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Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

Here's something I noticed: the fans of Apple hardware know they can do this, because they... have to do this. I've had 9 or so different laptops in my life over the last 2 decades, from bargain bin models to latest high-spec Lenovo. The only times I've had to fix a laptop was twice in the last 3 years on work-assigned MBP (once the motherboard failed, another time the keyboard fell apart), then had to replace a failing HDMI adapter, then the charger for it.

Maybe I'm lucky and have a terribly weird experience with hardware. But every person I personally know who uses Apple hardware has been to their store to fix/replace it at some point. Apple is definitely doing a good job with servicing, because those people are also happy this is a possibility, but... having to do it at all feels weird to me. (anecdata of course)

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I went through 3 lenovos in the past 17 years. I had 3 failures: 1. HDD failed. 2. SSD failed. 3. I dropped it from kitchen countertop. Backlight had to be replaced, but otherwise fine.

There was zero failure associated with ports, keyboard, trackpad, or board. Mind you, each machine went through thousands of dock / undock cycle. Even batteries were holding strong charge after 5 years. These were work laptops and I didn't baby them at all.

With that said, I wouldn't a buy cheapo Lenovo ($500) because it did fail on me completely. Dead.

With a cheap Lenovo the design and manufacturing quality is very low and failures much more common than in their professional models. As a Repair Cafe volunteer I've seen people bring in low-end Lenovos only 1-2 years old, that are literally falling apart, through normal use. The reality is there's really two Lenovo brands - the enterprise-grade one, making products designed for serviceability and durability. And there's the consumer-grade Lenovo, with products engineered to a very low price point. Other brands have this duality too. Caveat emptor.

W500 - 3 years, nothing

x230 - replacement battery, screen died (easy replacement), handrest cracked, still usable

T460p - 5 years of light use, nothing

T470p - 3 years, nothing

Legion Y520 - keyboard stopped working partly, bought a replacement and noticed it's basically impossible to replace, then bought a second one, this time a complete top case - replacement was a chore, but fine

Overall: still a happy Lenovo customer

Dead Lenovo are very easy to fix, weirdly. I've had to fix both of mine. Imagine air quotes. You have to pull the battery cable and push the power button.

That's it.

Ugh. I threw it out. :-(

We have about 70 employees and giving them anything else than Apple laptops would probably be a disaster. Our support footprint is tiny in comparison with earlier years. The machines are built so well that we hardly have any failures.

I suppose some people have been unlucky with Apple hardware but it's maybe also due to the perceptions and that seemingly everyone (at least in IT and development) is using a Mac these days.

My MBPs usually have battery issues after 3 years of use, by then well beyond warranty period. They always charge for insane amount of money for replacing a battery, when I always turn to a third party repair shop for about 10% of the amount given by Apple geniuses.

If you have the butterfly keyboard MBP, complain about the keyboard being broken, and you may well get it replaced under the "extended repair programme" - since the battery is glued to the topcase you also get a new battery.

Sorry, that doesn’t pass the sniff test. I recently replaced the battery on my 2015 MBP. The local shop quoted around $250; Apple, $180 IIRC. It was a full top-case replacement due to Apple’s poor battery design, heavily discounted because it was a battery replacement. The local shop couldn’t compete with the discount.

Your local shop would be out of business here. The insane amount Apple asked for, ~$500, is indeed for a full top-case replacement, and they didn't mention any discount to me.

I mean, I have a mid-2015 MBP at home that only required a battery replacement, but otherwise works well. My iPhone 7 served me 5 years and was abandoned due to failing battery. We all have anecdotes.

You are lucky. I had problems with samsung, motorola and with the new "nokia" android phones, All probably solvable, but support is not their priority.

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