Either TUAW readers have especially sweaty, acidic, bacteria-ridden palms, or they're being hit hard by the
MacBook discoloration issue so many have dreaded might strike their own smooth, plastic Apple laptops. Granted, you can't really take a poll with 1,556 votes to mean anything about a problem of this nature -- especially with so many haters and fanboys out there just waiting to bust out a script and tilt the scales -- but there's one company that knows just how many MacBooks have been seeing this issue, and until that one company issues a recall it's unlikely we're going to know just how severe this problem really is.
P.S. -If you're having
MacBook discoloration, don't be shy about sounding off in our comments. We're here for you, people, let it all out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Daniel @ Jun 27th 2006 11:37PM
Looks like going with black ended up paying off after all...it's good to have a BlackBook :-)
debbie jagel @ Jun 27th 2006 11:42PM
i am so glad not to be alone with this problem....i have tried everything to clean my macbook !!!! am i destined to have this stain for the life of this computer?
i love my computer...but hate the look....
~obsessive compulsive with a stained mac....
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
kyle @ Jun 27th 2006 11:43PM
i have slight discoloration barely notcieable unless the light is at a certain angle, ive heard non-acyltone nail polish remover does the trick but i havent tried it yet, probably will this weekend.
Matt @ Jun 27th 2006 11:44PM
If I've learned one thing from Wesley Snipes, it is this: Always bet on black.
Josh Warner @ Jun 27th 2006 11:47PM
You've been warned before and you didn't listen then, but here it goes again: DO NOT BUY FIRST GEN APPLE PRODUCTS.
It seems clear to me that Apple sacrifices adequate testing in favor of secrecy; this makes for great keynotes and announcements but means the first round of their products is almost inevitably flawed. This has been proven time and again with their products, and likely will not change in the near future. The flaw is something that develops about a month down the road, so it's clear their hand-on testing spans a shorter timespan than this. Given how widespread their products are now, this is purely irresponsible of Apple.
If you're smart, you stay away until Rev 2. If you're brave and/or stupid, (or possibly a tech journalist :) ) you jump in at Rev 1 with your fingers crossed.
Good luck to you early adopters - I will not be joining you.
Huy @ Jun 27th 2006 11:50PM
I have not had any problems regarding staining with my 6 week old MacBook/white (week 19), 2GHz model.
Ev Bacon @ Jun 27th 2006 11:52PM
I have a slight discolorization. Not a big deal. My girlfriend's discolorization on her ibook is worse. But even for her its nothing we'd get rid of them for.
Luis @ Jun 27th 2006 11:54PM
I've had my white macbook for three weeks now. Still no problems.
Shaun B @ Jun 27th 2006 11:55PM
thats nice ha, i would like to purchase the dirty brown discolored mac... ha
Derek @ Jun 27th 2006 11:57PM
Oh you can definitely count me as a dirty MacBook holder.
TTX1 @ Jun 27th 2006 11:59PM
1556 votes should be statistically significant for just about any Apple production run. Not sure where that number comes from, but if it's real - so is the problem.
Nick @ Jun 28th 2006 12:03AM
I've had this discoloration problem on the palm rest with my Gateway, which is about 3 months old now. With some non-acetone nail polish remover, I scrubbed the palm rest bare. There seems to be no problem with the underlying plastic, which rules out heat as the culprit, but the stain on the silver paint over it simply would not come out. I don't know if this is also the case with the MacBook. Looks like a new paint job is in order for me.
Josh Wardell @ Jun 28th 2006 12:04AM
Marware just released removable protection packs that should prevent or cover up the issue. Worth a try.
http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=7601-MBWP
eagle15 @ Jun 28th 2006 12:18AM
dude dells suck... you can't possibly think they are better... id rather buy a mac and have it dis color then having a ugly dell in my hands... plus what can you do with a dell except fantazize about carrot top?
Nilay Shah @ Jun 28th 2006 12:23AM
My PC loving friend bought and fell in love with a macbook, now its discolored. He called the Apple store where he got it, and they promptly told him to bring it in, they will correct the problem, although supposedly it'll take 7 days to get "replacement parts."
