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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 m

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 through all the trouble of having it fixed under the extended waranty program I'm still without a laptop for at least a week and I know it will happen again because the design is fundamentally flawed.

jdnenej 7y ago
What is more astounding to me is not the fact that it happened, but that apple did nothing about it. Years later they are still selling a broken device, and people are still buying it.
- ps 7y ago
  I refused to upgrade due to touch bar/esc key absence and the keyboard fiasco is a big no for now. I did hope for a major redesign this fall, but it seems I will have to wait much longer. Macbook Pro has been my companion since 2005 and I feel like Apple is doing everything they can to make me switch to Linux. My current, fully loaded 15 inch MB Pro from late 2013 started having serious battery issues and I hope it will survive until redesign is introduced. Although given the recent breakthroughs in Apple product lines I suppose they will drive me even further away from them :-(
  - jdnenej 7y ago
    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.
    - systemtest 7y ago
      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.
      - mtsr 7y ago
        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.
  - kofejnik 7y ago
    you can change your battery, of course. Also, it is sometimes possible to buy refurbished 2015 models directly from Apple, which is what I intend to do if September models aren't a serious improvement over current offerings. Because, even with all current Apple semi-hate, nothing beats usability of OS X. And 2015 MBPs were (are) great.
    - EugeneOZ 7y ago
      > nothing beats usability of OS X I used to share same opinion, but Windows 10 is surprisingly good nowadays, I didn't expect it to be so nice to use.
      - kofejnik 7y ago
        Ads in start menu? Apps installed without my consent? No, thank you
        EugeneOZ 7y ago
        Never experienced it. I don't advertise Win10, so no need for aggressive "no thank you", I don't give a fuck if you will use it.
        V-2 7y ago
        If by "ads in start menu" you mean the lame app suggestions, it's trivial to disable the thing.
        kofejnik 7y ago
        by your logic, any ad can be reframed as "a lame suggestion". They're still ads, though, and still very unwelcome. And last time I checked, there wasn't a switch to easily turn them off, completely and permanently.
        V-2 7y ago
        While I admittedly can't remember what I did exactly in order to switch them off at the beginning... I'm not seeing any, ever. So clearly I must've used such a switch
- jotm 7y ago
  Because they're buying it. The failure rate must not be impacting their profits, or people buy a new MacBook before the keyboard breaks, again not impacting their sales.
- fauigerzigerk 7y ago
  True, and it really shows the downside of vertical integration for users. Tying yourself to a particular software ecosystem turns into a bit of a lottery if it means you're left with exactly one totally broken laptop keyboard option for years and years. Even ignoring the actual brokenness, using a keyboard with very little key travel is just not everyone's cup of tea. It really makes me think hard about whether or not I want to take this risk again, not just for laptops but for phones as well.
- MobileVet 7y ago
  These products spend years in development. They are doing something about it but it takes time. Apparently the all new designs, to start release this fall, will address many of these issues. If they don't, I to will be furious. That said, due to the huge list of issue, I probably would have interrupted the normal design cycle and accelerated the new models. But 20/20.
puranjay 7y ago
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.
- riffraff 7y ago
  I plan to hold on to my 2015 mbp for a couple more years, since it's still functional enough. My hope is that Jony Ive leaving Apple might lead to some improvements, though I'm doubtful since Apple will still depend on his design firm.
- kristiandupont 7y ago
  I just bought a second hand 2015 macbook pro and I hope it will last me years. But I was looking at Surface books and unless something changes, I too will be off Macbooks. Which sucks because if I could just keep the exterior and have better cpu+ram+hdd, I'd be perfectly happy.
  - hypersoar 7y ago
    I have a Surface Pro 4, and I like it but have a warning: Surface devices cannot be repaired. At all. If anything goes wrong with your Surface Book, you only option is to swap it out with a refurb. If you're out-of-warranty, this costs $600 for the Book.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >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. Yes, there are vendors that have tried to emulate it, but usually pretty badly. I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light. (...) A notebook that weighs more than a kilo is simply not a good thing (yeah, I’m using the smaller 11″ macbook air, and I think weight could still be improved on, but at least it’s very close to the magical 1kg limit)." - Linus Torvalds (Later he stopped using Apple laptops for the even lighter/thinner chromebooks).
kayoone 7y ago
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.

