The keyboards on this new range of Apple laptops are a single unit with the logic board, very costly (to replace). They're extremely fragile and essentially booby trapped so that if you try to replace keys yourself, you may end up breaking the keyboard and thus the logic board as particular keys such as the spacebar are replaced differently. From a usability standpoint, the keys are so shallow that the tips of your fingers hurt after extended usage as if you've been pressing them into cement.
My wife has been complaining about the keyboard on her new Macbook Pro, within months of getting it. It seems the keys are sticking, but we're not sure if its a defect or if crumbs got underneath. It has never happened on our previous-model MacBooks Pros/Airs. Either way, this design is unfortunate for the consumer.
It's a defect or multiple defects. I have 2016 MB and a mid-2017 touch bar MBP. So many keys have became unresponsive that I backspace most of the letters I type; A torture that you can't let your frustration out on by typing heavily, lest your fingers bear the brunt (Newton's third law + shallow keys). My shiny new MBP began having these issues after about 2 months.
2nd gripe:
I made the most unfortunate mistake of attempting to install Windows 10 through bootcamp. short story: windows f-d up during reboot, leaving me with a non-booting mac parition that I don't want to erase.
I thought I could repair it with Ubuntu, but...
Most aggrivatingly, there are no linux drivers for the keyboard on the MBP (due to the touch bar being a single unit with the keyboard) and you need more than one USB-C to USB converter if you want to both plug in a linux boot disk and a keyboard that actually works.
Far worse is the fact that there is no linux driver for the entire logic board (as it's a single unit with the keyboard and touch bar). No logic board means no access to the hard drive at all. So I can't fix the partition with a linux boot disk even if I do have multiple USB converters. Now both laptops are either used as bookends or to hold my coffee. So yeah, thanks Apple.
The keyboard is shameful. I'm traveling so I can't replace it, but inside of five months, two of my keys (A and T) will lift up with my finger as I type, right off the keyboard.
No physical damage either. The C-clamp holding them in just loosened a nanometer and it doesn't work anymore.
If I could go back five months, I'd replace my MBP with an old Air. I would've thought I had a particularly defective unit had my friend not had the same problem. His 2017 MBP collects dust while he went back to his 2015 MBP.
Jesus, me too. Same keys. Are we able to replace them at all? I keep reading mixed opinions and I'm not sure where the facts are. I found some replacement tutorials but it required buying an entire keyboard's worth of keys, haha. Maybe at this rate I'll need them...
Easily the worst keyboard I've had on a laptop. It's pretty awful for a $3000+ CAD investment.
> The keyboards on this new range of Apple laptops are a single unit with the logic board, very costly (to replace).
Does someone at Apple get their ass kicked up and down the hallway for this idiocy? Presumably a lot of the keyboards fail in-warranty so Apple are eating the costs.
> From a usability standpoint, the keys are so shallow that the tips of your fingers hurt after extended usage as if you've been pressing them into cement.
Only if you habit of striking the keys too hard, which I used to do as well. The only real solution at the moment for the end user is to either not buy the laptop, or adapt to a less vigorous typing style. Before my purchase of the 2016 13" nTB, I went to the store several times to ensure I could maintain the same speed as I do with Cherry MX Brown and Topre switches.
That said, I'm interested to see what the ThinkPad keyboards are like, because I don't much like any other laptop keyboard (including XPS or other older Apple keyboards).
I encourage you to learn to type more smoothly and "feel" for what force is actually required to trigger the clicks. It's worthwhile reaching a point where you don't have to fight it, and it's possible to still hit 100 to 110 wpm on the Butterfly 2 mechanism if that is your Cherry MX Brown speed.
My understanding (from a recent interaction between my MacBook, a glass of water, and the Genius Bar) is that the top case contains the battery and keyboard, and the logic board is a seperate, replaceable component.
I entered my computer's serial number, but it's unclear if it is affected or not:
> The serial number you entered is not eligible under this program because either:
> • It's not in the affected serial number range.
> • Our records show that your battery has already been replaced.
> • Our records show it's no longer eligible for a free replacement under this program.
> If you have questions, please contact Apple.
If even they don't know which one of these three options apply to the serial number that I have, what hope is there to guarantee that my computer will not explode in front of my face while I am working? I bought mine during the time frame mentioned in this page, custom built (upgraded RAM and disk capacity), and never had taken it to an Apple store for repair (which means, option #2 doesn't applies). I wish there was a better way to double check if option #1 or option #3 apply to my device, other than scheduling an appointment with their "Genius Bar" which usually takes several days.
