Macbook Pro threads - The good and the bad

Question

For many weeks I waivered on if I should sell my barley 2 year old G5 now and just jump on the Intel Dual core bandwagon. I finally put the word out to all my Mac buddies that my G5 was for sale and I ordered my MBP 17 on May 9th. Days went by. My order sat in the Order Processing que for about a week. Then it sat in the Sent to Manufacturing que for another 4 days. Over the 4 days I began to obsess with all the Mac fanatic websites reading one bad thread after another all talking about how bad the noise was and the heat. many of those thread were right here on apple.com.
It drove me nuts thinking that I just bought somthing thats riddled with problems. I called Apple to find out what the delay was about. They said my order was on hold due to the fact that they now offer glossy displays and were probably wondering if I wanted mine to come with the glossy screen. I was bit annoyed because they never reached out to ask me that. I had to come to them. In a moment of feeling that I should have just waited, I canceled my order on May 19th. Based on all the bad crap I read I felt good about putting it off a little longer.
A good friend of mine bought his MBP 15 on the day it was announced. I went to go see him the yesterday. He had to send his back once for the recall but over all he loves it. The firmware update drop the temprature to a noteable difference. We used it for a while and I heard no odd noise or moo-ing. The machine was rock solid. apps were lauching wicked quick. He was installing games and ripping Movies to DVD. The hour we used it was a total blast and made me think " What the heck was I worried about?"
I'm over my obsession with my worries and will be ordering a MBP 15 in another week or so. I wanted to share this story with you guys because I heard very few good stories about the MBP 15 and 17. Apple released the firmware update in response to the many people that returned there MBP. In my experience Apple has always aimed to give us the Mac community the ultimate buying experience. Even if there are a few bumps in the road, I'm confident apple will continue to pave the way of fixing them.
I will post again after I have my MBP for a few days.
Regards,
D
G5 Dual 2.5   Mac OS X (10.3.8)  
G5 Dual 2.5   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

There was a recall- I don't remember where I got this info but here is an Email I sent to my friend from when it became public. Sorry I can't recall the source.
Email Starts now.......................................
Users feel the pain of being early adopters, thankfully Apple gives hope
Apple has been doing quite well lately, especially when it comes to drumming up support for new products. It's MacBook Pro is no exception to the rule -- but rightly so. The popular notebook has been receiving praise from various publications and orders have been flying.
Despite its popularity as a "must have" Apple product, the MacBook Pro is encountering a lot of issues. Many users are reporting similar issues to the ones I pointed out. To recap from my blog:
AirPort does not automatically rejoin a preferred network after waking up from sleep mode. This does not happen with my PowerBook. Settings are the same.
AirPort would drop down to nearly 1 block randomly once in a while. This also does not happen with my PowerBook.
At the lowest screen brightness setting (one block), the LCD's backlight flickers noticeably. This is pretty annoying.
Heat is a big issue. The MacBook Pro gets so hot that I cannot place it on my lap if I'm wearing shorts. And even if I am wearing pants (instead of shorts), it's still very uncomfortable. Using the AC power, the palm rest area becomes very warm, and the area above the F keys is very hot. I do not notice this with the PowerBook.
We have confirmed with several MacBook Pro owners that these problems do in fact exist, and are not just isolated issues. While being at the forefront of technology is great, early adopters often find themselves with products that have shipped with a few quirks yet to be addressed.
I spoke with Apple over the weekend, and to my surprise, some of the issues are well known. Known well enough in fact, that Appe has already started addressing these issues in updated MacBook Pros. According to Apple, it has begun replacing the mainboard inside its MacBook Pros with a new revision.
It calls the udpated product "revision D", which is indentifiable by product serial number.
Serial numbers starting with W8611: revision D Serial numbers starting with W8610: revision C Apple said that revision D MacBook Pros have many issues addressed and improvements made, including fixes to the above mentioned issues. We were also able to get a hold of a MacBook Pro that just arrived during the week with a serial number starting with W8612, which did not exhibit any of the above issues. Many users are also reporting that their MacBook Pros become extremely hot to handle, especially in the area above the F keys and underneath the notebook itself. In fact, my MacBook Pro gets so hot that placing it in your hands is almost unbearable, and leaving it on a bare lap is next to impossible. According to Apple, the MacBook Pro should never become hot to the point of being uncomfortable. The representative I spoke to said "that should not happen. If it is, bring back your MacBook Pro and we'll give you an updated version."
Besides the problems that we are seeing, other users are also reporting that their MacBook Pros create a very uncomfortable whining noise, which is fixed by launching a widget or by using PhotoBooth -- oddly enough this solves the problem until the next reboot.
Those who are having issues with their MacBook Pros should first check for the identifying serial number, and then contact Apple to address the issue.