Unibody MacBook hinges disintegrating?

When I upgraded from my 2GHz white MacBook, one of the big things I wanted, given the problems I and others had with the plastics cracking, was a machine that was robust. I thought, with the glass trackpad and the one-piece aluminium body, that the 15-inch MacBook Pro was the perfect machine, and would be able to stand up to the hours of heavy use I put my primary computer through.

A few weeks ago, however, I noticed when I shut the lid that the two halves didn't quite line up properly, and on further investigation I saw that the problem was with the hinge; the entire top assembly seemed to be slowly separating.

Though it gets heavy use, it's never been dropped or roughly handled. I'd have thought nothing else of it – a duff unit, perhaps – but when I took it in for repair at my local APR, they said it was the third they'd seen. And then Tony Harris told us on Twitter that when he'd been at an Apple Store, the three people in front of him had been there about unibody hinges. (Though that may have been because many people are reporting that the hinges are too floppy.)

A quick search, however, suggests that it's not an isolated problem. There are reports all over the web of the same thing, so it looks, worryingly, like it might be a design flaw. If you own a unibody MacBook or MacBook Pro, keep an eye on the hinge!

The good news is that while we haven't heard anything official from Apple, the fact that more reports are coming in mean that, for me at least (as a regular punter; no special perks for MacFormat staff!) my laptop was accepted in for repair under warranty with no questions. (Yet another reason to invest in the expensive-but-totally-worth-it AppleCare – remember that you can buy it any time in the first year of owning your Mac – when you see some people having been quoted over a thousand dollars for the repair.)

Have you seen the problem? Does it concern you? Let us know in the comments.