[866-RON-0-FEZ]

M-series MacBooks stink, literally. [1]

My newest MacBook reeks of strong adhesive from the vents.

Googling revealed hundreds of similar complaints, it's allegedly a solvent they use, perhaps flux. I thought it was the battery.

Many claim "they all smell like that". Some (insane) people like the smell, I assume they sniffed glue as kids.

Unfortunately it's the last one I buy. I won't tolerate a smelly laptop.

[1] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/unpleasant-solvent-like...

[as1992]

Yeah if your Macbook smells like that you need to be contacting Apple. That's obviously a manufacturing flaw. I've had multiple M series Mac pros from M1 up M5 and none of them have ever had an unpleasant smell.

[bhouston]

> M-series MacBooks stink

I've been around a lot of modern MacBooks both in my company and I've also owned a bunch, none of them stunk.

I think this is a rare issue. At least it is lower than 1/20, if not much much lower.

[winstonp]

I've never had a smelly Mac, and I've owned maybe 10 different ones across personal and various work laptops. And 90% of devs I've ever met have used Macs and none of them smell either, so it's zero out of maybe 200+ in my personal experience.

[butvacuum]

The devs or the macbook?

[JoeBOFH]

Reminds me of when Dell laptops started smelling like cat urine. Dell denied it for a long time then admitted it was an issue with the manufacturing process. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24741832

[donmcronald]

My Mac Mini M4 has a distasteful smell when I pin in with AI prompts. And MacOS isn’t super great either. The Remote Desktop options suck and if I leave mine running for a week it can’t function without a reboot.

The tech industry might actually be worse than it was 20 years ago.

[dabbz]

Software has been riding on the backs of the insane hardware growth curves for the last 20 years. I miss the days of reading about how software engineers had to delete standard C libraries in build time to shave extra memory so they can stream more of the level in.

I also fully acknowledge that change starts with me, unfortunately those changes don't pay the bills.

[throwaway894345]

I can almost excuse Apple for not being concerned about the relatively niche “mac as a server” use case. The thing that boggles my mind is how their keyboard and autocorrect experience get steadily worse with each release. This is the primary way to interact with their flagship device—the thing that generates an enormous share of their revenue. Why go out of your way to make that worse?

[Spooky23]

100% I’ve used iPhone voice dictation for years. My voice has r changed, but its speech to text makes me sound like a stroke victim. AutoCorrect is not quite as bad, but it’s definitely regressed over the years.

[bb88]

Is that true with the mac book airs? My understanding is that they're completely sealed, and they use the case as a heat spreader.

[Rebelgecko]

Can you compare/contrast with the steam deck vent smell?

[866-RON-0-FEZ]

First I heard of this.

Apparently it's a meme and Zoomers are huffing their Steam Deck exhaust. Hmm.

From the descriptions I've read the smell is similar or identical.

Maybe they use the same magic ooze.

[delecti]

Not just Zoomers. I'm nearly 40 and also thought it smelled weirdly good. Though there's a difference between the original LCD and OLED models, with the latter's smell being much weaker and more like generic plastic off-gassing.

[theodric]

Confirmed: Gen1 LCD smelled about the same as the gen2 LCD units, but the OLED version doesn't smell as strong/good. I still huff it. I'm also over 40.

[hamdingers]

On an M4 Macbook Pro it's mild and faintly sweet but not really pleasant the way the LCD deck is. Requires a lot of heat for a long time to become noticeable. Vent is less convenient for sniffing.

[sowbug]

Some conformal coatings, which protect PCBs from dust and moisture, can emit ethyl acetate or butyl acetate if they weren't fully cured. The smell is sweet but absolutely revolting.

[866-RON-0-FEZ]

Wow this absolutely might be the answer!

Ethyl acetate is used to wash flux off PCBs.

It's also used as an artificial flavoring in British "pear drops" which is probably why some people say it smells like pineapple.

[866-RON-0-FEZ]

Thanks for confirming I'm not insane!

It is a sweet odor, but chemically irritating. It cannot be good to breathe.

I'm shocked no one has identified the source of the odor yet. Is it thermal paste? Flux/solder paste? Turtle jizz?

[znpy]

weird, we have around 150-160 macbook pros (anything m3/m4/m5) in the office and i never smelled that

[jujube3]

You're not supposed to use it as a urinal.

[culopatin]

A few*. I have 4 at home and none smell

[KPGv2]

I have an M1 Pro and have no idea what you're talking about.

[jacknews]

There's always something with apple, from the breaking keyboards, scratched screens, antenna-gate, cracking gpu solder, ...

The comparison itself seems moot, comparing a consumer-grade consumable device built out of a phone, to a more sustainable, modular, upgrade-able device.