This is anecdotal, but I work in an office that has 3 MBPs in it. They're all about the same; they're the upper echelon of what a laptop should be. Every single one has had the keyboard replaced....
This is anecdotal, but I work in an office that has 3 MBPs in it. They're all about the same; they're the upper echelon of what a laptop should be.
Every single one has had the keyboard replaced. Mine is on its third keyboard in 2 years.
Our office has had 2 people replace macbooks in the last 3 years and both of them have had keyboard issues. The latest one is brand new and had a keyboard replacement after 1 month usage. The huge...
Our office has had 2 people replace macbooks in the last 3 years and both of them have had keyboard issues. The latest one is brand new and had a keyboard replacement after 1 month usage. The huge apple fans at work are on the verge of getting a Dell XPS for running linux now.
I would not consider myself an apple fan, but as a developer I've come to rely on OSX and the high quality of mac builds over the years. Next upgrade time, I'm going to be seriously considering a...
I would not consider myself an apple fan, but as a developer I've come to rely on OSX and the high quality of mac builds over the years.
Next upgrade time, I'm going to be seriously considering a switch.
I (knock on wood) haven't encountered this problem on mine. But I do, occasionally notice that one of my keys feels off and I have a minor panic attack every time. "Is this it? Does the bell toll...
I (knock on wood) haven't encountered this problem on mine. But I do, occasionally notice that one of my keys feels off and I have a minor panic attack every time. "Is this it? Does the bell toll for thee?"
The prevalence of these issues is diminishing my experience of using the laptop even without me being directly affected. I'm the only one I know of with one of these keyboards who hasn't experienced the failure yet and I have some kind of weird survivor's guilt about it.
I feel you on this. My 'y' key has started acting up a bit. Every time I read what I type and it is missing a 'y' my first thought is "OH NO. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS."
I feel you on this. My 'y' key has started acting up a bit. Every time I read what I type and it is missing a 'y' my first thought is "OH NO. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS."
I've considered our office lucky since we all use MBPs and I've not yet heard of any hardware failure. If the problems are mostly just with the keyboard then I guess our luck is only because...
I've considered our office lucky since we all use MBPs and I've not yet heard of any hardware failure. If the problems are mostly just with the keyboard then I guess our luck is only because everyone uses an external keyboard/mouse/monitor.
The only issue I've had with mine has been keyboard related; every other thing is superlatively great. Unfortunately, the keyboard is the primary method one uses to interact with a computer, so...
The only issue I've had with mine has been keyboard related; every other thing is superlatively great.
Unfortunately, the keyboard is the primary method one uses to interact with a computer, so having a crappy keyboard is kind of like having a Bentley with an unfinished steering wheel that sporadically decides not to work. It turns a beautiful machine into something I (previously) cursed at significantly.
The problem is just the keyboard, and you're probably not all that lucky - if everyone were to try to actually use their MBP's keyboards for a couple days, I bet you'd find a couple failures! (My...
The problem is just the keyboard, and you're probably not all that lucky - if everyone were to try to actually use their MBP's keyboards for a couple days, I bet you'd find a couple failures!
(My story below happened even when I was mostly using external keyboards already.)
I myself am part of this statistic. My MBP's keyboard broke and it was a huge pain to figure out when I could bring it in to get it fixed (since they need it for a week). The fix was an ordeal...
I myself am part of this statistic. My MBP's keyboard broke and it was a huge pain to figure out when I could bring it in to get it fixed (since they need it for a week). The fix was an ordeal because they botched the job, screwing up my hard drive. Then after all that, the keyboard started wonking out one week after receiving it back. I just threw up my hands and decided I'd bring an external keyboard for the rare times I travel with it.
I can't believe the amount of goodwill and trust Apple is throwing away on this keyboard issue. Before the latest generation of MBPs I was pretty hardcore Macbook enthusiast because they were so high quality, but nowadays all options are on the table.
The best keyboard I can find on a laptop is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It is truly a pleasure to type on, nothing comes even close in my experience. I wish the case wasn’t plastic and that Lenovo...
but nowadays all options are on the table.
