Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

theoutline.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 156 posts

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#61

Post by shabble »

jaytaylor wrote: post #38
tomduncalf wrote: post #7

Posting this from my six month old Macbook Pro 15" on which the spacebar has just started doing double spaces. Going to try and clean it with compressed air, but even if that works, it's unacceptable in my opinion that such a key piece of hardware on such an expensive machine should be so fragile. The fact that at some point I'll have to take it back to Apple and probably be without it for several days due to the com…

It's unlikely to take days. A few months ago they replaced a broken key cap for me in about 20 minutes.

If it's just a keycap (and maybe even the butterfly mechanism) that shouldn't be too bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuVvb9DTaU (from about 5:20) talks a bit about what's involved in an actual keyboard replacement, if you ignore some of the histrionics.

I think from what I've heard that for actual replacements, Apple will swap out the whole 'top case' subassembly, which could be a 4-500$ part if it's not covered under warranty.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#63

Post by doc_holliday »

vinceguidry wrote: post #49
doc_holliday wrote: post #45

Damn, my Macbook Air 2013 logic board just gave out, and was considering the upgrade to Macbook Pro 2017 as logic board is running at £450 replacement cost. After reading other's thoughts here, I think I have to avoid Macbook Pro for now, I hope they change this in the next release. Annoying as I need a machine with Xcode.

I was considering getting a Mac Mini for Xcode and developing remotely on it using my Linux desktop. I figure I can just edit the code on the desktop and push it to the Mac when I need to build. If I get a good workflow going I'll share it.

Yeah, I was thinking of similar, would be good to see how it works out for you. There's obviously the command line tools for building, but I would miss the integration of Xcode as an IDE for iOS storyboards etc.

Otherwise I've been looking at using remote servers from macincloud.com / xcodeclub.com, but haven't tried that yet.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#64

Post by cjarrett »

shabble wrote: post #61
jaytaylor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unlikely to take days. A few months ago they replaced a broken key cap for me in about 20 minutes.

If it's just a keycap (and maybe even the butterfly mechanism) that shouldn't be too bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuVvb9DTaU (from about 5:20) talks a bit about what's involved in an actual keyboard replacement, if you ignore some of the histrionics. I think from what I've heard that for actual replacements, Apple will swap out the whole 'top case' subassembly, which could be a 4-500$ part if it's not covere…

That is what happened to me. The entire top case had to be replaced. Luckily under warranty, however.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#65

Post by shabble »

heavymark wrote: post #50

Keyboard working here without issue. Noticed a couple issues earlier on, but discovered was from a couple crumbs. If there were a major issue affecting nearly everyone there would have been a recall or constantly news cycle about it. So I don't think the answer is for others to not buy a MBP because 'you' and some others are experiencing issues. Instead, I'd recommend you and others affected bring it into get fixed.…

Did you clean them out yourself? There's very little room to use any sort of tool to clean under the keys without removing the caps, and from what I understand pulling the caps is a fairly risky procedure no matter how delicate.

You can get some way with canned air and something like a sheet of heavy paper to slip under the cap, but it's by no means infallible.

My intended solution is to take it periodically to the Apple store and request htey clean it out, since they have replacement caps and presumably the service manual on how to remove them properly. If enough people waste enough of their time and money, it might encourage them towards less hostile designs in future.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#67

Post by post_break »

virtuexru wrote: post #5

The last great Macbook Pro was: > MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) The new models are subpar in build quality imho and the touch bar is completely useless tech.

Apple knows this, because they still sell it. https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#68

Post by post_break »

Ocerge wrote: post #14
virtuexru wrote: post #5

The last great Macbook Pro was: > MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) The new models are subpar in build quality imho and the touch bar is completely useless tech.

Yep, those are the holy grail machines at my shop. Everybody that has one is skipping their turn when they are due for an upgrade. Unfortunately I got hired too late and have a 2017 15-inch.

Why? They still sell that model: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/
Post reply on HN