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Comment by cjsawyer | Hacker News Reader

I’ve recently gotten over this sentiment with my electronics. When I was a kid, each device was an irreplaceable gift from a parent or represented the investment of a long time saving. So each device was treated with the absolute care. As a result I spent a lot of time babying hardware. Now I’m a few generations of hardware into being an adult and am retiring perfect condition objects that are just too slow. For what? I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m allowed to use devices exactly how I feel like it. They exist as tools for me to use! Looking back at my chunky MacBook cover in college is funny, now. What’s the point of a fancy surface finish on the hardware if you never get to see it?

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I changed to this with electronics when I decided that the midrange and below was more than enough for anything I'm doing and that every movable device should be treated as if it could be dropped on a tile floor or grow legs and walk away at any time.

Automated backups, cloud storage and services, encrypted local storage, remote wipe if feasible, devices that are midrange but still getting security and feature updates. Not quite seamless to move to a new device, but it's not that hard either.

Exactly the same here! My MBP in college had a safety case and everything... and in hindsight its awful and bulky and hides the fancy finish.

One important thing to remember, at least for me, is I just had significantly less disposable income back then. Replacing the MBP would have been financially impossible for me, so I took more care of it. I'm in a much more privileged place now... so replacing something like this would only be a significant inconvenience.

Honestly those cases would not have helped your mac any. It has a substantial amount of shock protection already from the case, if you open it up you can see how the corners especially have plenty of room to deform before hitting something important, and if you are smacking that computer hard enough to deform the corners the thin plastic case might as well be a piece of paper. Maybe they help prevent scratches which could hurt resale value potentially.

It's not necessarily unreasonable to take some additional steps to protect your essential tools that would be very financially inconvenient to replace. What's "reasonable" of course depends on the details. But that doesn't necessarily mean suffering along with inferior products (computers, cameras) because you're afraid they'll get stolen or damaged (which insurance can mittigate against to some degree).

My 2012 macbook pro looks like its been throw out of a moving vehicle at this point. Dinged corners, scratched up bottoms and missing screws and feet. Thats why they make them out of a metal unibody chassis after all, to keep up with being dropped all the time and scratched up.

Doesn't stop the battery from expanding and ruining the keyboard, trackpad, bottom and top case.

RIP 2015 MBP - you still had a few years left in ya.

Didn’t you get the battery replaced under Apple program some years ago, I think it was 2019? I got a brand new battery for free.

They replaced it with another defective battery that only lasted ~28 cycles before it expanded. Apple refuses to do anything about it.

Edit: Screenshot I submitted to Apple.

https://ibb.co/jwRN1MH

I had the exact same experience, and ended up replacing the battery myself. Not a difficult job, but extremely tedious.

I would replace the battery if that was the only part affected. Unfortunately when it expanded just like the last time it bends/warps the top case and keyboard, the metal around the trackpad and the bottom case. I can't just replace the battery and leave everything else bent/warped, the laptop won't sit level, the screen will not close completely. It's really not a cheap or easy task. Not to mention the risk involved in removing a battery that is expanded and could rupture.

What app are you using to show cpu/mem/temp?

istat menus.

https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

With the 2012 at least, the first tell for the battery expanding is actually the trackpad. The trackpad will start to no longer click as well because it is still a physical button in this model. It might not even click at all before it finally swells to the point it shatters the trackpad. Luckily the placement of the battery spares the keyboard too; its all in the palm and trackpad area.

I'm on battery number 2 at this point, and the swap takes as long as a dozen phillips heads takes to unscrew then screw. I don't envy the more recent glued battery models and don't look forward to the day when this pretty repairable rig finally bites the dust and I'm forced into one.

This is why my phone looks like I’ve been to war with it. I didn’t pay the price to grip five dollar plastic cases and after my phone has been unbearably slow, no one wants to use it anyway.

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