I was gonna reply to defend the Macbook Pro, but then I realized the author is right, I did have to replace my Macbook Pro keyboard too because the spacebar key was stuck.
But whatever, I am not gonna leave my macbook behind just because of that. By comparison, my Macbook is still better than my work Dell Latitude (which costs the same) that sounds like a jet engine because the fan keeps coming on, battery lasts for less than 5 hours, wireless keeps dropping, and I occasionally gets the BSOD...
I was the guy who read these things and thought, "these must be outliers."
And yet, here I am, three keyboards later, with no end in sight given that I couldn't possibly baby mine more than I do without locking it up in an argon-filled clean room.
History won't look at this era of Apple laptops favorably. It really makes one wonder how they missed this one.
It's also an indictment of this era of both hardware and software that nobody else produces a more compelling option.
> It's also an indictment of this era of both hardware and software that nobody else produces a more compelling option.
They were way ahead of other laptop makers in basically every way but upgradeability, so they could afford to screw up like 1/2 of all the things about their laptop (all at once, which is pretty crazy), badly, and still be way ahead on the other 1/2, such that switching isn't an unequivocal win.
I often think that Apple fans have Stockholm syndrome. They're constantly repairing their Apple products while simultaneously claiming that Apple stuff is the best-built stuff in its class.
Meanwhile, I still have a Dell Latitude 10+ years old that's chugging along on its original battery (now down to about 30 min battery life), an HP consumer convertible laptop (early precursor to the tablet laptop era) that's almost as old and still chugging along. Keyboards on both still work great and have survived pizza, crumbs, and numerous spills--and both still infinitely more comfortable than the punishingly thin keyboards on their Apple counterparts of the time and since. My Surface Pro 3 has survived being dropped multiple times from heights that have killed my coworkers' iWhatevers.
Oh... and the real kicker? Each of these laptops cost several hundred dollars less than comparable Apple laptops with the same or better specs. Pretty much the only category Apple had them beat was in (subjective) appearance.
I switched relatively late (2011 or so) after about a decade of Windows and Linux laptops. The actually-usable trackpad that didn't make me want to carry a mouse everywhere if I actually wanted to use the computer on the go, the battery life that didn't have me looking for outlets everywhere and carting my power supply all over the place, the screen quality, and all the hardware actually working the way it was supposed to (including all sleep modes, with no fiddling and crashes- or hangs-on-wake pretty much never happening!) were all like entering a new world. "You mean I can just close the lid, unplug, and walk away, without taking other stuff and without babying the sleep process? What is this madness?"
Ugh the trackpad that doesn't work when too hot, the constant fan noise, oddly specific hard drives. I've had to fix Macs. I have an entirely different experience, except the battery life which was generally okay depending on what one was doing. We just had insane WiFi issues, screens failing, and tons and tons of fan noise complaints. It wasn't worse than Windows machines but it certainly wasn't better. The aluminum was nice though because it prevented a few cracked screens.
Tried one at a previous workplace ~1.5 years ago (IE/Edge test machine, convenient for carrying around to show people stuff rather than using a VM on your main machine for all Windows testing). Maybe with Linux or a BSD and if you ignore touch it's tolerable? The touch + Win10 experience was janky and lag-tastic. Battery life so-so, can't imagine that'd improve under a *nix unless you disable or forcibly throttle half the hardware. Maybe the high end machines are better? I'd assume that was the entry level one. I was actually surprised at how bad the touch interface experience (and experience generally) was since I remember everyone raving about them when they came out.
Switching to Windows is easier and less awful than it used to be. The short term pain of switching is still high enough when I have lots of work I need to get done and kids to raise etc... that it has to be hugely compelling vs. sucking it up and overpaying Apple a bit.
My work laptop is a Panasonic CF-C2 toughbook and I love it. It makes no sound at all, ever. With its tough build and rubber strap below it, it's comfortable enough to swing around in one hand with no serious risk of accident. It also has a small internal battery in addition to its detachable one. I don't have an extra battery to really make use of it, but the point is that you can hot-swap the battery while the computer is running.
For anyone looking at getting an XPS, beware that this is a consistent problem. I notice it on my 9570 (2018), and I saw a review of this year's XPS 13 9380 (2019) mention the problem. Googling shows it has been a problem since at least the XPS 9530 (2013).
Yup. The damning thing is, when questioned about the issue, Dell representatives have always declared that the HW is working within specs.
