So I've got this new 13" MacBook Pro Retina… a beautiful machine by all accounts! Here's the thing though: It doesn't sit flat. As in, if you put it down on a flat surface, all four of the rubber feet on the bottom won't touch the surface. Only three will (just like a wobbly, uneven table). It's not really a big deal except:
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When I rest my palms on the palm rest areas to type, the Mac wobbles and makes a tapping noise, and…
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I'm worried that if the casing is bent or just not straight that it's putting stress on something internal or that it's an indication of poor build quality and there might be other problems.
Am I insane? Should I just shut up and enjoy this beautiful Mac? Or is this a valid concern?
P.S. I assure you, I'm testing this on a truly flat surface.
Best Answer
If a unibody Mac is wobbly, I'd have it serviced sooner rather than later. The tolerances inside are crazy tight in some cases, so a warp could cause subsequent damage to sensitive and costly parts. A trained technician can tell at a glance if the damage was external or due to manufacturing issues.
Now, that being said, I've seen dozens of Macs where people reported they were off and most were the table it sat upon, and not a bend in the unibody frame of the Mac. You can test by measuring how many sheets of printer paper fit under the leg(s) that has(have) a gap.
Then rotate the Mac 1/3 of a turn and repeat the measurement. Then take it to a second flat surface and do the measurement one last time if you're not convinced that it's the frame instead of the surface that is off-level.
Any wobble that's less than three sheets of paper is probably nothing to worry about, but what if you needed a logic board repair 10 months down the road and today, your Mac is bent out of tolerance and you were denied warranty coverage since you didn't report the bend until then? Only by getting it checked will you know if yours was out of tolerance and have a service record to point to in case of a warranty repair question later.