Your worst apple purchase?

[assquatch]

I'm curious to hear which apple products have underwhelmed you and why?

For me it's the AirPods Max. I find them to be way too clunky and tight on my head. The ANC and audio quality is fantastic and I thought I needed them for long flights, but the lack of portability/foldability and the ridiculous case have caused me to leave them on my desk at all times. I find the AirPods Pro to be hands-down superior for travel.

 

[velocityg4]

Tough choice between an iBook G3 and Performa 6218CD.

The iBook was slow out the gate as I was used to my PowerMac G4. I also realized it was pretty useless for college as note taking with a keyboard didn't work well in classes compared to a pen and paper. It was further useless for the lack of an Airport card. Which I should've thought about before the purchase. By the time I realized that part it was too late. As I had moved for college and had no job. Also battery life was horrible and finding a place to charge was nearly impossible.

The Performa 6218CD. As I bought it as a stop gap after selling my Power Macintosh 7100/66AV. The 75Mhz 603 felt slower than the 66Mhz 601. It also wasn't wasn't decked out with all the upgrades I had in the 7100. It wasn't bad, just felt so mediocre compared to what I had before. I probably replaced it in less than a year for a Performa 6400/180. I forget why I sold the 7100. I think it was for extra money to work on my truck in High School.

Anyways, I think of the two. The iBook was the most underwhelming as I hardly ever used it. Having 50+ lbs of books and binders and walking miles around campus everyday. Made it just an inconvenient dead weight. If the battery lasted longer or there were more places to charge. I might have had more use for it. As it stood. It was just extra dead weight I didn't need with me. Only bringing it when absolutely necessary. Basically, I was still too early for a laptop to be practical in college.

In my mind. I had envisioned typing all my notes. Scanning books to PDF. Not carrying all that crap around. Charging the laptop in the library between classes.

 

[macsound1]

I think AirPods. While they have some great features, the fact that they die so soon is really frustrating. When they stopped lasting more than an hour without swapping to the other ear, I threw in the towel.

Initially I thought I'd buy another pair so I bought these $20 amazon earbuds to hold me over until I could find a deal. Ultimately I never repurchased the Airpods and have been wearing the QCYs daily and have been since 2019 with no battery issues.
It's 1/2 listening to music and 1/2 for zoom meetings and the audio quality is just fine. No noise canceling but I didn't have noise canceling with the AirPods either.
🤷‍♂️

 

[jr5x]

the AirPods Max. I find them to be way too clunky and tight on my head…

There’s a fix for headphones that are too tight. Take some books and stack them vertically so that they are just wider than your head (try 1” wider). Leave your headphones clamped on them for a couple days. Then see how they fit.

 

[ChedNasad]

Got a macbook pro just several months prior to the M1 chip being released. Felt hugely dumb for assuming those rumored chips were another year or two out. Eventually upgraded to M1 Pro in the 14" flavor so sitting pretty now but those intel machines just sucked bad right before the transition. It's truly insane how hot they were getting.

 

[assquatch]

Got a macbook pro just several months prior to the M1 chip being released. Felt hugely dumb for assuming those rumored chips were another year or two out. Eventually upgraded to M1 Pro in the 14" flavor so sitting pretty now but those intel machines just sucked bad right before the transition. It's truly insane how hot they were getting.

Ouch. Work gave me one of the top end i7 machines because that’s what their “fleet” was. It sits next to my personal M1 Max and it feels like a decade-old machine by comparison.

 

[Tdude96]

A base model 5th gen iPad. Should have saved the money.
After awhile I just loaded some games on it for my cat to play, and that's the most use it ever got.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

iPhone 3G and 3GS. Sure of course they were both faster than the original iPhone, but those pixelated screens prior to the iPhone 4 were atrocious.

 

[BotchQue]

Nothing, here.
I tend to do the research, buy, then use until the item is no longer supported (and needs to be). None of the purchases I've regretted (I don't have any earphones, watches, TV or home thingies).

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Well, not directly the worst purchase at the time hardware wise. But honourable mention goes to Siri's dumbing down of my OG Home Pod over the years. It takes away from what they used to be, and could be capable of.

 

[maflynn]

Truth be told, I don't have a "worst" apple purchase. I've lucked out in terms of quality products and the items that I have bought generally have worked out.

If I have to say what I regretted the most in buying, well that's the homepod. Its not a bad device, it works fairly well and the music is great, but for the money i spent, its just not that much better then Alexa based speakers. That is, I don't feel paying the premium amount for the HomePod gave me a premium experience over Alexa based products.

I bought the G4 cube back in the day and loved it, that could go down in history as one of the top 10 worst apple products, and it was not a successful product for a variety of reasons, but with that said, I had zero regrets over buying, and using it. To me it was a work of art that was able to run all of my programs. It was great

 

[Nhwhazup]

iPhone XS Max. I tried 2 of these 6 months apart. The Intel modems were the worst. Unusable service - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Cellular. Just awful. Didn’t keep them.

