T1 comes with a faulty keyboard, not a great deal
Oh you fail to see the Silver Lining my friend making this the 15” 2017 MBP 7th gen i7 2.9GHZ 16GB LPDDR3 w/4GB Radeon Pro 560 the most reliable vs. powerful MacBook Pro 2016-2018.
#1 Watch Zone of Tech who eventually got a 15” 2017 given to him after he eventually had THREE 2016 15” MBPs before being handed a new 2017 for free for his troubles and exact words were “it fixed All his problems.” He said he didn’t even expect to KEEP the 2018 15” MBP i9 w/32GB DDR4 and Radeon RX560X but because of the unique 4K rendering and 4K file exports he does, the extra 2 cores and CPU only intensive tasks shaved a few minutes off those unique production jobs and realized they added up to enough time he decided to keep it, but admitted he has had near daily, and certainly admitted to “multiple crashes” on his new 2018 MBP 15” i9, his Mac Book Air AND his new Mac Mini 6 core or any T2 Chip device he used.
Meanwhile the actual NUMBER of reported keyboard issues is so minimal on the 2017 and yet it qualifies for the Keyboard (lets be honest) a NEW $700 TopCase job up to 4 years from purchase. That translates to NEW BATTERIES EVERY COUPLE YEARS FOR REPORTING A FEW STICKY KEYS (if you pester your Apple Store about every incident despite majority resolving itself and get new TopCases), meaning new backlit keyboards and new batteries and potentially new track pad every couple years just as you battery has now lost 20% capacity per year and is at 60% capacity.
THEN get a SECOND new TopCase around 4yr #4 before the program ends so you leave with a set of brand new keys with no darkened letters from finger oils and fresh clicking keys and another new battery, you end up never having to do a single battery replacement for 4 years while always enjoying a near 80-100% capacity battery and new keyboards?
No crashes from T1 only handling Touch ID and a pretty desireable and techincailly overclockable 7820HK 7th gen with a 2.9GHZ base clock and a really strong single core that handles most of everyday life. Then the low power ram that HAS to result in extra battery life considering 32 GB of volitale ram that always be powered, with no power savings, is just power and battery life WASTED on 85% of users not running Virtual Machines?
Then consider the KEYBOARD in the 2018s are still failing at 10% according to many companies invested heavily in the Apple ecosystem but NOT part of the keyboard program and cut cost you potential deductible repairs depending b/c on how AppleCare+ now reads on causes of the issues they could place on the user?
It DEFINTELY is like having one less year of AppleCare and without a keyboard program that was really made for 2016 machines and included 2017 machines more to keep any upgrades from leaving Apple should something on the 2017 upgraded keyboard happen. I have a new in-box, unopened 2017 15” 2.9GHz 512GB 16GB LPDDR3 4GB Radeon 560 with nearly 2 years of existing AppleCare and a 2015 & 2017 owner is BEGGING me to sell him mine having had MORE luck with his 2017 than his 2015 even!
Meanwhile I happened to get last minute brand new logic board AND 3rd TopCase for free on my Mid-2012 15” Retina w/NVidia 650m 1GB DDR5 that still benches within 10-20% of a 2017, right before they turned them Vintage on Dec 31st 2018. Having been fortunate to document every misbehavior, the inside of my Mid-2012 was cleaned nearly every other year getting free TopCases. Now a brandnew Logic board that has shiny new solder and black clean chips. New island chiclet keyboard, battery, trackpad and only thing not new is the 15” Retina Display that is pixel perfect.
I held off opening my 2017 15” MBP wanting to wait on opinions and performance but despite the small jealousy of the T2 chip taking over as SSD controller on virtually Identical NVME 3.0 x 4 lane SSDs (that finally allowed it to get those promised 3200MB/s speeds) the WiFi cards can’t manage those speeds and I’ll gladly take a 2500MB/s read and sub 2000MB/s writes and not have a T2 crash and potential lost data while HAVING a port to retrieve data unlike the 2018 board where it was removed!
A board where even a bad capacitor on the board will cost you everything on that laptop. The 2017 on the other had still HAS that data recovery port and the possibility is still open to recovery of the SSD contents if it’s not failed. Anything on 2018 logic board goes and it’s a done deal. Plus no new TopCase deductible free on way out at year #4 like if you owned a 2017 15” and just kept track and made a few visits to Apple Store to document misbehavior of your keyboards.
Meanwhile enjoy your weekly crashes! Hit me up if you decide you want my 2017, celephane and entire unboxing experience and AppleCare already paid for and accepting small loss because my Mid 2012 Retina 15” just too good to sell, now that it’s essentially brand new. (If wondering the logic board came from ANOTHER program Apple had that lasted 4 years from purchase and I happened to buy mine from Apple reburbished pretty late in 2014 and got it covered legitmately) You just have to look at the GOOD side to certain programs and “time” how you USE them. Speaking up every time you have an issue, however minor, helps as well! Nothing underhanded, just held Apple to their own words and accountability.
