| I usually buy a "new" (refurbished via Apple) Macbook Pro every 1-3 years, typically just before the end of the year. I've held off the last few years just because my current MBP has been good enough, the spec bumps haven't been large enough, and because I was unsure about the new keyboard & the lack of a hardware ESC -- and the dubious value of the touchbar, though I did find it intriguing to potentially write some code for it. I caved and bought one in late November, and just returned in a few weeks ago -- I'm now typing this from my "new (refurbished) 2015 Macbook Pro (non-touchbar) that was delivered today. I'm much, much happier. Perhaps a fluke, but it's the first MBP I've returned out of ~10 that I've purchased the last 10 years or so. Aside from the ESC key, the keyboard itself was awful -- the [lack of] key travel was irksome though surmountable by itself. The arrow keys were almost painful to deal with, but those too may have been OK in a vacuum. But when a KeyDown on the 'G' key was a dice roll -- 40% expected result, one 'G'; 40% two 'G' KeyDowns; and 10% of the time, no KeyDown at all. I can't recall the last time I had a computer issue that was anywhere near as rage-inspiring -- and that, coupled with the already poor keyboard experience & the already-dubious value adds, was enough for me to return it. I will perhaps miss the fingerprint reader fluff, but frankly I'm thrilled to be back on a proven laptop platform again, and it's also great that my existing >10 chargers work for my laptop again, too. I really, really hope that they have come to their senses & released an improved MBP in the future -- hell, keep the same form factor and just add RAM+CPU+GPU, or just let me upgrade RAM+SSD again. I'll seriously consider a Windows laptop the next time around if there isn't a semi-decent MBP option at that point -- it's a bummer, too -- but may not be much choice. |