And after the whole exploding Samsung Galaxy Note thing, and Apple’s extremely high status, I doubt they’re taking chances here when making such a claim.
They just announced this program, so it’s unclear how #3 would apply to you. That leaves #1 as the only sensible remaining option.
If that’s not enough, you could try Apple support. They have many options short of Genius bar. Email, chat, phone, and the Support app. Maybe one of those will help.
I can't guarantee that your phone won't do the same thing tomorrow, however I did try that form despite having my battery (or rather, the whole top case) recently replaced - not for an expanding battery (as far as I could tell), but faulty battery life nonetheless. I got the same message that you got.
Maybe think of it in terms of aeroplane engines - do you go for the latest and greatest, or the tried and tested? How can you be sure that a replacement battery won't be worse after x weeks?
OP isn't asking for a guarantee. S/he is asking to know whether s/he has a device that is known to be at higher risk, or if s/he has an unaffected device.
You are responding to a straw man of "I want a guarantee that my device will never fail"
I was responding to "...what hope is there to guarantee that my computer will not explode in front of my face while I am working?". I'm struggling to see how it's a straw man argument but very well, I'll accept it. Contacting Apple is probably the only option now - we can't help.
I bought a custom built machine and my serial # was denied as well.
Got in touch with support and they claimed that the manufacture date was outside the applicable range (doesn't make any sense since it's custom built). Will have to escalate to someone higher up since it seems that the lower level staff aren't even aware of this program yet.
The only thing that keeps me with OSX instead of Linux on laptop is awesome touchpad in MacBook. Wandering if there are any ThinksPads/System76's with comparable touchpad quality ?
I love Thinkpads but, no, I've never seen one with a comparable touchpad to a Macbook. The closest PC device is Microsoft's Surface Laptop, but the Macbook still takes the crown, it is just a much tighter contest.
I have a Surface Pro for work and have no qualms saying the touchpad on my 2015 MBP is vastly superior. They're not even in the same league. To be honest, the touchpad on my 2011 MBP, whilst lacking the more modern refinements, such as force touch, still offers a better, more usable, experience than the touchpad on the Surface Pro.
The Surface Pro is also beset with a host of other glitches that simply should not be present on a laptop costing north of £2k so I would strongly recommend you look to spend your money elsewhere. (Sadly, I'm not too sure where - I find the PC laptop market somewhat hard to navigate, but I'm going to have to learn when it comes time to replace my 2015 MBP, unless Apple make some major improvements in the next release or two.)
Sure, and I have a mouse both in my office, and at home, but don't tend to carry it when I'm travelling because space really is at a premium in my bag. The MBP is the only laptop I've ever used that has a trackpad that is tolerable as a replacement for a mouse. Still not as good as a mouse, but better (often way better) than the rest.
My issue with the Surface Pro specifically is that it's competing in the, well, I won't say high end (because that implies something about hardware specs that may not be true), but certainly the expensive [1] laptop market, yet is plagued with annoyances, some of which are quite severe: bad touchpad, sketchy WiFi, indifferent (at best) battery life, and rapid battery drainage during sleep, to name but a few.
[1] I won't say premium either because, given the issues, it's premium only in the sense that you pay one.
A lot of Apple's multitouch technology originated from their acquisition of FingerWorks. That company was founded in 1998 and bought in 2005. Apple started shipping multitouch smartphones in 2007 and multitouch trackpads in 2008. Some of the early patents should be close to expiration, but it may still be years before anyone else can duplicate the '08 MacBook Pro touchpad, and Apple has made two major revisions to their touchpads since then.
What kinds of things are they doing that seem to be so important? The sensor side seems to be pretty well solved by Synaptics and co. (doesn't Apple use Alps trackpads?).
RANT: The others just don't care? Lenovo, HP and Dell are catering the corporate market and build most of their models with the corporate bean counter in mind. You don't see stunning displays or fabulous track pads because those are hard to measure in numbers. If two laptops have the same measurable features, then the one with cheaper price tag is likely to win.
Same goes for the LCD, Lenovo was infamous for putting the shittiest panel for so long because it doesn't really matter for business use cases. They offer more quality panels nowadays, but everytime I open my old thinkpads my have need 5 seconds to readjust to such sad levels of contrast and luminosity.
These days I'd be looking into DIY mods, so many people are into hacking I'm sure it's possible to swap these.
