Disturbing Number of Bad 16-Inch MacBook Pros

2020-07-26 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Apple, Apple Core Rot, James G, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, reader comment

I’ve had several of my consulting clients report severe problems with their 16-inch MacBook Pros. I cannot recall ever hearing so many problems of so severe a nature. I now hesitate to recommend any 2018 or 2019 MacBook Pro.

James G writes:

I mentioned months ago the problems I was having with my 16” MacBook Pro crashing, sometimes while sleeping.

The Apple geniuses at my local Apple Store plugged it in and determined it was a bad motherboard and sent it to their facility in Houston after which two days later Apple shut down all their stores.

It took two weeks for them to get a replacement motherboard (they probably had to manufacture it - in COVID-wracked China) and then another week or so to fedex it to the wrong address.

It crashed once on the first day but has been rock stable since then, except for the keyboard backlight which only lit half the keyboard. It took another couple of months until Apple reopened their stores for me to take it in. The backlight connector was loose and only partially seated. All well now, except for the usual Crapalina issues. 

Regarding macOS Big Sure, I’ll stick with macOS Crapalina until the first several waves of suckers, I mean early adopters, throw themselves on the pyre of progress like ants bridging a band of tanglefoot so those that follow can climb over the dead and dedicated bodies. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.

MPG: pay a premium price for a laptop, another $350 for AppleCare because of the absurdly poor one-year warranty on this super premium priced product, then wait nearly 3 months for a $6K machine to work properly?