 

[monokakata]

1. Apple pencil, first generation. It just never worked at all.

2. MacBook Pro 15", 2017 (I think), loaded. Stage lights struck it down and it's never recovered. I doubt I can even give it away.

 

[zorinlynx]

The original AirPods, right around when they came out.

They were okay at first, and I actually used them quite a bit. But the battery noticeably degraded within two years, and then they became useless and only fit for the recycle bin.

My disappointment at how little time they lasted led me to decide to never buy AirPods again. It just HURT to have something expensive last so little time. Meanwhile the Bose QC 35 headphones I bought back in 2017 are still going strong today, with only earpad replacements since then.

 

[zorinlynx]

Ouch. Work gave me one of the top end i7 machines because that’s what their “fleet” was. It sits next to my personal M1 Max and it feels like a decade-old machine by comparison.

I'm amazed at how hot Intel Macbooks run after using my M1 MBP for a while. The slightest little thing sends their fans into hurricane mode.

Meanwhile my M1 MBP's fans don't even turn on at all unless I fire up something that loads the CPU for more than a few minutes! I love seeing "0 rpm" in iStat for both fans, also knowing that they're not sucking dust through the machine constantly.

 

[TSE]

Black MacBook in 2006. While the performance was greatly improved from the G4 laptop processors at the time, the 32-bit Core Duos at the time had terrible thermals that Intel fixed with the Core 2 Duo later that year. Also, the build quality of the plastic chassis of that generation of MacBooks was absolutely terrible.

 

[zorinlynx]

Black MacBook in 2006. While the performance was greatly improved from the G4 laptop processors at the time, the 32-bit Core Duos at the time had terrible thermals that Intel fixed with the Core 2 Duo later that year. Also, the build quality of the plastic chassis of that generation of MacBooks was absolutely terrible.

Huh, that surprises me. I remember the BlackBooks being in heavy demand and people loving them. Could it be that you got a lemon build-quality wise?

 

[TSE]

Huh, that surprises me. I remember the BlackBooks being in heavy demand and people loving them. Could it be that you got a lemon build-quality wise?

The plastic MacBooks issues with plastic chipping and discoloration were a well discussed topic at the time, with Apple I believe issuing keyboard and palm rest replacements to MacBooks that were well out of warranty because it was so widespread.

The much more efficient 64-bit Core 2 Duo that came later that year blew Core Duo out of the water. My MacBook's idle temperatures were ok, but doing anything even semi-intense at the time like watching video would make that thing HOT. Core 2 Duo fixed that and allowed for more RAM. I think Core Duo was limited to 2 GBs which wasn't much even for the time.

 

[frou]

I would also say AirPods Max. But only in terms of value I've gotten out of them.

They're really good headphones and I enjoy them when I use them, but since I always have the normal AirPods case in my pocket, I usually just automatically wear them instead. Thankfully I only paid ~2/3 of RRP for the Max.

Worst iPhone I've had was the 3G with its crappy plastic shell. Don't think I've ever had a bad Mac.

 

[TSE]

I would also say AirPods Max. But only in terms of value I've gotten out of them.

They're really good headphones and I enjoy them when I use them, but since I always have the normal AirPods case in my pocket, I usually just automatically wear them instead. Thankfully I only paid ~2/3 of RRP for the Max.

Worst iPhone I've had was the 3G with its crappy plastic shell. Don't think I've ever had a bad Mac.

I have an unpopular opinion and actually really liked the 3G / 3GS shell design on the back. It was by far the most comfortable version of the iPhone to hold in the hand.

It would have too many compromises in a phone today - wireless charging wouldn't work because it couldn't sit flat and the curvature didn't utilize internal space for rectangular componentry all that well, but I was a fan.

 

[calliex]

My first powerbook/laptop, I forget the year. One of the components on the mother board fried the 3rd day I had it. I sent it back to siberian outpost and month later got a replacement. The second one did the same thing. I was told to take it to Comp USA for repairs, no Apple stores in those days. Turned out there was a bad diode on all the powerbooks made in Ireland. It was fixed and work for five years when I gave it to a relative. It was my first laptop and the only Apple product that ever broke on me.

 

[Danfango]

The worst thing I ever bought was the puck mouse that came with my G3 Blue/White PowerMac. That was the worst mouse in the universe.

Over 20 years later Apple still haven't made a single decent traditional mouse that doesn't turn your hand into an aching wreck after 5 minutes.

 

[Nismo73]

The smart keyboard folio for my 2018 ipad pro has been garbage with the materials used. It didnt take long for the material to peeling and what not. I even brought in and got a new one in the first year but it’s totally peeling up by the keys and back. Also it hasn’t been connecting that much lately to the iPad which makes it useless for typing.

 

[PlayUltimate]

The worst thing I ever bought was the puck mouse that came with my G3 Blue/White PowerMac. That was the worst mouse in the universe.

Over 20 years later Apple still haven't made a single decent traditional mouse that doesn't turn your hand into an aching wreck after 5 minutes.

I think we still have a green and an orange one somewhere

 

[tranceking26]

Only one, an old white iPod Nano. I just remember it breaking one day, but I have no idea what happened to it after that!