Do you know a lucky Mac cultist who will get Apple’s fastest and largest iMac under the tree this year? Before you wrap one of the new 27-inch iMacs with Intel’s Core i7 processor, you might want to test the machine. A number of customers of the quad-core custom-built iMacs are reporting damaged screens or computers that show up dead on arrival.
Owners on Apple’s support discussion boards report Core i7 iMacs arriving either with a crack in the bottom left corner of the computer’s screen or the desktop computer won’t boot. Some customers report a two-week waiting period for a replacement.
The damaged Core i7-powered 27-inch iMacs arrive in boxes appearing unharmed, leading some on Apple’s Discussion boards to speculate the packaging may not fully support the large display.
“There’s no apparent damage to the styrofoam or box so it looks like that’s a weak spot in the screen and how they are being packed in the boxes,” a user identified as ‘scopro’ reported. The Apple customer said it might be Dec. 7 before a replacement arrives.
Another user, calling himself ‘drpixel,’ questioned having to wait for a replacement after a delay in original shipments. Apple reportedly began shipping the i7 iMacs in mid-November, nearly a month after some customers ordered the new machines.
Along with Apple’s support forums, the Engadget blog reports receiving an i7 27-inch iMac that wouldn’t boot.
The 27-inch quad Core i7 iMac are special order, costing $200 extra to be equipped with Intel’s 2.8 GHz 860 processor. The i7 runs 2-to-3 times faster than the equivalent 27-inch iMac using the Core 2 Duo chip. The iMac using Intel’s quad-core i5 750 processor retails for $1,999.
[Via AppleInsider, Engadget and Apple Support Discussions]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