The best keyboard I can find on a laptop is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It is truly a pleasure to type on, nothing comes even close in my experience. I wish the case wasn’t plastic and that Lenovo didn’t make it, but oh well. I’m going to hackintosh one this weekend.
They introduced the superfish backdoor into their laptops in the past. In case you are not familiar, it would add a security certificate to windows that allowed Lenovo to perform mitm attacks on...
They introduced the superfish backdoor into their laptops in the past. In case you are not familiar, it would add a security certificate to windows that allowed Lenovo to perform mitm attacks on any website, even if it used https. If that wasn't bad enough, they included the private key in the distributed program. Hackers (ethical ones and otherwise) quickly got access to the key, so anyone could perform a mitm attack on any website. They have other issues, but that is the largest one I am familiar with.
Can confirm, I have a model that was affected. I spotted it instantly upon purchasing the laptop and nuked it (which in retrospect was a bad idea because almost none of the hardware works with the...
Can confirm, I have a model that was affected. I spotted it instantly upon purchasing the laptop and nuked it (which in retrospect was a bad idea because almost none of the hardware works with the default Windows drivers). The battery is garbage and the keyboard is slowly dying, but I got 4 solid years out of it and I got 50$ from a class-action suit and there's another going on right now for 40$ more, so eh. It's a gamble.
The only issue with Linux & a non-Apple hardware manufacturer is that there's significantly less security in the overall architecture of the whole package, from hardware → firmware → UEFI → OS. On...
The only issue with Linux & a non-Apple hardware manufacturer is that there's significantly less security in the overall architecture of the whole package, from hardware → firmware → UEFI → OS. On a macOS system, you have a chain of trust extending right back to the hardware—the T2 chip.
Firmware vulnerabilities are a total black box, which aren't entirely removed by using a MacBook, but are significantly mitigated.
Regarding Lenovo, my work gave a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 a few years ago, and it had the extremely pernicious and evil Superfish ”adware” on it. Hard to trust a company after that. To be totally honest,...
Regarding Lenovo, my work gave a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 a few years ago, and it had the extremely pernicious and evil Superfish ”adware” on it. Hard to trust a company after that.
To be totally honest, being from a previously communist country, I also just hate doing business with the CCP.
Regarding the T series, thanks! I did not know that. The one I have is a second laptop I inherited at work, and is sadly plastic... but super light.
Even if they didn't fail so often, the feel of them compared to my late-14 model has me waiting until it dies (and probably going PC, ugh) and recommending that everyone I know do the same.
Even if they didn't fail so often, the feel of them compared to my late-14 model has me waiting until it dies (and probably going PC, ugh) and recommending that everyone I know do the same.
I know it won't work for everyone, but the programs I use will work fine on an iPad Pro. When my 2013 mb gives up the ghost I'll just get a souped-up tablet and start poking the screen like a caveman.
I know it won't work for everyone, but the programs I use will work fine on an iPad Pro. When my 2013 mb gives up the ghost I'll just get a souped-up tablet and start poking the screen like a caveman.
This is anecdotal, but I work in an office that has 3 MBPs in it. They're all about the same; they're the upper echelon of what a laptop should be.
Every single one has had the keyboard replaced. Mine is on its third keyboard in 2 years.
This is an unmitigated disaster.
Our office has had 2 people replace macbooks in the last 3 years and both of them have had keyboard issues. The latest one is brand new and had a keyboard replacement after 1 month usage. The huge apple fans at work are on the verge of getting a Dell XPS for running linux now.
I would not consider myself an apple fan, but as a developer I've come to rely on OSX and the high quality of mac builds over the years.
Next upgrade time, I'm going to be seriously considering a switch.
As a former apple fan (~2011 though, way before this fiasco), I can definitely vouch for the XPS + Linux setup, it's fantastic
I have been using an XPS with fedora at work and its wonderful. One of the new hires saw it and decided to get one as well for linux.
I (knock on wood) haven't encountered this problem on mine. But I do, occasionally notice that one of my keys feels off and I have a minor panic attack every time. "Is this it? Does the bell toll for thee?"