Patrick @ Jun 28th 2006 12:24AM
Somehow this issue hasn't surprised me the least. I come to expect these cosmetic issues from apple products now. After the nano scratch fiasoc left a bitter taste in my mouth I havn't and wont be buying anymore apple products. Really whats so fantactic about them and there products to begin with? Really, I would love somebody to answer that one for me.
Steve Wallen @ Jun 28th 2006 12:24AM
My MacBook Pro has recently decided to turn itself off at random, rather annoying. If I didn't need it for work this weekend, little guy would be headed back to Apple ASAP. Otherwise the thing is a joy to own... still would recommend.
Mitch @ Jun 28th 2006 12:26AM
Proud Owner of a slightly dirty macbook. Its my first Mac, no matter how dirty it gets, I still love it more than my year-old Dell. It may be a chance getting gen 1 products, but somebody has to do it so dolts like Josh can say the rotten things he says. Besides, if we don't, how will a Rev. 2 come out? Just my 1/2 cent...
dav @ Jun 28th 2006 12:31AM
I have never seen a discolored macbook out of the 30 or so I have seen.
Blu3 @ Jun 28th 2006 12:48AM
To Crazyglues:
Dear Sir or Madam, If you want a quality product, do not, under any circumstances, purchase a Dell. There is simply no other product on the market with a higher rate of failure and more tech support issues than Dell. I work at a Big Box retailer that is partered with a group of persons that do computer repairs. Over 60% of the machines we repair are Dells. Do the math... this is WAY to great a proportion in relation to the amount of PC brands on the market. Please, do yourself a favor and purchase ANYTHING but a Dell, and don't make yourself sound silly by saying that a Dell will have no problems. You sound like a bright person, do some research on this matter, you will (probably) be surprised by what you find out.
Dear everyone else,
I have recently seen two friends purchase MacBooks and one has a slight discoloration while the other has none. Both MacBooks are white and are about 4 weeks old (my apologies to those who have this problem... it is most unfortunate.) I feel your pain people... I am on my second MacBook Pro after the first one had to be replaced for the HORRIBLE whining noise... haha. Good luck Apple fans... keep it real.
Blu3
matt Sitta @ Jun 28th 2006 12:49AM
I have a macbook and have a purple-ish discolor on one of the corners. At first it pissed me off. Now I really dont care.
z @ Jun 28th 2006 1:06AM
Come on.. This kind of thing is starting to be boring. If every maniac consumer is to become the gold standard in usage resistance... If you buy a white computer, you assume you'll have to be cautious with what you put on it. My mac is white, I use it a lot, really a lot, I do have a bit of discoloration around the mousepad, but what do you expect? After so much wear, the keys have also started to fade too, so what? This isn't a 5000$ space-age-teflon-coating-nothing-stick-on-it-you-dont-even-need-butter-coated piece of equipment and it's fine by me and most I'd expect.
Brian James @ Jun 28th 2006 1:08AM
MacBook SKID MARK EDITION!
***RANT*** --->
Now that Apple has switched to Intel in their laptops, we can begin to compare the top two manufactures of these machines.... Apple (Mac) and Dell (PC).
Apple, of course, wins on asthetics... but if you want a GAMING laptop, you're going to lean towards the Dell XPS.
Everyone on here trash talks the system they DON'T own, which is completely *retarded.* People used to say, if you want to work with images and video, get a mac, for anything else, get a PC. Now that the processors are the same, however, it now comes down to COMPONENTS, as far as horsepower is concerned. DELL XPS m1710 EASILY outperforms ANY mac notebook, so for me, I'd rather have a DELL because I need as much power as I can get. Apple offers slower ram, inferior videocard, and slower hard drives (performance wise, not just judging by the RPM). Apple gamers = non-existant... for a good reason.
Curt @ Jun 28th 2006 1:26AM
Now we know who does not wash hands regularly.
adaminc @ Jun 28th 2006 1:43AM
Does anyone actually know what causes the discoloration yet? Is it like, the salts and oils on the skin reacting with the casing or something?
