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MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

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Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#441

Post by kayoone »

codemusings wrote: post #335

Recently my b key started to exhibit the same symptoms on my 2016 model. I avoided having to use the keyboard at all costs because it's a serious impedance to my productivity and it still happened to me. What's most infuriating is the realization that I bought a $3000 laptop with a keyboard that will break sooner or later and there's nothing you can do about it except sell it at a substantial loss. Even if I go throu…

You should still get it fixed because the newer ones are at least a bit improved. I have a 2016 which has been heavily used for 2 years and a 2017 from work and both keyboards still work fine. So it's not that every keyboard breaks, but I have seen cases in my company as well, but we have hundreds of them here.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#442

Post by mcv »

rubber_duck wrote: post #380
puranjay wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm off the Apple train. I honestly don't trust them to make reliable hardware anymore. They've had three years to fix this mess but they have shown zero initiative or intention to do it. Apple has consistently shown that it cares more about form over function. No one needs their laptops to be any thinner than they already are. And no one needs the useless, expensive touchbar.

I think the problem is deeper - their largest customer base probably cares about those things - have you seen how many people now days use MB for office work ? It became a status symbol, keyboard issues aside - they will be perfectly happy if their machine thermal throttles at 50% load because they never even hit 50% load. And it being thicker a few mm. to get proper thermals is a big deal to that audience (my impres…

I've been looking at Yoga devices, but holding one in tablet form, my fingers were groping in the keyboard on the back: not exactly comfortable. How is that experience for you?

I'm strongly leaning towards a Thinkpad as replacement for my old Macbook, also because of their excellent keyboards. The only downside is that they don't have a 17" laptop without a separate GPU.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#443

Post by mcv »

coldtea wrote: post #374
puranjay wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm off the Apple train. I honestly don't trust them to make reliable hardware anymore. They've had three years to fix this mess but they have shown zero initiative or intention to do it. Apple has consistently shown that it cares more about form over function. No one needs their laptops to be any thinner than they already are. And no one needs the useless, expensive touchbar.

> Apple has consistently shown that it cares more about form over function. No one needs their laptops to be any thinner than they already are Well, this depends. Here's how a user put it: "I have to admit being a bit baffled by how nobody else seems to have done what Apple did with the Macbook Air - even several years after the first release, the other notebook vendors continue to push those ugly and clunky things.…

There are different use cases for different laptops. I can certainly see the advantage of a laptop that's as light as possible, but that's never going to be a 15" laptop. On the other hand, some people want lots of power or a massive screen, and then making it as thin as possible just makes no sense.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#444

Post by mcv »

blackhaz wrote: post #412
systemtest wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a 13 inch or smaller laptop it is understandable to strike a balance between size, battery and specifications. A 15 inch laptop is never going to be portable or easy to carry. We don't care about thickness. Just make it a bit thicker to add a full-travel keyboard.

Thin laptops do suck. Give us ports and keyboards! Is there a single instance of high-quality laptop on the market with a generous key travel these days? Thinkpads don't quite reach the feel of MBP 2015 keyboard for me. (Typing this on a 101-key NMB I restored which, I think, is close to typing nirvana.)

> "Thinkpads don't quite reach the feel of MBP 2015 keyboard for me."

They don't? I was under the impression that Thinkpads generally had the best keyboards. They get praised for it all the time. Are current Thinkpad keyboards actually worse than 2015 Macbook ones?

Are keyboards a piece of technology that's getting worse instead of better as time goes on?

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#445

Post by mtsr »

systemtest wrote: post #396
jdnenej wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can replace the battery on older macbooks fairly easily. Unfortunately now they glue them down so hard it's easier to just throw out the laptop.

It's $199 for a battery replacement. Not cheap but given that you pay for a 95wh battery, a new keyboard, a new trackpad, a new topcase and warranty that's a pretty good deal. Your MacBook Pro will be as good as new.

The price for the replacement is also higher if your battery isn’t actually in need of replacement. Basically apple subsidizes (compared to their higher pricing anyway) the other parts when replacing the laptop body to get the battery replaced.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#446

Post by Havoc »

Apple seems to be in a bit of a lull lately. None of their phones have really impressed. Stuff like this. And then airpod 2 being airpod 1 with a promise of contains more magic inside that you can't see. And the 1000 dollar stand?

Their recent focus on additional privacy is welcome but not much use if the gear is underwhelming and overpriced.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#447

Post by addicted »

tolmasky wrote: post #37

The worst part is that I can tell this keyboard is actually having a detrimental effect on my typing abilities. Since being on these keyboards for years now, I've noticed that my typing speed has slowed, as I spend a significant amount of cognitive energy preparing to fix mistakes. The faster you type, the more annoying it is to go farther back to fix something. I'm not sure how to quantify the focus it steals from t…

I contrast this with the experience my dad has while traveling in NYC with his pro laptop in about 2011. The Apple Store needed 3 days to repair, and he was leaving the city before then. They simply recommended a 3rd party repairer who could do it within the day, which is what happened, and consequently giving my dad what he needed, boosting the Apple eco system, and providing better feelings towards Apple.

In the past 5 or so years, however, Apple has consistently been killing their 3rd party repair eco system, as well documented by Louis Rossmann. The idea that they may recommend a 3rd party repair source seems unimaginable, but further, most 3rd party repair basically involves sending the package to Apple repair anyways, as they’re not allowed to make changes on their own for anything but a small subset of issues.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#449

Post by tomcam »

Preach. After 30+ years of using Macs I switched to Windows after being swindled out of about $10,000 in MacBooks putatively covered by AppleCare at $300 per device yet mysteriously somehow not eligible for coverage. Apple, you labored long and hard over 2 generations of laptop stinkage to drive me away, but you finally succeeded. Congratulations.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#450

Post by S_A_P »

I love everything about my hexacore 32gb MacBook Pro... except the keyboard. In fact I rarely use my MacBook now because the keyboard is so infuriatingly bad. I have a 2014 model that I let my kids use and it’s vastly better to type on.
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