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I'm sure that's what Apple is hoping, but I'm not sure. All I know is that I don't think shaving off a few more millimeters was worth it. I think the loudness is equally problematic. I'm not sure you could type in a quiet coffee shop or open office without annoying people around you. Even the sound of the keys is not very pleasing. The old keyboards had this muted, pleasing thump to them. These keys have this sharp plasticky sound. There's something un-Apple about the overall industrial design of it.

When it typing on my 2012 MacBook everyone knows. It's really loud. I have been asked if I'm ok as it sounds like I'm hammering the bejesus out of it. LOL.
 
Here are a few Geekbench 4 benchmarks in case anyone wanted them.

CPU
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iGPU
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dGPU
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how is the battery life for lets say just surfing the web? can you reach 10 hours that Apple claims?
 
Thanks, I hoped for better Write - Speeds compared to the SM961 1TB in my Precision 5510, may be Diskmark on Bootkamp will show better results, .. mine will arrive next week :)
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Here are a few Geekbench 4 benchmarks in case anyone wanted them.]

Thanks again, could you repeat the test tomorrow - there could be indexing tasks running on the new system negatively influencing the results.
 
I'm sure that's what Apple is hoping, but I'm not sure. All I know is that I don't think shaving off a few more millimeters was worth it. I think the loudness is equally problematic. I'm not sure you could type in a quiet coffee shop or open office without annoying people around you. Even the sound of the keys is not very pleasing. The old keyboards had this muted, pleasing thump to them. These keys have this sharp plasticky sound. There's something un-Apple about the overall industrial design of it.

I write extensive technical document's as a component of my work. I also have the 12"Retina MacBook with equally shallow key travel, and have briefly tried the new 2016 MBP; you can and will adjust to the keyboard, with it responding best to a lighter touch. As you have a decent return period it might be worth trying it a little longer.

After over a year with the Retina MacBook`s keyboard I can live with it, equally I far prefer the keyboards on my other MBP`s and now new Surface Book which feels luxurious in comparison to the 2015 MacBook & now 2016 MacBook Pro.

Keyboards are a very subjective aspect, more so for those that have high usage levels. I can forgive the MacBook due to it`s extreme portability, the new MacBook not so much...

Q-6
 
how is the battery life for lets say just surfing the web? can you reach 10 hours that Apple claims?

Keep in mind that no one can answer that question for a few days. The OP (which has been awesome at providing info BTW) just received his new MBP yesterday in the mail. His laptop is indexing right now and that process needs to complete before battery assessments can be made, plus he uses his laptop for a lot more than just surfing the internet, so he likely has higher priorities right now.

The good news is that Apple has always slightly underestimated and slightly over delivered on their battery life claims, so when Apple says that you can surf the web for 10 hours, there's a strong likelihood this is true.
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Overreaction? The lack of key travel makes it literally painful to use with extended typing. It is not ergonomic and will probably cause RSI issues if I continue to use it. Sure, I can use an external keyboard, but that's not the point.

Yes, the tone of your first post sounded like an over reaction. If the ergonomic angle of a laptop keyboard is your main problem, then yes you will need to return it and not use laptops anymore since the angle is the same on all of them. If you're just venting though, there's plenty of existing threads to discuss your dislike of the keyboard in greater detail.
 
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The lack of key travel makes it literally painful to use with extended typing. It is not ergonomic and will probably cause RSI issues if I continue to use it. Sure, I can use an external keyboard, but that's not the point.

using it all day here and no pain so far.
 
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Got a similar setup (2.9GHz/1TB/460M) and came from a similar 2012 (2.7GHz/16GB/768GB) and was pleasantly surprised at the performance increase (considering how much people booed this release). First, the machine is deafly quiet. Just so eerie. Second, the battery life is amazing (again, my 2012 is over 4yo now, so going back up to 10 hours is awesome). TouchBar is great. It adds features that we simply didn't have before. For example, I can keep my hands on the keyboard, change the text color to red without touching the trackpad.

I can right justify,
  1. Or return to left justify, and add numbered points​
  • or bullet​
All without moving my hand away from the keyboard.

And obviously, I can add emojis​
Is the battery life on par with what Apple states? 10 hours of use? 10% for 1 hour :O thanks for the initial review anyways
 
using it all day here and no pain so far.
I type hard on my keyboards, and outside of the initial surprise of the clicky sound of the new keyboard, I'm perfectly fine with the new one. If any keyboard causes you pain from typing, you got bigger issues than the type of laptop that you buy. I hope everyone that reads about the new AWFUL KEYBOARD realize the ones complaining about it are the most extreme minority. 99.99% of the customers will be fine with it.
 