Meltz @ Jun 28th 2006 1:49AM
okay - delltops suck. End of story. Thank you.
Well, except for the high-end ones i guess.
As for macs, they're pretty tight - ive owned my MBP since May 6 (graduation gift) and no problems - xcept for the inevitable heat issue, which i actually somewhat enjoy if its not directly on my lap......ahem.
I agree with Brian James here - if you want to write a program or play a game, buy a PC. If you want to make a movie or do some nice crud with digital media, or you just dont know how to solve minor issues, buy a Mac.
if you wanna do both, get an Intel-based mac and dual-boot :)
NeoteriX @ Jun 28th 2006 1:50AM
"1556 votes should be statistically significant for just about any Apple production run. Not sure where that number comes from, but if it's real - so is the problem."
1556 entries is very satistically robust, and can get you a solid 95% confidence even in populations that are several million people large. However, this is only if a valid simple random sample is taken of the population of white macbook owners.
1556 votes is fairly meaningless when there are issues of what subset of macbook users visit said website, the self-selection involved in voting, and other confounding variables.
Perrey Z. @ Jun 28th 2006 1:55AM
Damn! that's bad. The paint is fading away showing the actual color of the plastic use for these, Which is dark matte Gray. The paint use by the OEM is not a good quality. Normal use should not have such a negative result as this. This is Apple's fault, they choose the materials use on their products.
Coexed @ Jun 28th 2006 2:18AM
What is apples return policy on these discolored macbooks, i plan on getting one in a few weeks and i want to know for sure that i can return it if it gets stained. I dont want a stained laptop, I have OCD so my hands are always clean, so i just want to make sure if for some reason it turns ugly i can send it back and get a replacement.
Mark 2000 @ Jun 28th 2006 2:29AM
Maybe this will bite me in the ass in a few weeks, but my wife eats cherries over her two week old white mac book all the time. The stains wipe right off with water.
Toby Piller @ Jun 28th 2006 2:33AM
hmm, there is nothing wrong with me other than I use my equipment regulary. They all have worn of paint stains. I sum some up: my compaq keyboard (metalic paint at the cursor keys), HP (Compaq) NX9030 notebook also the metalic paint wears of around the mouse pad, Qtek 2020 at the sides the metalic paint chips.
giveaphuk @ Jun 28th 2006 2:37AM
*sigh* i guess i will have to wait for apple to release a 'poo brown' macbook..
LordFarkward @ Jun 28th 2006 2:38AM
another proud dell owner here - xps m1210. am just supporting what st said: money to performance ratio.
basic specs: Duo Core T2300, 1gb 667mhz DDR2 sdram, 100gb 5400rpm sata hard drive, 8x dual layer dvd burner, 256mb geforce go 7400 TC card, 1.3mp inbuilt webcam, 3 years warranty (they will come to my place to fix it), 3 years damage insurance, shipping & handling & tax
price: everything for HK$10,399 which roughly tranlates to US$1,375.53.
been doing research for 4 months before i made the purchase, having been swayed between toshiba and fujitsu and asus and mac and then sony. none of these offer these specs packed in an 'ultraportable' 12" laptop (most of them have 'disappointing' graphics card), let alone at this price.
i'm not gonna bash any of the brands as i've merely played with them for around 5 mins each while i was doing my 'research', but i am say this: dell does give you the best performance to price ratio with (proven) good tech support hands down.
giveaphuk @ Jun 28th 2006 2:44AM
ATTN: LordFarkward!
yeah i hear dell give great support.. shame about their laptops exploding!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/laptops--desktops/exploding-laptop-probe/2006/06/28/1151174243468.html
sc00tert00ter @ Jun 28th 2006 2:45AM
Dear people,
First things first, PC absolutely owns mac. Yes
macs are "great" for multimedia but can one say that PCs arent? I own both a Mac(iMac G4) and PC, i truely believe you can do much more with a pc, after all there is much more programs for pc than mac. I am casual gamer and there is no comparison between OSX based games and Windows based games. Apple is big time lacking in gaming. Performance wise, I have a custom built pc and i do alot of multimedia; photoshop, dreamweaver, flash (all mac based apps) video editing&converting and in my custom computer is an AMD(which lacks in multitasking and multimedia features compared to Intel) i RARELY had a bad experience while do such stuff. On the other hand, Macs are a lot cooler looking and do have cool multimedia features (like the camera+iBooth with iMac G5) but still... its not like you cant buy a camera...
thats my 2 cents -- mitch ;) --
neXus @ Jun 28th 2006 2:45AM
Black Macs will surely start to sell better now...
