Obviously not the fastest laptop in the world but never had any problems with the hardware.
- ddtaylor 3y ago
  > ~2010 MBP Completely unsupported by Apple. Doesn't get OS updates or security updates. No apps get updates for it anymore through the App Store. Saying that using a 2010 computer when it's an Apple computer is actually one of the worst arguments you can make in this context. Virtually any other computer running any other OS is more supported.
  - passthejoe 3y ago
    My 2011 iMac is screaming fast with Debian Linux.
  - noisy_boy 3y ago
    I totally get your point about security updates but maybe, making some generalizations here, it is not a terrible thing that the machine OPs parents use, doesn't get unexpected surprises - no unexpected family tech support calls. Us technology folks love the new and the shiny but predictability is a premium for the older generation (again generalizing - there are seniors who can run hoops around the average developer with their tech skills but thats not the norm).
    - zimpenfish 3y ago
      > no unexpected family tech support calls. My father has been doing embedded software development since the early 80s. Thankfully the only tech support messages I get are when I break things like their email.
  - zimpenfish 3y ago
    > Completely unsupported by Apple. Doesn't get OS updates or security updates. Sure but the original point was that the hardware was "certainly not durable". Every one of my Mac laptops (except for the 12" 2012 MacBook which is my local emergency machine) since ~2010 is still in active use by family. There's nothing wrong with the hardwares.
makeitdouble 3y ago
The next revision of the MBPr didn't have such luck on the design/durability side (I owned both, and heartfully share your praise of the 2016 version) iPad had similar ill fated designs. I went to replace the battery of an iPad Pro and was offered a new one for the price of the battery, as a standard procedure (it's glued to the motherboard under all the other components, so no in-store replacement)

Taywee 3y ago

How cheap is "pretty cheap"? They wanted $300 to replace the trackpad that suddenly stopped working on its own on my 2019 one. Looking at the price estimator, battery service is like $250. That's not cheap.

glenngillen 3y ago
They did a full motherboard and keyboard replacement of my 2016 MacBook last year for no cost even though it was wwaaaayyyy out of warranty because the fault was a known issue.
- bombolo 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Taywee 3y ago
    They'll do free replacements if it's a known defect, and especially if it's widely experienced. Even Nintendo does that if they sniff a potential class action and want to avoid it.
    - ddtaylor 3y ago
      Usually only after a very large public spat about how they are not being responsible for the problem. They have in the past denied problems that were widespread (board warp, keyboard, etc.) until either lawsuits or extreme push-back from the community - usually when they release a new product with those mistakes removed and it's impossible to deny them any more. Painting Apple out to be a company that "does the right thing" without being forced to do so isn't accurate.
    - ElFitz 3y ago
      Even without that. I won’t go into details, but they went out of their way quite a few times, without me having to pay a dime, and no defect whatsoever was involved. But perhaps I’m just lucky.
    - bombolo 3y ago
      > They'll do free replacements if it's a known defect Opposite of what happened to me. "oh yes this happens all the time… it will be 80€" Amazing service :D
  - ddtaylor 3y ago
    It's kind of always like this when it comes to arguments against Apple. It's kind of a Stockholm Syndrome problem.
  - leviathant 3y ago
    I've been pretty anti-Apple for a long time. Look me up, I've been using the same handle forever, and I'm sure I've talked shit about it publicly over the decades. I've always lamented their proprietary connectors and formats, the premium they charge, and perhaps worst of all, their seemingly mindless fans. I've been using Microsoft as my daily driver OS since moving away from a TI-99/4A. When I changed jobs in late 2020, I got to keep the 2015 Macbook Pro that I used for work. I'd been using a Mac since the company switched to Ruby on Rails, while continuing to run a Windows machine for things like gaming, video editing, Photoshop, etc. By 2021, the battery on this 2015 Macbook Pro was noticeably swelling. I decided to try my luck, and took it to the Apple Store in Philadelphia, where they looked up the serial number, collected the machine, and a few days later, notified me that my battery had been replaced, free of charge. Because of the design of the MBP, this meant replacing the keyboard and all that surrounded it. Physically, it was like a new machine. This is on a machine that I hadn't even bought. My understanding is that it's kind of a crap shoot. For known issues like the 2015 battery, there are typically windows of time when they'll fix the problem for free. I was well past that window. I was actually willing to pay for a battery replacement - until the debut of M1 architecture, the 2015 15" MBP was the best of the before-times - so I was pleasantly surprised that I got so much refurbishment for just showing up to the store.
    - bombolo 3y ago
      When I had battery swelling, they were super familiar with the problem, didn't even inform me it was a risk, just quoted the price for a new battery.
- Taywee 3y ago
  Oh yeah, I remember they did a free out of warranty replacement on one of my MacBooks a bit back, but there was a potential battery explosion issue on that one.
AYBABTME 3y ago
250$ maintenance cost on a 5k$ machine from 2016 is cheap. I work with this thing, and I make a crap ton of money with this thing.
- Taywee 3y ago
  $250 is the same amount of money regardless of what the laptop cost or what you're doing with it.
- ddtaylor 3y ago
  The vast majority of the time you bring a device into the Apple store they want to sell you a new one and scrap the old one.

zimpenfish 3y ago

I believe my parents are still chugging along with my ~2010 MBP after a couple of home-done battery swaps. Obviously not the fastest laptop in the world but never had any problems with the hardware.

ddtaylor 3y ago
> ~2010 MBP Completely unsupported by Apple. Doesn't get OS updates or security updates. No apps get updates for it anymore through the App Store. Saying that using a 2010 computer when it's an Apple computer is actually one of the worst arguments you can make in this context. Virtually any other computer running any other OS is more supported.
- passthejoe 3y ago
  My 2011 iMac is screaming fast with Debian Linux.
- noisy_boy 3y ago
  I totally get your point about security updates but maybe, making some generalizations here, it is not a terrible thing that the machine OPs parents use, doesn't get unexpected surprises - no unexpected family tech support calls. Us technology folks love the new and the shiny but predictability is a premium for the older generation (again generalizing - there are seniors who can run hoops around the average developer with their tech skills but thats not the norm).
  - zimpenfish 3y ago
    > no unexpected family tech support calls. My father has been doing embedded software development since the early 80s. Thankfully the only tech support messages I get are when I break things like their email.
- zimpenfish 3y ago
  > Completely unsupported by Apple. Doesn't get OS updates or security updates. Sure but the original point was that the hardware was "certainly not durable". Every one of my Mac laptops (except for the 12" 2012 MacBook which is my local emergency machine) since ~2010 is still in active use by family. There's nothing wrong with the hardwares.

makeitdouble 3y ago

The next revision of the MBPr didn't have such luck on the design/durability side (I owned both, and heartfully share your praise of the 2016 version) iPad had similar ill fated designs. I went to replace the battery of an iPad Pro and was offered a new one for the price of the battery, as a standard procedure (it's glued to the motherboard under all the other components, so no in-store replacement)