The prevalence of these issues is diminishing my experience of using the laptop even without me being directly affected. I'm the only one I know of with one of these keyboards who hasn't experienced the failure yet and I have some kind of weird survivor's guilt about it.
I feel you on this. My 'y' key has started acting up a bit. Every time I read what I type and it is missing a 'y' my first thought is "OH NO. THIS IS HOW IT ENDS."
Do you yell...
"YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ME"
Alright, you win this round. That was really funny.
I've considered our office lucky since we all use MBPs and I've not yet heard of any hardware failure. If the problems are mostly just with the keyboard then I guess our luck is only because everyone uses an external keyboard/mouse/monitor.
The only issue I've had with mine has been keyboard related; every other thing is superlatively great.
Unfortunately, the keyboard is the primary method one uses to interact with a computer, so having a crappy keyboard is kind of like having a Bentley with an unfinished steering wheel that sporadically decides not to work. It turns a beautiful machine into something I (previously) cursed at significantly.
The problem is just the keyboard, and you're probably not all that lucky - if everyone were to try to actually use their MBP's keyboards for a couple days, I bet you'd find a couple failures!
(My story below happened even when I was mostly using external keyboards already.)
I myself am part of this statistic. My MBP's keyboard broke and it was a huge pain to figure out when I could bring it in to get it fixed (since they need it for a week). The fix was an ordeal because they botched the job, screwing up my hard drive. Then after all that, the keyboard started wonking out one week after receiving it back. I just threw up my hands and decided I'd bring an external keyboard for the rare times I travel with it.
I can't believe the amount of goodwill and trust Apple is throwing away on this keyboard issue. Before the latest generation of MBPs I was pretty hardcore Macbook enthusiast because they were so high quality, but nowadays all options are on the table.
The best keyboard I can find on a laptop is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It is truly a pleasure to type on, nothing comes even close in my experience. I wish the case wasn’t plastic and that Lenovo didn’t make it, but oh well. I’m going to hackintosh one this weekend.
They introduced the superfish backdoor into their laptops in the past. In case you are not familiar, it would add a security certificate to windows that allowed Lenovo to perform mitm attacks on any website, even if it used https. If that wasn't bad enough, they included the private key in the distributed program. Hackers (ethical ones and otherwise) quickly got access to the key, so anyone could perform a mitm attack on any website. They have other issues, but that is the largest one I am familiar with.
Can confirm, I have a model that was affected. I spotted it instantly upon purchasing the laptop and nuked it (which in retrospect was a bad idea because almost none of the hardware works with the default Windows drivers). The battery is garbage and the keyboard is slowly dying, but I got 4 solid years out of it and I got 50$ from a class-action suit and there's another going on right now for 40$ more, so eh. It's a gamble.
The only issue with Linux & a non-Apple hardware manufacturer is that there's significantly less security in the overall architecture of the whole package, from hardware → firmware → UEFI → OS. On a macOS system, you have a chain of trust extending right back to the hardware—the T2 chip.
Firmware vulnerabilities are a total black box, which aren't entirely removed by using a MacBook, but are significantly mitigated.
Regarding Lenovo, my work gave a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 a few years ago, and it had the extremely pernicious and evil Superfish ”adware” on it. Hard to trust a company after that.
To be totally honest, being from a previously communist country, I also just hate doing business with the CCP.
Regarding the T series, thanks! I did not know that. The one I have is a second laptop I inherited at work, and is sadly plastic... but super light.
I am fine with non-perfect results in my minor efforts here, and other areas of life like voting.
Not to mention in my exsprience some mac keyboards become unusabley hot during a session beacuse of how poor the vents are.
Even if they didn't fail so often, the feel of them compared to my late-14 model has me waiting until it dies (and probably going PC, ugh) and recommending that everyone I know do the same.
I know it won't work for everyone, but the programs I use will work fine on an iPad Pro. When my 2013 mb gives up the ghost I'll just get a souped-up tablet and start poking the screen like a caveman.
I'm in college. I've seen two people in my classes with macbooks with external keyboards. I guess Apple customers are loyal.
More like they can't afford to replace them, having spent thousands on the things.
I'm hoping that my work laptop does not develop this issue.