BIgsby @ Jun 28th 2006 2:59AM
I've owned a few dells and the last ones, have not been upto snuff. Both me and everyone I know who have bought a Dell in the last while have ultimately regretted it. The first month I had my dell computer, with an ATI Radeon X600 and Pentium 4 630, the hard drive crashed. I was on the phone with tech support for hours trying to get it figured out. It took me a few weeks and in the end, I had to buy myself a new hard drive. I was sent to 3 different people in that time, two of them in their India branch, which doesn't connect with the america brach so I had to start from the beginning again. Every time I talked to someone, they said the same damn thing, which was the same thing that I tried doing before I called. For the price I paid for my computer, I expected more, from its underpowered and underclocked, overpriced graphics card, to its no name brand ram which I had to replace by myself again, to its underpowered psu. The case does that metalic vibrating thing too, which really annoys me. My friends who also have dells also suffer from bottom of the line products and less-than-helpful tech support. My boss has gone through 3 Dell laptops in the last year and a half.
This might be an isolated incident, but I doubt it. I don't want to change your views, but I've had some bad experience with Dell in the past few years, so from now on I'm only gonna build my own computers.
Karl Viklund @ Jun 28th 2006 2:59AM
Wow. If that picture isn't a PhotoShop-work Apple should really be ashamed and fix this problem and give costumers new computers. This is totaly unacceptable!!!
If you buy a Mac totay, get the black one. I think that's the best option.
Karl Viklund @ Jun 28th 2006 3:15AM
sc00tert00ter
"there is much more programs for pc than mac"
Before I start, I want to say that I'm both a PC and Mac user. Right now, mainly PC-users but I will buy a new Mac soon. And yes, I do use Linix and BSD too ^^
You know, PC got 90% of the market. I would be realy strange if Mac had more programs with only 5% world market share. And Yes, Mac lack in game.performance, that's true. I hope Apple will do something about it now when they switched to Intel. But it's not strange that PC's perform better in games then Macs. PC have been a game-focused platform for years especially for young people. If PC did not have god performance in games we wll would play on consoles today. When I hade a computer (Mac) in the 80's all my friends had Segas and Nintendo machines. The G4 CPU and G5 were great CPUs and a great platform but IBM really did not manage to push the performance per watt. Of course Apple did lie about the G4 and G5 but that's what Intel have done with the P4 all this time too. AMD 64 have smashed P4 in every test, yet Intel did not want to say that the P4 was indeed slower then the AMD 64. But now when Apple and PC runs on the same CPU Apple can realy pick up the fight with PC. And btw, I don't think people just choose Mac because it's better, people choose because they got the option to choose. Apple got a strong support from the Mac-people because Apple is the underdog and underdogs gets the support even if they are worse sometimes. Why did Firefox get 10% of the world market that fast? Because they were the underdog, it's simple. People will always cheere for the underdog and I think it's good because it will generate compitition.
Lets get back to gaming. The reason PC's have a great performance today is because of the games I would say. It's the gameing market that's realy pushing the performance forward for everything, CPUs, GPUs, Memory yes everything.
Whoops... @ Jun 28th 2006 3:17AM
ATTN: giveaphuk
Shame about those Powerbooks that used to do the same thing, eh?
http://www.pbzone.com/flaming.shtml
Cliff @ Jun 28th 2006 3:48AM
Not much of a fan for apple, but recently, someone I know experienced a hdd crash with their dell laptop (craptop). The hdd was an ibm deskstar (deathstar). The tech support had strong accents and claimed that for just 50 bucks the hdd could be fixed. It couldn't, so the person ended up getting a macbook pro. Hopefully this discoloration issue has been solved by now...
