Two years on 13’’ MacBook Pro

Having worked with Microsoft based systems since the beginning of time, the past couple of years have been most refreshing, but not without challenges.

The only palpable hardware problem was the power supply cable shedding the insulation beginning at around the eighteen-month mark.  An ugly layer of electrical tape now covers around two-feet of the non-replaceable cable.  An $80 brand new power supply will arrive here on Monday.  Apple gets low marks for not engineering the low-voltage cable to be a simple plug-in replacement to the power supply, BUT all of the Microsoft platforms do it the same way that Apple does, but with far less elegance.  Apple and competitors make huge money from selling complete power supplies just because of cable / connector failures.  I went through four power supplies in six-years on my last Toshiba laptop; only once was due to a failed power unit, the balance was because of cable connection failures.

Battery health on my MacBook has been hanging right around the ninety-percent mark (after 415-cycles).  The battery is not user replaceable, but I do not hold that against Apple.  I went through three batteries in six-years on my last Toshiba laptop, so I believe this Apple is showing better battery life than I experienced from the competition.  Should this MacBook battery last another year, I’ll probably have Apple replace it as a preventive measure (and upgrade the memory to the max while they are at it).

Overall, my two-years of experience with Apple hardware, operating system, and software has been good.   I’ve had an Apple TV (which is more than a “toy”) for a while (I am too cheap to be saddled with a cable TV bill), and have had the Apple Time Capsule for around a year-and-a-half.  Recently I added a fifth generation iPod Touch to the mix. I’ll continue to be an Apple customer for as long as they suit my needs, and don’t piss me off too badly.