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Anyone else abandoning ship?

MrGunnyPT said:
I had the larger battery models with the biggest configurations in terms of SSDs/CPUs...

I mean I don't dislike the machine for causal use it's fine, but for professionals who either work in IT or video editing it's a pain for us because it slowly starts biting you back in terms of throttle, battery life and actual performance on the damm thing.

These days I do IT Consulting and the Macbook Pro 13" is more than enough (even thou I should have picked a 15" because of the screen size and additional power for extra monitors)
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I hear you on this 'bite back' thing, but don't find its any better or worse on most machines. I could unhelpfully relay anecdotes about my personal experiences of Macbook failures: trackpads, hinges, batteries, logic boards, GPUs. Wouldn't help though :)

I currently use a 4k XPS 15 with the 97Whr battery, and fully expect the battery capacity to erode over time. Otherwise, so far its been fine for hosting a bunch of VMs, development work etc.
 
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maflynn said:
3:30 into the video he describes about how he's been missing out on great keyboard user experience. I agree that assessment completely. You don't realize how bad it is, until you start using a quality keyboard.

I do wished my Thinkpad had a matte screen like the X1 Yoga though
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I have a 2016 13" TB rMBP. In my experience of owning various Macbooks since 2010, I have to say this is the most comfortable keyboard. I think the Magic Keyboard 2 is the best keyboard which Apple makes (in terms of comfort and performance) and I would actually prefer that level of comfort on the next gen Macbooks.

I did run into the sticky key issues 2 months into buying it in 2016 but it fixed itself a few days.

I tried the X1 Carbon last night, the weight of the machine was the only thing excited me but wasn't a fan of the keyboard.
 
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I'm in the luxury position of having a late 2013 rMBP that works just fine but that is getting a bit under my requirements. The 8/256GB configuration is rather limiting when I need to simulate certain things in VMs. But aside from that, it's stable, so I have plenty of time to consider my options.

Simply replacing it with a 15” with the specs I'd like (32GB/1TB/Vega) would set me back almost €5000. That's barely an option. The basic 555X model with a memory upgrade to 32GB is €3300. Much better, and with drives like the Samsung X5, I can add full-speed storage later for much less money than Apple charges.

I was also considering a setup with a Mac mini at home and another one in the office. That's about the same price as the 555X/32GB + a 1TB X5, excluding screens. I've also done some extensive research into building Hackintoshes based on the Intel Z390. While they would be half the price and still more powerful (not to mention upgradable) than the Mac mini, they have the following disadvantages:
- It's quite some work to research the hardware that would work and that would still fit into a case that looks pretty. Sure, you can dump everything into a plastic noisy creaky el-cheap case, but hey, it is going to run macOS so the design of the machine is allowed to be well thought out as well.
- Getting is everything to run is always a hassle. With a Mac, you push the power button and you're ready to go. No messing with kexts and boot loaders.
- Beware of the upgrades. That's not a good situation for computer security. And it's also one of the main reasons why I won't run Linux (the other being lack of standard apps from Microsoft or Adobe)
- Because there's no Thunderbolt, external storage is limited to 1/5 or 1/6th the speed of an internal SSD

Laptops are even more difficult to get working with macOS, so that's not an option either.

For those reasons (and because I really want to continue using macos), I won't be jumping ship. I might still build a Hackintosh for the home office, but I’ll probably wait until the rumored 16” is announced to decide which new MacBook I will be buying.
 
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The Samurai said:
I have a 2016 13" TB rMBP. In my experience of owning various Macbooks since 2010, I have to say this is the most comfortable keyboard.
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You think the 2016 Keyboards are the most comfortable you have ever used on an Apple laptop?

I have to say I’ve heard a lot of proponents of the butterfly keyboard say various things they like, but “comfort”, in particular, is not generally something I see touted. Interesting.
[doublepost=1552419961][/doublepost]
MrGunnyPT said:
So I just got on the phone with Apple and they told me that after 3 times replacing the keyboard on my machine that they will proceed to give me a 2018 13" inch.
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Don’t even open it… Just sell it
 
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PeterJP was also considering a setup with a Mac mini at home and another one in the office.
I recommend using a macmini for that purpose, my mini never failed me!
 
Got my 2016 MBP back from a keyboard replacement. This is what was on the order. Gave it to Apple on Saturday and got it back today. Came back quicker than they said.
aee51c512fe70f40b3e50fc81ebec996.jpg
 
turbineseaplane said:
You think the 2016 Keyboards are the most comfortable you have ever used on an Apple laptop?

I have to say I’ve heard a lot of proponents of the butterfly keyboard say various things they like, but “comfort”, in particular, is not generally something I see touted. Interesting.
[doublepost=1552419961][/doublepost]

Don’t even open it… Just sell it
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Yep, you quoted me correctly. I think they are most inviting to be pressed. I type faster on it. Yes, i had the sticky issue but it went away after a few days. Yes, i am worried about it happening again and i hope they get to the bottom of it, whether a slightly thicker butterfly such as on the magic keyboard 2.

But yeah, put a 2015 keyboard and a 2016+ one in front of me and i know which one i would be opting for ;)
 
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Expobill said:
PeterJP was also considering a setup with a Mac mini at home and another one in the office.
I recommend using a macmini for that purpose, my mini never failed me!
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Nice to hear! The disadvantage with desktop PCs for my situation is that I might have to travel for work. A MacBook pro is more practical on the road :) But I'll keep it in mind for my home office setup. Having TB3 everywhere sounds like a plan.
 
