Apple has certainly had its share of quality issues on its high-end OS-X-sporting notebooks and PCs. From hard drive (SATA) issues to display issues, Apple has been unable to remedy many of these issues despite repeated firmware updates and in some cases has left those affected to deal with the mess on their own. To add a bit of irony to such problems, Apple is infamous for its slogan “it just works”, which it has used to poke fun at its “buggy” PC competitors.

　　Now those ordering the company’s new iMacs are experiencing a wealth of new problems. Customers ordering the Intel Core i7 Nehalem-powered machines are finding their Macintosh dream machines coming with a unsightly cracked screens [Source: Apple Support Forums]. Others are finding that their new unit simply won’t boot. Among those with the latter problem are editors at Engadget, who received a non-booting unit for their review.

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　　The bottom-left corner is almost unanimously the site of the screen cracking, so Apple may have a quality control issue with its shipping packaging, some have speculated. On Apple’s support forums, a user “scopro” describes, “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. Hopefully Apple will improve their packaging for these larger iMacs as it may take until Dec. 7 for my replacement to arrive.”

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　　As the comment implied, Apple is shipping replacement units and hopefully most of these will arrive by Christmas — considering that many are likely gifts. Unfortunately for those looking to get an i7 iMac, they have to take their chances and order online, as the 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 860 processor is offered as a $200 built-to-order option (total price is $2199) on the new 27″ iMac, and thus is not available at Apple stores. A 2.66 GHz Core i5 750 27″ iMac is also available online for $1999.

　　The new iMacs — if they’re not non-booting or otherwise marred — pack some nice improvements. The most significant improvement is obviously the new Intel Core i7 processor, which sports 8 MB of L3 cache and an improved design. The new iMac also ships with a wireless keyboard and the new Magic Mouse. It can support up to 16 GB of memory. The new machines come with a large and attractive (if not cracked) 16:9 screen with a 2560×1440 pixel resolution. They also ship with Apple’s new operating system, Snow Leopard, and are ready for Windows 7 (via Bootcamp) to help Mac owners get their gaming fix (for the small crowd of Mac owners that are also PC gamers).