I don't recall the exact wording, something like "noise emissions level is under some required threshold" (I don't have the link at hand but I think I can rescue at least one from Dell support forum). The thing is, to me the fan noise when it turns on is less annoying than the high pitched whine.
I have an old XPS 13 model (9333 I think, the battery is still going strong tho) and with the keyboard backlight turned off (I won't use it anyway) and no USB peripherals attached is dead silent. Otherwise, If I plug a mouse or an USB hub/network adapter there is the continuous whine.
To be honest, I can only hear it in silent rooms in my home with window closed, in an office environment it's droned out.
The whine is the only gripe I have with the HW as Debian has worked flawlessly with it.
Anecdotal solution my friend uses when his MacBook pro needs servicing:
Takes machine into apple store
“Yep, new keyboard needed”
“That’ll be 3 weeks”
“Can I have a loaner laptop?”
“No, we don’t do that”
“Ok I’d like to buy your latest highest spec MBP you have in stock on my credit card”
“Ok here you go”
3 weeks later:
“Your MBP is ready”
“Cool, can I return this one please as I’m still in the returns window”
“...okay”
Wow! How can someone have such a dirty keyboard? I would be more concerned about the exaggerated amount of particles in the air that I’m breathing if my computer looked like the one in this picture. I don’t know if the image is accurate, but in three (3) years of typing in a MacBook Pro with the same keyboard as the one described in this article, it has never gotten to that point.
Ha, I find it funny that you consider this to be "such a dirty keyboard", when doing a google search for "dirty keyboard" turns up results that are apocalyptically dirty in comparison to the keyboard in this article. This one isn't spotless, but "wow that keyboard is dirty" wasn't even close to what I was thinking when I saw that picture.
To answer your question more directly: my MBP keyboard is usually spotless due to my obsession with cleaning it, but even just spending half an hour working outside on a windy day, or using my laptop while at my parents house (who have two large dogs that shed a lot) will result in it looking like that. And to the article's point: such scenarios have lead to some very annoying keyboard issues with my MBP.
A model M can function after being tossed into a fusion reactor, survive passage through the event horizon of a black hole, and (gasp) continue working when afflicted by keymageddon - tiny dust particles.
Though I sorta hate typing on them, keyboard covers are a pretty effective way to mitigate it.
But yea, that amount shouldn't be a problem for a keyboard. It's all outside of the contacts, and it's not blocking the motion. If it's actually enough to cause failure, I'd pretty solidly side on "this is designed wrong".
I concur, that is what mine looks like. I work indoors, and out and its never even remotely looked as dirty as the one in the article.
Maybe all these folks saying keyboards always break and that that amount of dirt is nothing are the ones abusing them so much and needing replacements. My MBP is about 20 months old, i work on it 8-10 hours a day 5-6 days a week and i have had no problems with it whatsoever.
I had a co-worker who had Palmoplantar hyperhidrosis(extremely excessive sweating of the hands). his keyboards were the grossest id ever seen, he used mechanical keyboards specifically and still had to replace them more than once a year... so nothing is bomb proof.
You would willingly subject yourself to a keyboard condom? Those things feel so bad to type on.
Iirc macbooks also have issues with those messing up the screen. At the very least, every macbook with a keyboard condom that I have seen in real life had the keyboard outline quite visibly imprinted on the screen surface.
In fact if you scroll down on that amazon page, the product description has a link to a 'screen imprint protector' (a loose paper-linke piece of material) designed specially to protect against that issue.
If you put a condom on it and have to carry around a loose screen protected and put it on every time you close the lid, then its kind of sad to say that there's not a gigantic issue with the machine or that that's a trivial solution.
Also I've also read stories of people using those keyboard condoms and still having the keyboard break.
I wonder just how much the Mac computer/laptop market would fall off if iOS developers didn't need to have a macOS device to run Xcode? I have a Mac mini, a 2013 MacBook Air, and a (way too expensive) 2019 MacBook Pro all to support compiling Xamarin, Xcode, and Ionic applications for iOS. For the clients asking only for Android to be targeted I grab my Lenovo P50 and don't even bother with the Macs.
I think you drastically overestimate the number of iOS developers. Or, more specifically, the number of developers in general.
Apple sells ~20 million Macs per year. If we assume that developers buy a new machine every 3 years or so, and all Macs are bought by iOS developers, that would be 60 million developers. There are on the order of 2 million iOS apps in the store, so I expect there are far fewer than 60 million iOS developers and the overwhelming majority of consumers buy them for other reasons. Hence the trend for features that appeal to casual users (sleek exterior, glossy screens, shallow keyboards) and not to actual professionals.