jdnenej 7y ago

What is more astounding to me is not the fact that it happened, but that apple did nothing about it. Years later they are still selling a broken device, and people are still buying it.

ps 7y ago
I refused to upgrade due to touch bar/esc key absence and the keyboard fiasco is a big no for now. I did hope for a major redesign this fall, but it seems I will have to wait much longer. Macbook Pro has been my companion since 2005 and I feel like Apple is doing everything they can to make me switch to Linux. My current, fully loaded 15 inch MB Pro from late 2013 started having serious battery issues and I hope it will survive until redesign is introduced. Although given the recent breakthroughs in Apple product lines I suppose they will drive me even further away from them :-(
- jdnenej 7y ago
  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.
  - systemtest 7y ago
    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.
    - mtsr 7y ago
      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.
- kofejnik 7y ago
  you can change your battery, of course. Also, it is sometimes possible to buy refurbished 2015 models directly from Apple, which is what I intend to do if September models aren't a serious improvement over current offerings. Because, even with all current Apple semi-hate, nothing beats usability of OS X. And 2015 MBPs were (are) great.
  - EugeneOZ 7y ago
    > nothing beats usability of OS X I used to share same opinion, but Windows 10 is surprisingly good nowadays, I didn't expect it to be so nice to use.
    - kofejnik 7y ago
      Ads in start menu? Apps installed without my consent? No, thank you
      - EugeneOZ 7y ago
        Never experienced it. I don't advertise Win10, so no need for aggressive "no thank you", I don't give a fuck if you will use it.
      - V-2 7y ago
        If by "ads in start menu" you mean the lame app suggestions, it's trivial to disable the thing.
        kofejnik 7y ago
        by your logic, any ad can be reframed as "a lame suggestion". They're still ads, though, and still very unwelcome. And last time I checked, there wasn't a switch to easily turn them off, completely and permanently.
        V-2 7y ago
        While I admittedly can't remember what I did exactly in order to switch them off at the beginning... I'm not seeing any, ever. So clearly I must've used such a switch
jotm 7y ago
Because they're buying it. The failure rate must not be impacting their profits, or people buy a new MacBook before the keyboard breaks, again not impacting their sales.
fauigerzigerk 7y ago
True, and it really shows the downside of vertical integration for users. Tying yourself to a particular software ecosystem turns into a bit of a lottery if it means you're left with exactly one totally broken laptop keyboard option for years and years. Even ignoring the actual brokenness, using a keyboard with very little key travel is just not everyone's cup of tea. It really makes me think hard about whether or not I want to take this risk again, not just for laptops but for phones as well.
MobileVet 7y ago
These products spend years in development. They are doing something about it but it takes time. Apparently the all new designs, to start release this fall, will address many of these issues. If they don't, I to will be furious. That said, due to the huge list of issue, I probably would have interrupted the normal design cycle and accelerated the new models. But 20/20.

puranjay 7y ago

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.

riffraff 7y ago
I plan to hold on to my 2015 mbp for a couple more years, since it's still functional enough. My hope is that Jony Ive leaving Apple might lead to some improvements, though I'm doubtful since Apple will still depend on his design firm.
kristiandupont 7y ago
I just bought a second hand 2015 macbook pro and I hope it will last me years. But I was looking at Surface books and unless something changes, I too will be off Macbooks. Which sucks because if I could just keep the exterior and have better cpu+ram+hdd, I'd be perfectly happy.
- hypersoar 7y ago
  I have a Surface Pro 4, and I like it but have a warning: Surface devices cannot be repaired. At all. If anything goes wrong with your Surface Book, you only option is to swap it out with a refurb. If you're out-of-warranty, this costs $600 for the Book.
coldtea 7y ago
>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. Yes, there are vendors that have tried to emulate it, but usually pretty badly. I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light. (...) A notebook that weighs more than a kilo is simply not a good thing (yeah, I’m using the smaller 11″ macbook air, and I think weight could still be improved on, but at least it’s very close to the magical 1kg limit)." - Linus Torvalds (Later he stopped using Apple laptops for the even lighter/thinner chromebooks).

kayoone 7y ago

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.