# Apple MacBook 499 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple MacBook and 348 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 9 years (77 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for long battery life, excellent trackpad, screen and build quality, and fast, quiet Apple Silicon performance; critics cite soldered, hard-to-repair parts and past keyboard problems. ## Why people recommend it - Long battery life (3 comments): "I haven't packed a charger for the day for 3 years. I can work in coffee shops or on the couch for over 6 hours without even thinking about charging." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47351183)) "MacBooks have the best value/money ratio at the moment. The combination of battery life, processing power and touch pad UX are unmatched" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48730241)) "the MacBook is good at: display, instant performance and battery life, trackpad, webcam, sound and microphones, build quality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769265)) - Excellent build quality and hardware (5 comments): "the MacBook is good at: display, instant performance and battery life, trackpad, webcam, sound and microphones, build quality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769265)) "MacBook right now just combine everything, other laptop they might get a good CPU but the screen and the keyboard are trash" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48164005)) "Just the build quality on MacBooks compared to your random PC laptop piece of plastic that falls apart within a few years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48112508)) - Great trackpad, screen and keyboard (6 comments): "MacBooks have the best value/money ratio at the moment. The combination of battery life, processing power and touch pad UX are unmatched" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48730241)) "Keyboard on Macs is pretty much good, other than the early butterfly version, rest is definitely above average and it just feels good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732955)) "Apple did it correctly, MacBook uses a Mini-LED backlit LCD, so you get a quality display with HDR while also having sharp text" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50012353)) - Fast, cool Apple Silicon performance (5 comments): "The speed and latency difference does matter, that is how even an 8GB RAM MacBook feels snappier than many a 32GB Windows machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48023073)) "The fact they figured out how to transition all their laptops to ARM so it won’t be a stovetop on your lap is amazing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47845118)) "Macbook's are the best productivity laptops and now even more so once Apple moved from Intel to their own M chips" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47332277)) ## What people warn about - Hard to repair or upgrade (3 comments): "The soldered on RAM and SSD, while technically replaceable, make it a much more difficult process than just swapping some DIMMS and an m.2." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48112904)) "I can't do that on a macbook, if anything breaks there (screen, ssd, ram, keyboard, battery bulging...) I might as well buy another." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567055)) "being non repairable, being non upgradable, having early thermal throttling due to subar cooling, and having a mediocre keyboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48757463)) - Fragile or mediocre keyboards (2 comments): "the era of keyboards so fragile they break if you sneeze on them, and gimmicks like turning part of the keyboard into a touch screen were terrible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49366307)) "being non repairable, being non upgradable, having early thermal throttling due to subar cooling, and having a mediocre keyboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48757463)) - Heat and thermal throttling (2 comments): "being non repairable, being non upgradable, having early thermal throttling due to subar cooling, and having a mediocre keyboard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48757463)) "the only reason they have "dead silence" is because Apple is literally baking your laptop and leaving you to pay the bill" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46389240)) - Poor Linux support (2 comments): "I've had to suffer many work Macbooks and vastly prefer both the hardware and (Linux) software stack on non-Apple laptops." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46644324)) "MacBooks aren't built with Linux in mind at all, and you can't run Linux on it as easily as on something like a ThinkPad" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904112)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Apple MacBook Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-pro.md): 928 recommend - [Apple MacBook Neo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-neo.md): 707 recommend - [MacBook Air](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macbook-air.md): 633 recommend - [Framework Laptop 12](https://hackerapproved.com/p/framework-laptop-12.md): 83 recommend - [Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinkpad-x1-carbon.md): 77 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Apple+MacBook+laptop&tag=YOURTAG-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.apple.com/mac/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Apple MacBook", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-macbook/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).