Yeah they're probably "good enough" for most and the market hasn't demanded it (especially since only a minority do design). It's probably similar to how so many people are still not into multitasking and are happy enough to focus on one tab at a time, etc.
Consider another angle to this: look at all the cheap poor-quality keyboards that get bundled with business desktop computers these days. Comparatively speaking, nobody cares.
Outside of technology, my main hobby is cycling. The number of times where I've seen "experienced" cyclists or would-be experienced riders not care about having the right specific gear for the task (n.b., not necessarily expensive), or not using it in the most ideal way is remarkable.
I've switched from a Dell XPS to a macbook and I'm totally unimpressed with the touchpad. It's a tad better, but very marginally, definitely not worth the downgrade in specs that I got for the same price
What functions in particular about the trackpad do you like most - the multitouch gestures or just the tracking/acceleration? Because Linux (i3wm) to me is almost synonymous with getting better usage out of the keyboard so that the trackpad isn't so important. There are so many aspects of macOS that discourage keyboard use.
It just works flawlessly. It's like the difference between driving a <generic cheap car> and a Tesla Model S. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes the experience so much better because they essentially do the same thing but they are at the same time incomparable.
I agree with tkubacki, touchpads on macbooks are a primary reason for wanting a mac.
For me the most important is the basic function of putting the cursor where I want it. It's hard to explain, but on other laptops I always struggle with it either being to slow or to fast, general responsiveness or just the miniature size. Apple touchpads for me are a "it just works™". I barely use multigesture, but they work as expected as well. Also for me the force touchpads are blissful, you can just 'click' by pressing anywhere and you get haptic feedback indistinguishable from a hardware click (I loathe tap-click touchpads btw, they always click when I don't want to).
In my experience if you want to compare touchpads, do it with Linux installed. The Windows drivers for all touchpads I tried were horrible and on the two laptops where I installed Linux, the touchpad responded much nicer and quicker than with Windows.
I think you are looking at the wrong thing. That's like looking for Symbian qualities in an iPhone. I mean, what you need is a productive pointing device not specifically a touchpad and for that the TrackPoint in ThinkPads still wins.
This unfortunately almost purely a software issue and with Apple having a tight grip of their developers they can easily make them support their trackpads well.
On Linux, with modern GTK apps, scrolling up and down has become pretty nice. Scrolling in other directions is still not certain and zooming is out of the question, though.
I get a hit on serial number but no symptoms. So I think I should replace but:
"Your 13-inch MacBook Pro will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program and in working order. Service may take 3-5 days."
So I might go through that and still not get a new battery? Feh!
Yes. Apple is one of companies violating Magnuson–Moss Warranty act, and they dont give a F. Why should they? FCC send them a strongly worded letter recently :) no penalties no problem.
Yes, they require working computer to be eligible for their "programs" (euphemism for recall). Imagine some peoples surprise when they couldnt get <=2011 laptops(bad GPU) serviced because hey already couldnt boot = Apple diagnostic thingamajig not reading codes = not eligible.
It will be examined before service by a genius. They do some additional tests in the store.
When they take it in, pretty sure that you get a new battery.
I had several devices changed already in similar programs and it always worked like that. You can also ask to have it serviced immediately, I had some luck with that and had only to wait for 30 mins.
My 15 inch has the same problem and the touchpad is unusable. Has anyone else experienced this? For all the benefits people tout about the macbook touchpad, this really is a damper.
Holy hell, that explains my situation perfectly. My trackpad becomes unresponsive after a few hours use, but works perfectly fine in the morning. The battery must be expanding and interfering with the trackpad/haptic engine...
Had the same issue on my last one. The touchpad worked fine, but I couldn't click, so had to use touch to click. Then one morning I found the mac with the lid popped up 2 cm. Turned out the battery had expanded and popped out the touchpad.
I have this exact problem, but mine is on a late 2014 mbpr. It's a shame... it's still a fantastic machine, and until there's a new MBP worth buying, I guess I'll spend the $$ to fix it.
So, since the SSD is soldered to the mobo, I'd need to encrypt my entire drive, travel to an Apple store, be without a laptop for 3-5 days, and then travel back to the store again? Bleh.
Late Nov, I brought my MacBook to the genius bar to repair, that was a display problem but they replaced a new top/bottom case and battery for me. It seems like it's related now.
I had my dell's battery bursting through the touchpad like something out of Alien and they told me since it was out of warranty I was shit out of luck. At least I could get a replacement off amazon and fix it myself. Doesn't stop the laptop crashing every time it flexes slightly though.