From my experience everyone in an agency will be given a new MacBook/MacBook Pro when they start unless they are explicitly a Windows shop.
There are design tools like Sketch that are only available on OS X as well. I think there's probably a coolness-factor coming in as well. No one wants to be the agency with a bunch of crummy old Windows laptops, how uncool! They'll get laughed out of Cannes.
Where are you? Here in the Midwest, I have seen a handful of personal Macbooks (mostly sales guys, who also can be seen with Surfaces/iPads) but all the engineers have Thinkpads, Latitudes, or ZBooks.
Midwest here, too. It's Macbooks all the way most any place under three-digit headcount. Or agencies, no matter the size. Larger places seem to favor Windows laptops where possible (all but iOS dev) because they're usually using MS collab and comm tools, plus (I assume) enterprise management with them is easier and/or finding Windows enterprise install base managers is easier.
I think I've seen someone running Linux on their work machine, like, once, in... 18 years? Twice if I count me, in the first half of my career.
I'm in Melbourne, Australia. When I'm at larger enterprise sites there'll be more Windows devices but like the other reply to you said most of the agencies I've ever been to are MacBooks all the way along.
Dropping iOS work was what freed me to replace my last MB pro with a non-Apple machine (a necessity for me the moment they introduced the fake keyboard).
I refuse to upgrade my Early MBP 2015 for this reason. Not only do I have one right now, but I have a backup sitting in a closet just in case anything goes wrong with this one.
I really can't understand why they went away from things that were working like Magsafe, a useable keyboard, escape keys etc.
The general disregard, from Apple, for power users of the Macbook pro has been really frustrating and bemusing
I doubt Apple can ever make as good a machine as the 2015 retina MBPs. I specifically requested one from work (only one with it my coworkers longingly look at my ports) and have a personal one also for development.
They day I change jobs and my personal one dies, I'm with OP, no more MacBooks for me!
The 2015s are great, but be careful — the high-end models used to have a fast, discrete AMD Radeon graphics card, but they quietly stopped producing these, in around 2017-2018 [1].
These newer models have an Intel Iris Pro integrated GPU. It's a big step down in performance, especially noticeable if you connect an external 4K dispay or use the Retina display at non-uniform scale factors. The Radeons supported resolutions up to 5K, Iris maxes out at 4K, apparently.
I discovered this when I spilled coffee on my 2015 MBP and had to get a new one, and I nearly spilled my coffee all over again when I saw that the discrete GPU was missing.
I tried the 2015 model for 1 year and ended up selling it. The CPU and GPU ran too hot and the fans were audible too often. Also impossible to use on my lap.
Since I don't need much mobility these days I bought an iMac 5k and it was a great decision. Best Mac I've ever owned. When I need to move I have an old 2014 13'' MBP lying around.
All of these folks seeking to leave Apple indefinitely should at least consider doing this, the mid-2015 MBP did nothing wrong (aside from the battery explosion thing)
He talks about the joy of a keyboard for his iPad, but it never occurs to him to connect it to his Macbook. I'm gonna say this blog is trying too hard to sound wounded about a broken keyboard.
I guess I don't understand the experience of using another keyboard than the one built-in to the device. Haven't used it, but it wouldn't seem to be a good experience if you either had to set it on top of your existing keyboard or needed an extra 30% or so of desk space, only for 50% of your laptop real estate to be used for nothing.
I use a stand for my laptop, to improve the experience for my posture / neck. That means the external keyboard and mouse works well for me. I get what you're saying - but two things: the real estate under the keyboard is the computer and battery and cooling and connectors. And his keyboard was broken so using the external one is an assumed improvement in the moment. I'm not suggesting my solution is right for everyone. I am just surprised he didn't try it.
Similar story, 2 keyboard-only replacements and one main logic board + keyboard replacement on a MacBook 12". A week ago it failed again and I'm nowhere near an Apple store so gotta wait it out. It's been about 2 years.l since I bought it for my wife who uses it for light browsing.
I bought a brand new Pro 2019 model but haven't opened it yet and hoping to resell it since Hong Kong doesn't do returns -- where it was purchased. It's keyboard was already listed in the replacement program, even before I bought it. My current Air is 6 years old and chugging along (i7 1.6Ghz with 3.1Ghz boost). The new MBP won't last beyond 4 (Apple support expiry on keyboard replacement).
