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Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

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Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#41

Post by rdsubhas »

Good initiative to push Apple. There are around 7k signatures now as its trending here. Let's assume it gets up to 10-20k over the trending period.

Some X% of the people petitioning there would be actual users of the model in scope (Macbook Pro 2017 and beyond). And Y% of those people may actually have this issue.

Problem is, nobody would ever know X and Y, and its really bad to speculate. It makes the whole petition basically a guessing game.

Realistically speaking, the only outcome would be to force Apple to take note, or at best issue a statement. Either way, the keyboard is not going away. It would be announced that it would get "better over time" - which it would have anyways. Its hard to do worse than this going by the feedback.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#43

Post by jacknews »

I agree this keyboard is the worst. I also have aching fingers from using it, compared to my previous 2013 pro 15", and beloved thinkpads.

I currently have a broken 'S' key (a couple of the very fragile teeny tiny clips have broken off the keycap) after just a few months - Admittedly, becaue a liquid spill rendered the 'S' intermittently unresponsive, so I removed the keycap to clean with alcohol, which did at least fix the contacts, so the key works, but broke the keycap. Hopefully I can get a replacement keycap to keep me going until probably the liquid spill (a splash of beer, countered immediately with turning the laptop off and upside down in front of a fan overnight etc) starts corroding.

But regardless, the most egregious fault is that the keyboard can't be replaced without also replacing half the laptop, at excessive cost, not to mention the affront of having to pay again for the same crappy keyboard.

This is unacceptable, as the keyboard is one of the few moving parts on the device, and the one most exposed to external dangers.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#44

Post by benguild »

always_good wrote: post #24

My 2017 Macbook Pro is five months old and the A, D, R, and T keys will lift right off with my fingers as I type. I looked at them with a magnifying glass. The C-clamps that hold them in aren't broken. They just are stretched an extra micronanometer such that they don't hold the spoke anymore. It alone wastes a bunch of my time every minute as I have to fix the keys as I type a line of code, but the anger it provokes…

I had my E key lift off and just went to the store. They put a new one on.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#45

Post by stouset »

dmitrygr wrote: post #17
gnicholas wrote: post #15

I tried out the MBP keyboard before buying and thought it would be ok. Unfortunately, the experience of using it for a few minutes in a store is very different from using it several hours a day. My fingers literally hurt most days. I cannot believe that "upgrading" to a new computer could be such a big step backward on this important metric.

I was never a keyboard snob. I never owned a mechanical keyboard, and I never "just had to tell" someone about my new cherry mx pro aqua-purple super keys. All keyboards seemed passable to me, with no further opinion. The new macbook (which i was issued at work) is the first time, actually, that I had an opinion on a keyboard. and it was a distinctively bad one. It was an interesting realization that one could hate a…

To give a counterpoint, I absolutely love the new keyboard and think it's objectively one of the best I've ever typed on (sans the arrow keys, which are a horrible step backward).

That said, I already replaced a machine with this keyboard due to failing keys and now have a silicone cover over the keyboard of the new one, which inarguably degrades that experience. I'd rather have an okay keyboard that works than a fantastic one that doesn't.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#46

Post by sfifs »

eecc wrote: post #6

I’m holding off an MBP update for as long as possible until Apple: 1. Gets rid of the touchbar, 2. Fixes that daft keyboard, 3. Slaps Intel and makes them ship 32GB lpddr4, and an 8 core iWhateger.

Or just go out and buy a ThinkPad and slap Bionic onto it.

A recent ThinkPad running Bionic has objectively been the best computing experience I have ever had.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#47

Post by berberous »

willtim wrote: post #29
lisper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a collection of 2014 MBPs because I have a real concern that no one is ever going to make a computer that good (or even a decent computer) ever again.

My ThinkPad X1 is as good as any generation of MacBook, it is certainly more serviceable and has a better keyboard. You might prefer MacOS to Linux or Windows, but I can assure you that there are very decent hardware alternatives.

I have one, and a 2012 Mac. The thinkpad is OK, but I much prefer the Mac. The trackpad alone makes using the thinkpad miserable.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#48

Post by willtim »

berberous wrote: post #47
willtim wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ThinkPad X1 is as good as any generation of MacBook, it is certainly more serviceable and has a better keyboard. You might prefer MacOS to Linux or Windows, but I can assure you that there are very decent hardware alternatives.

I have one, and a 2012 Mac. The thinkpad is OK, but I much prefer the Mac. The trackpad alone makes using the thinkpad miserable.

I use the keyboard a lot more than moving the pointer. I use a tiling window manager under Linux and lots of keyboard shortcuts, which helps. For moving the pointer, I prefer the ThinkPad trackpoint, as I do not have to take my hands off the keyboard.

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#49

Post by lisper »

r00fus wrote: post #39
willtim wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife has a Mac, but when it dies, I'm going to persuade her to try Ubuntu. She only uses the Mac for Facebook and occasional Word/Excel. I think LibreOffice and Firefox should have her covered.

Why not Chromebook?

Because I don't want to hand over that much control over my life to a large corporation. (I run my own email server.)

Re: Petition: Apple recall and replace defective Macbook Pro keyboard design

#50

Post by heavymark »

always_good wrote: post #24

My 2017 Macbook Pro is five months old and the A, D, R, and T keys will lift right off with my fingers as I type. I looked at them with a magnifying glass. The C-clamps that hold them in aren't broken. They just are stretched an extra micronanometer such that they don't hold the spoke anymore. It alone wastes a bunch of my time every minute as I have to fix the keys as I type a line of code, but the anger it provokes…

I’ve had mine since it was released and haven’t had any issues, but what happened when you brought it into the Apple Store? Would assume they would be able too fix that right away versus other repair issues that can be quite involved.
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