One of my coworkers has the 2017 and he's had to go back to the Apple Store twice for problems. The first was for video artifacts. The second was that it won't start up. He hasn't received it back yet for the second problem but I'll ask him what the problem is. He hasn't said anything about the keyboard so I assume that it's working fine. This is a corporate laptop so I guess that we have a contract on these for five years of hardware support and I guess that provides a fair level of peace of mind. He has had to use his personal MacBook Pro, though, while it's in the shop. If I had a five-year warranty, I'd be far less worried about the keyboard issues as they'd eventually get it right. But I would guess that most people don't have problems. I've read about the delaminination problems in the 2012-2015s but have never seen it happen. The vast majority of our corporate laptops are 2015s and I have two 2014s and three 2015s in my household (two are corporates), and we have had zero problems, screen, video, keyboard or otherwise.
 
dmillar74 said:
I’d love to know how many 2016-2018 MBP owners HAVEN’T needed a keyboard replaced.
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A post of mine from the other keyboard thread:
Note with all the MacBooks I've personally had since 2015, along with hundreds that I support at work, I've yet to have any issues with any of them except for one 2016 model that was defective out of the box... Excuse me while I go find multiple large pieces of wood to knock on.
 
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Can’t say I’ve ‘abandoned ship’ yet (just bought a MBP 2015 as a stop gap - could not bring myself to get a 2016-2019 because of design and problems), but I’ve put out a ‘life-boat’ with a purchase a couple days ago of a Thinkpad t450s to ‘test the waters’ ;-)

This is my first Windows computer - and my young son wanted it, as that is what his ‘ship-mates’ have - so it’s going to be interesting to see if I can get my PC ‘sea legs,’ for when it’s time to upgrade. I still have hopes APPLE can get their act together in the coming few years, but just in case the ‘deck get too slippery,’ I’m ‘testing the waters.’
 
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I'm going Lenovo (probably an X1 Extreme or Carbon) once my 2011 MacBook Pro dies, or when I see Lenovo pushing USB4, Bluetooth 5, and Wifi-6 into their laptops.

I love my MBPro dearly, even just given it new life for another year or two with a fast new SSD drive, but I refuse to pay the prices Apple is asking for their 'disposable appliances' that they now try to pass off as laptops.

And I sure as hell am not paying anything over $500 for a laptop that only comes standard with non-upgradeable 8GB RAM in 2019!

If I can't upgrade something simple like the RAM/storage/battery, then I'm out; and Windows 10 is looking pretty solid these days.

But for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking solid with my iPhones and iPads.
 
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I've abandoned Apple Laptops but not Apple. Picked up a Mac Mini 2018 i5/256, upgraded the RAM to 32GB. I also plan on picking up an eGPU shortly. Without the eGPU it is a halfway house between a 13'' and 15'' MacBook Pro power wise, with the eGPU it beats the 15'' and for half the price. Then got an iPad Pro Gen 3 12.9 256GB for portability.

My reasoning is - A. Flexibility of having good specs on 2 different types of machine. B. Cost vs Power. C. I don't want the Touchbar. D. No keyboard worries.
 
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I'm really wonder what must be going on internally at Apple. Obviously the keyboards are a hot topic for the design team, I just don't know when it's going to be dealt with correctly. I do believe it will be largely addressed at some point but I don't know if they are using interim fixes until a brand new design comes out which might not be for a while.
 
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I just had my keyboard replaced (top case) on my 2016. I have until Nov of this year until Apple Care is up and next Nov 2020 until the keyboard warranty is up. I keep thinking I should maybe sell this and get into a 14” Thinkpad or a Dell XPS 13. I really don’t wanna go back to windows on my laptop but I keep thinking I’m gonna have more issues and it may be wise to sell now with a warranty.
 
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The Samurai said:
Yep, you quoted me correctly. I think they are most inviting to be pressed. I type faster on it. Yes, i had the sticky issue but it went away after a few days. Yes, i am worried about it happening again and i hope they get to the bottom of it, whether a slightly thicker butterfly such as on the magic keyboard 2.

But yeah, put a 2015 keyboard and a 2016+ one in front of me and i know which one i would be opting for ;)
Click to expand...

You're not the only one. After using my 2017 MBP 13' for 10+ months now, I've grown to REALLY like this keyboard. Comfort is in the fact that I can type on it ALL DAY and not feel fatigued like I do with other keyboards. The energy and effort required to type fast and accurately is much reduced and that's where the comfort comes in. Learning to type on this keyboard took a lot of effort, but I really enjoy it.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
You're not the only one. After using my 2017 MBP 13' for 10+ months now, I've grown to REALLY like this keyboard. Comfort is in the fact that I can type on it ALL DAY and not feel fatigued like I do with other keyboards. The energy and effort required to type fast and accurately is much reduced and that's where the comfort comes in. Learning to type on this keyboard took a lot of effort, but I really enjoy it.
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Man....you guys really have different hands and fingers than I do.

I completely detest the butterfly keyboard typing experience in terms of fatigue and comfort, especially for longer sessions
 
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turbineseaplane said:
Man....you guys really have different hands and fingers than I do.

I completely detest the butterfly keyboard typing experience in terms of fatigue and comfort, especially for longer sessions
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Initially I was against it, but over time, months, using it, I've really grown to like it. But it wasn't until I really used it for a month. Granted, I can see why a lot of people dislike this keyboard. I liked my 2015 MBA keyboard a lot. It got pretty mushy after 3 years of usage, but I liked it. I use a Logitech K810 and K811 for work. That's near perfection imo. I have grown to like my MBP's keyboard after much use.
 
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