Not sure how a minor membrane change can help alleviate the keyboard issues. CPU throttling is another known issue. Best to wait it out for the new Air with scissor keys due up later this year.
I am an Apple user since 2003. I have always been a very happy user and kept recommending Apple computers to anyone asking. In the last weeks, for the first time and with a heavy heart, I had to tell two colleagues, that I would recommend against buying an Apple laptop at the current time.
The new keyboards keep failing, the repair times are far too long, and after 4 years, the limit to the repair program, the laptop has to be written off as soon as the keyboard needs another repair.
Apple urgently needs to go back to their previous keyboard designs which worked just fine. And they need to go back to a hardware design, where a keyboard or battery exchange can be done for a resonable price in a reasonable time. This should require only a few minutes in the shop instead of leaving your device at Apple for weeks.
Something interesting about the author's choice of the iPad Pro as a replacement productivity machine I don't think gets enough mention is that the iPad is one of the only modern computers of any sort with a 4:3 screen.
Closer to square maximizes screen area for a given maximum or diagonal dimension, 4:3 is close to the human field of view, and in general, I find it to be a more suitable aspect ratio for most tasks than 16:9 or 16:10.
I'm pretty frustrated and a bit confused by the dominance of 16:9. The fact that it's the standard for TV shouldn't imply that it becomes the standard for laptops.
We get it. People hate the broken keyboard design. I do.
But can we stop posting random blog posts about it? Unless the person has some unique insight into the problem, or ideas for homegrown solutions, let it be.
I think there is some value in having more people chime in on this issue. Apple needs to know that there is great dissatisfaction among loyal customers about many of their recent product design choices. Maybe with Ives gone, they'll start valuing functionality, rather than style, on their products aimed towards professionals.
I really hope Apple runs social listening and picks up on sustained signals that, for what it's worth, so many professional customers are deeply disappointed in what they've done with their laptops.
Dear Apple laptop designers, I would pay a premium for a mid-2015 15-inch Macbook Pro with updated specs. Drop that touchbar bullshit. Bring back the true innovation that was MagSafe. Maybe replace one of the Thunderbolt ports with USB-C if you must. And please bring back that keyboard.
WSJ tech columnist Joanna Stern wrote about this, too. But Stern got an apology from apple about it. They said "a small percentage is having issues with the new butterfly line"
We need Final Cut Pro, Logic and many more on the iPad too. The hardware is already there
I'm not sure this is true: the highest-end iPads can approach the lowest-end MacBook (Pros?) on some synthetic benchmarks, but the performance delta between the mid- and high-spec MBPs against the iPads still seems to be quite high. Let alone some of the higher end desktop Macs (some people, though not me, still need them).
The CPU is literally there, but the CPU isn’t the biggest factor for most of the apps the author mentioned. The GPU is the biggest factor there. While the iPad is extremely respectable on a performance per watt basis, even crappy discrete GPUs blow it out of the water due to much higher power availability (hence significantly higher top end performance).
Although, the casing was cheesy feeling - its a perfect linux box - can dual boot windows or even run windows as a virtual machine - but the machine is really good...
I think you misunderstood the previous poster. He wrote he hates to use an external keyboard with a laptop that is not docked. He didn't write he hates docking the laptop.
And indeed, I would consider it odd that you have to carry an additional keyboard together with your laptop.
I had a broken keyboard for my macbook air. The fix for it was a new logic board, and this was past warranty. So the only way around was an external keyboard. But this just defeats the portability of a laptop.
That’s what i do !! Of course, its because my msi key keyboard (which was amazing) now has a bunch of keys that do not work (e, x, z - the first is the most used letter of the alphabet, the other i use constantly when doing VR and using vim (i replaced x by vd, but yanking had to be remapped).
For a while it was just x and y so i could copy paste from abc.xyz. But that started seriously hurting my fingers after a while. When the e broke, i decided to get an external keyboard. Though now i need a suitecase to move it around (17in gamer laptop + huge charger + external keyboard, kill me), it works great !!
(Also, right ctrl does not work either, but mine is mapped to caps lock).
My friend has an msi as well and same keys have started failing. Quick googling and i found a lot of msi laptops have (had?) this problem, though msi doesnt care. I cannot wait to have some money to get myself a new laptop. Its a shame though, this keyboard was amazing. Too bad it died in less than 2 years....