Overreaction? The lack of key travel makes it literally painful to use with extended typing. It is not ergonomic and will probably cause RSI issues if I continue to use it. Sure, I can use an external keyboard, but that's not the point.

I've been a professional software developer for over 20 years, have owned and sworn by the old greats such as the IBM Model M and Apple AE II back in the day. I type 110 wpm on a consistent basis and can burst up to about 150.

I also derided the switch to the "chicklet keys" in the unveiling of the late 2008 unibody MBP, as did a whole lotta people back then... flat keys, lack of travel, weird feel. Over time it seems that everyone came around to agreeing that it's actually a great keyboard.

Recently I spent two weeks with a 12" rMP. I couldn't get along with that keyboard in the store but I still wanted to give it an honest shot. It was ho-hum at first, I was probably down to 60-70 wpm. After two weeks I was near my normal speed with minimal mistakes. I still didn't like the feel so back it went.

Tried the new 13" in the Apple Store. IMO Apple nailed it. This is the feel a minimal travel keyboard should have. As to RSI issues, lighten your touch. I'm fairly confident that given some time my typing speed will go up -- less movement, less energy expended.

ps. great handle name, one of my all-time fav albums
 
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I've been a professional software developer for over 20 years, have owned and sworn by the old greats such as the IBM Model M and Apple AE II back in the day. I type 110 wpm on a consistent basis and can burst up to about 150.

I also derided the switch to the "chicklet keys" in the unveiling of the late 2008 unibody MBP, as did a whole lotta people back then... flat keys, lack of travel, weird feel. Over time it seems that everyone came around to agreeing that it's actually a great keyboard.

Recently I spent two weeks with a 12" rMP. I couldn't get along with that keyboard in the store but I still wanted to give it an honest shot. It was ho-hum at first, I was probably down to 60-70 wpm. After two weeks I was near my normal speed with minimal mistakes. I still didn't like the feel so back it went.

Tried the new 13" in the Apple Store. IMO Apple nailed it. This is the feel a minimal travel keyboard should have. As to RSI issues, lighten your touch. I'm fairly confident that given some time my typing speed will go up -- less movement, less energy expended.

ps. great handle name, one of my all-time fav albums

Thanks for the feedback and for reminding everyone that once upon a time the chicklet keyboard that Apple pioneered (and copied by everyone afterwards) was criticized as not being "mechanical enough" or "not as good as thinkpads"... change is hard but, more often than not, change is needed
 
using it all day here and no pain so far.

It'll vary a lot for different users. I start getting wrist pain pretty quickly if I use it, and if I don't stop, it starts getting worse. I think it's because of the insanely short travel; if I type in a way remotely like the way I'd type on any other keyboard, laptop or otherwise, I'm hitting the end of the key travel with momentum, so there's impact.

I may or may not get used to it with time, we'll see. But I get the feeling that, no, this is just a really awful keyboard to type on if you have sorta shoddy wrists. Which, it turns out, a lot of us old people do.

I will happily spend $300 on a keyboard if it's pleasant to type on.

... Also, typing speed may be a factor. I type pretty fast, and this makes apparently-minor keyboard differences more significant.
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I type hard on my keyboards, and outside of the initial surprise of the clicky sound of the new keyboard, I'm perfectly fine with the new one. If any keyboard causes you pain from typing, you got bigger issues than the type of laptop that you buy.

Well, yes, but it turns out that the thing the doctor tells you to do for those issues is "use different keyboards". So, yes, those issues are bigger than the laptop... but the laptop exacerbates them. This is like telling someone diabetic that if sugar causes them trouble, they have bigger issues than whether or not there's sugar in their drink. Well, yes, but that doesn't mean the sugar can't be a real problem.

Previous macs were generally at least tolerable for me to type on. This is the first one that's been actually painful in a long time. (I think the Apple keyboards for the G4 towers or so were sorta horrible, but I didn't actually use them for any length of time; it's only on the laptop that I really care about the quality of Apple's keyboard.)
 
So go out and buy an actually useful USB keyboard. You can but in the extra bag with the dongles. :D
 
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There's are three ways to look at what's happened with the keyboard:

1) they studied ergonomics, and made a breakthrough, but it takes a while to adjust
2) they designed a keyboard to be as lightweight and thin as possible, nothing more
3) some combination of 1 &2

But I don't see #3 as realistic. 1&2 seem to me, to be mutually exclusive. To make an ergonomic device unergonomic is pathetic. It is no longer useful, but some kind of substandard accessory.

A keyboard should be 100% ergonomic. What has happened? Do they think we should by another actual, ergonomic keyboard to do typing on these? :D
i don't know if ergonomic is the right word. i think the correct assumption is that they want to make it as light as possible while making the least amount of compromises and I think they've done that.
 
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