Build quality: Macbook Pro vs non-Pro

my macbook has good build quality, feels really firm and solid....

My MacBook is a tank. It has been dropped, thrown, tossed, knocked, slammed and generally abused for the past 13 months and runs just as well as the day I bought it (ok, the battery life has gone down). It is built very solidly IMO, the keys feel great when i type on them (I type hard) and I dont feel like the laptop is flexing when i do.

My buddy has a MacBook Pro, and as far as holding up, it does quite well. Bear in mind that the aluminum is more likely to dent than the plastic shell, but looks a lot better IMO. He has had a run of bad luck with his system though... first the screen backlight died (we think its the inverter) then he found out that 1 of the RAM slots is dead, so unless he gets a 2GB stick, he is stuck at 1GB. Then, when the 10.4.10 (or was it .9) update came out, it pushed out a SuperDrive firmware update... well on a few people's machines (like his) it pretty much completely screwed the optical drive. Unfortunately that happened after AppleCare expired... everything else was under warranty but he didn't send it in (I don't know why)

I realize this does sound like me bashing on the MBP.... but I neglected to mention that he is pure death upon his electronics, and it has survived him thus far (no total system failure)

Aluminum vs Plastic..

It is a question of Dent, vs Shatter.

Seriously.

Although if you do want to see a picture of a MB run over by a semi, ArsTechnica ran a story as one of their writers got hit by one and managed to get out of the way before it crushed his bike and backpack with his MacBook in it. It doesn't work, but overall it held up decently well.

Seablade

lol, well i dont know about impact resistance, but my macbook got hit with a supersoaker dead on and lived... ahhh college life

I've heard almost nothing about build quality issues w/ the MBPs.

I bought a black MB (C2D 2Ghz) this last April....it went back a week later b/c the display bezel started to separate. The replacement machine started to squeak/creak/crack when opening/closing the lid. Two visits to the Apple Store later, it still creaked until I demanded a replacement.

The top-case on the third MB (2.16Ghz) started to separate from the machine (pictures here). I was told this was normal, except they could not explain why it did not exist on a single one of their floor models. That said, I'm not all that impressed w/ the build quality of Apple's latest offerings and this machine is going back.

On the other hand, my fiance bought a refurbished white MB from Apple directly and it's been perfect in every way.

My MacBook has had 1 build quality issue, and that was the staining palmrests, but that gets cleared up fairly quickly with Mr Clean Magic Erasers.