Sorry but tablets will never replace laptops because laptop OSes are infinitely more flexible than tablet OSes. You just can't (at this point) squeeze out the same productivity doing any type of real engineering, development, 3D-modeling, quant office work or one of many thousands of tasks from a tablet. Tablets have their places... for quick and simple things, niches and some detailed apps that are self-contained.
after Apple added 8 core and dropped SSD prices (and added 2019 MBP to keyboard program) things don't look too bad. Was going to switch to gen2 Lenovo X1 Extreme but now actually gonna stick with Apple. Plus if you can hold off 16" with updated keyboard looks to be right around the corner.
What's the point of tossing this up on HN? We've dogpiled the macbook pro to death. What new things could we possibly talk about? This blog post says nothing really new: the keyboards suck and they break a lot. Also, add productivity apps to ipad.
"What alternative is there to the mac???"
I mean.... literally any other laptop. Google Search: site:qht.co "alternatives to macbook pro" or something.
I don't like being so brash but it's taking a spot on the front page that could be something more interesting...
Though, unfortunately I don't hear great things about alternatives. I plan on moving to Linux, but I'm unsure what to do about laptops. Nothing seems quality, even counting Macbook Pro's recent downtrend.
Best I've heard of is the various Thinkpad lines, but even those are a mixed bag. I see some people defend them, and others trash them.. tough market out there for people who simply want quality unix laptops.
As I write this, I'm using a ThinkPad T480s while I get the leaking battery on my 2015 MacBook Pro replaced. The ThinkPad is a nice machine with a great keyboard. A lot cheaper than the MBPs too with comparable specs. I loaded the Windows Subsystem for Linux onto it this morning and then downloaded Debian Stretch from the Microsoft Store. This all took one command line command to enable WSL and then two clicks to download and install Debian (other distros are also available). So far it seems pretty nice. Not the same as running iTerm and Tmux on my MBP but this will do in a pinch.
As I was dropping my laptop off at an authorized repair shop, I went and typed on last year's MacBook they had on display and was reminded why I may never buy another MBP -- the butterfly keyboard. There's hardly any keyboard travel at all so it was like typing on concrete. If I wasn't looking at the screen, I'd never be sure if my key presses registered or not. If Apple doesn't bring back the scissors keyboard I may never buy another Mac. Ever. Between the butterfly keyboard, that stupid touchbar, and the lack of a physical escape key, Apple has ruined the MBP line for (non-Apple) web developers like myself.
That's why I mentioned it. It's easier to find quality hardware for Windows vs something that is fully compatible with Linux. I wouldn't have mentioned it if Linux wasn't as closely integrated into Windows as it is now. Also, Microsoft's Surface Pro line is the closest in quality to the Macbook Pros, even more so than the ThinkPad line. Even though I use Ubuntu regularly, its GUI still isn't on par with Mac or Windows, which is another reason that I mentioned it. This said, I'm still mainly using Apple for now.
Beware that all machines in the world right now are struggling with the fact that windows invented a new sleep method (s3 or some shit, I can't keep track) which ubuntu/the linux kernel / something beyond my understanding doesn't support. LONG story short, some laptops running ubuntu can't sleep when the lid closes.
X1 carbon does now, but for example the HP Spectre does not (which is a shame because it's a great platform).
Good keyboard. Every port you probably need. Fantastic screen. Nub mouse thing. Runs ubuntu great.
If you're worried about transferring from OSX to some flavor of linux that's fair. For me I couldn't get window management like I wanted in OSX so Ubuntu + Gnome is actually a more comfortable environment for me than OSX. I say that as not some old linux fart - I just tried them all and naturally gravitated to the things old linux farts like.
I agree, it is a tough market. I say give a shot to non-aluminum chassis. The Thinkpad may not "look" as tough, but it reeeeally is, I've abused the absolute piss out of mine.
I've had a great experience with my 6th gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon. All its hardware is fairly standard and well-supported-- I haven't found anything it doesn't work with yet (I ran OpenBSD on it for a while). Keyboard is great, too, despite the thinness.
Appreciate the reply, I had not seen these before. Can anyone compare these to the higher end Thinkpad lines?
Have to admit my gut is to trust the Thinkpads more simply due to the number of units they ship. Librem seems super niche, despite me loving their goals/etc.
Useful note for today is that reinstalling Win10 on a device that already has a license is usually very easy - it automatically detects the motherboard serial or whatever and doesn't even ask for anything.
I think it's being up-voted because it does add something to the discussion: continued prevalence.
I think it is highlighting market dysfunction: the 2015 MacBook was superior, and currently there is no market alternative, purely because someone in a sufficiently powerful position was able to make a decision against the interests of their customers, and then stick to it.
