A Eulogy to my beloved 16” MacBook Pro
A few days ago, my time with my 2019 16” MacBook Pro came to an end. It was the first machine I used with serious performance. It was the device I used to start writing Medium Texts. It was the device which enabled me to start editing videos, a skill which soon later got me two jobs at my university. It was the device which accompanied over the first two and a half years of my studies.
However over the last half a year, my 16” MacBookPro developed several problems. In the summer it started restarting because of a kernel panic, which led to my local Apple Store replacing the logic board. Four months later the replaced motherboard developed a volume hash mismatch due to a defect RAM unit. Then after picking up the laptop again, it again developed the kernel panic error after just one day. In short, the MacBook Pro I used on a daily basis for three years became unreliable, which is extremely problematic if you rely on that device for your studies and work.
So I went back to the Apple Store to check what options they had, as I needed to get back to a reliable state. However, there was little the friendly employees could offer me, another logic board exchange and then see what would happen. A solution that had did not seem very promising, as the MacBook had already gone through three logic boards, so why should the forth one be the chosen one? So they referred me to the manager to see if there were alternatives. After another brief explanation of what problems I had encountered with my MacBook Pro, he made me a fair offer to trade-in the device and add a discount on a new machine.
So now I’m writing these lines on my new 14” M1 Max MacBook Pro, which so far has been fantastic. It is snappy, has fabulous battery life and a fantastic screen.
Yet, the performance was never the reason why I now am writing this text on a new machine. In the end it came down to reliability, which is a shame for a machine of its calibre, but is what it came down to in the end.
As always, stay safe
Raffael
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