Crapple Apple @ Jun 28th 2006 4:17AM
Look Apple - has Really Good “Looking” Products But its to obvious that Look’s are
Deceiving! There Product Are Way Over Priced! Hifi Crappy Sound anyone?
It’s one Problem After Another!
Did Apple fix the Nano Problem? No! Still Crap & Scratchy. Did anyone Notice & Compare how
Crappy the Bass sounds on an iPod ? The Discoloration on the Mac?
And you think By Having a Black one is better? It gets Smudgy! DUH!
Over Heating? Anyone? Annoying Moooo Sound on Your Portable Mac? Caused by the Fans.
OooH and the Whole China Scandal
Mike @ Jun 28th 2006 4:48AM
I can't stress this enough, if you have a problem with your Mac take it to the Genius Bar. This is not New Dellhi, if you go to these people with a problem they will fix it. I have a lot of respect for Apple not because they're perfect but because they do a better job handling the problems. I don't expect Apple products to be immune to problems because nobody else's are. Their repair records are good and their customer service is stellar. I had a problem where a small area of paint started rubbing off on my Powerbook. I took it in and they replaced the whole panel without blinking and had it ready for me an hour later.
If your MacBook looks like monkeys have thrown feces at it for a few hours Apple's going to do something about it. Just take it in and give them a chance.
strider_mt2k @ Jun 28th 2006 5:05AM
I don't know where Dell got dragged into this, but my Oh-so-humble rock-bottom Inspiron B130 travels well and has experienced no hardware problems.
I'm a Mac well-wisher, in that I don't wish them any specific harm.
TC @ Jun 28th 2006 5:38AM
Just to let you guys know, Certain models of Dell Inspirons and Toshiba Porteges have this issue too. It tends to be worse with users that use hand cream or if the soap in the washrooms is perfumed (Seriously!). In our IT department, generally the Macbooks are more reliable than everything else, but probably because we don't have that many of them (and they do get v.hot). In terms of the PC stuff, the Vaio's are the most reliable (but their tech. supp stinks) closely followed by Toshiba (but stupid keyboard layout), Dell (CERTAIN Dells are extremely reliable, others are junk - 8,I,K not working on a keyboard anyone?) and lastly HP/Compaq EVO (I have never, ever seen something as unreliable as that!)
Basically, if you use the laptop a lot (To the point where it gets hot) and you have acidic skin, a painted alloy surface has a good chance of discoloration.
Camperton @ Jun 28th 2006 5:46AM
The reason I use Apple is OSX. Simple as that.
wako @ Jun 28th 2006 6:07AM
Shut up.
There are already endless amounts of debates between Macs vs. the PC World (usually represented by Dell) throughout the internet. Going through another one in the comment page on Engadget is just pathetic. If you think you thought of a come back to something or a attack on something, it was probably thought up when you were still in the crib crying.
BACK ON TOPIC THOUGH...
Now that 200 extra dollars I spent for black definitely looks better now. Literally :)
Randy @ Jun 28th 2006 6:16AM
I've had my white macbook since the release and I have had no change in colour as of yet. Maybe I just one of the lucky ones and I use it at least 4 hours a day.
ThinkPu @ Jun 28th 2006 6:21AM
get an IBM?
PeteC @ Jun 28th 2006 6:42AM
I think this is utterly hilarious! All of those people that buy macs for the svette look and coolness factor and they've got neither. Send the bloody things back. Is it just me or is there at least one major fault with every single Apple release in recnet memory. The workmanship seems to be getting shoddy and yet still people harp on and complain about PC's and microsoft. How long will it take people to realise that apple are no better and possibly, at the moment, even worse.
Burning power leads, overheating macbooks, scratching and screen cracking nanos, deteriorating batteries in ipods, poor audio jack connectors, monitor colour consistancy problems, discolouring products, short product lifetimes.... The list just goes on and on!