I have no doubt that the market will eventually correct itself (Ubuntu on a Razer Blade might well be my personal answer), but I think posts like this have a place in highlighting that we are still waiting for a solution and a major amount of pain and frustration is the result.
HN could really benefit from a single flag if not a few categories. I don’t want to follow political discussions or gadget discussions. I get drawn to these, of course, but don’t benefit from it. I now use the hide button to move it out if view but it’d be nice if there’s flag.
My XPS 15 keyboard is fine but there are other quality issues.
The power connector slips out all the time, and the battery swole up and pushed the trackpad up so that it's unusable.
Battery swelling on my XPS 15 is so bad that it completely detached the touchpad and made the keys at the center of the keyboard very hard to press
Getting customer support is damn near impossible for 2 reasons. 1. The serial number of my XPS comes up as Precision Tower in their systems 2. I moved continents since purchase and I'd have to transfer the ownership to myself here in NA, except turns out the owner, in Dell's database, is still the Amazon reseller I bought it from 3years ago
Terrible terrible experience with Dell. Switched to a Pixelbook which I love and handles my Sublime-based environment well enough
How many Dells have this problem? My Dell work laptop has had this happen multiple times already. Never had a problem on my Macbooks or another Windows laptop.
I'm genuinely surprised that manufacturers still make premium-priced laptops as ugly as the X1 Carbon. Its design looks like it was ripped from 2005. The latest XPS models are not bad, though.
You say ugly, I say minimalist and clean. I don't like aluminum chassis - too heavy and cold. The matte texture of the thinkpad feels much better for me. And the keyboard is far prettier, given that it actually has key travel.
Doesn't hurt that I get to "stand out" as a single, unlabeled black laptop among a sea of stickered silver macbooks.
XPS coil whine. This is a consistent problem. I notice it on my 9570 (2018), and I saw a review of this year's XPS 13 9380 (2019) mention the problem. Googling shows it has been a problem since at least the XPS 9530 (2013).
I also don't annoying that the fan speeds up for a few seconds every minute while the workload doesn't vary (needs a more analog variable speed control?)
Other than the noises, it's been a really good Linux laptop, and the only reasonable option with a fast i9 at the time I got it.
While it’s fair that the author is angry at the keyboard, it isn’t fair to:
* Expect Apple’s Butterfly keyboard to be perfect in the first iteration (2016 models were the first ones to get them).
* Argue that the butterflies in '18/'19 notebooks are the same as the '16 one.
The '18 MBP’s keyboards have fixed the issues, Apple nailed it.
While the '16/'17 MBP’s keybord issues are a real problem, the fuzz about the '18 MBP’s keyboard reliance is just noise from some of the common anti-Apple people. (I have used all three models, and the difference coming from the silicone cover is real. I have yet to see any semi-failing or stiff keys in the '18 model, after one full (dirty) use of them.)
(Aside from the fact that this blog post adds no value about the MBPs,) People really shouldn’t be assuming things about the butterfly keyboards.
it isn’t fair to: Expect Apple’s Butterfly keyboard to be perfect in the first iteration (2016 models were the first ones to get them).
We're not talking the first iteration of the concept of a keyboard on the first iteration of the concept of a laptop. This is nobody's first iteration. This is the final iteration of an essential component of an ultra-high-end product. You can expect them to be perfect, you should expect them to be perfect, and if they are not perfect you should expect them to fix them - quickly, and once.
How can Apple find the issue when people itself started to get the keyboard issues by using 1+ years in exceptionally dirty environments?
It’s not something like Apple is a company with time machines :-)
One point that most people just don’t seem to consider is that the problem is greatly exaggerated.
Negative reviews usually get much more tractions than the positive ones, mostly because the people who are positive about the MBPs don’t feel any needs to write a review about them (while negative people do).
Customer confidence in butterfly keyboards is shot. They’re now toxic and it’s a marketing disaster the longer Apple prolongs this design. The best Apple can do is hold their hands up, admit they messed up, and hope for forgiveness.
Keyboards shouldn’t have design flaws. There’s no wiggle room here and no excuses for Apple’s incompetence. It is simply poor design and equally poor testing processes.
But whatever, I am not gonna leave my macbook behind just because of that. By comparison, my Macbook is still better than my work Dell Latitude (which costs the same) that sounds like a jet engine because the fan keeps coming on, battery lasts for less than 5 hours, wireless keeps dropping, and I occasionally gets the BSOD...
Nothing's perfect, that's just life.