The whole last 3 years of MacBook Pros have been disappointing.
My 2011 MBP still chugs along, but I was able to upgrade the RAM, Hard Drive to an SSD, replaced the battery, etc. without any problems. But reading all of these horror stories has scared me away from getting a 2017 MBP (that and the fact that to get a 15" with a 1TB HD would cost at least $2600 plus tax, even refurbished).
Different machines, I know, but I was able to get my wife an HP laptop that has a 4k screen, 8th gen i7, 16gb of ram, a 515gb SSD, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.1 ports, and micro SD card slot. It gets decent battery life, and it’s 0.55” thin. And best of all, at retail it was $1,100.
I know a MPB would run circles around it, but for that price, I can’t even get an old Air. How can HP make a laptop that thin with all those ports for less than ½ the price that a similar speced MacBook Pro?
I really, REALLY want to stick with Apple, but should my current machine die, I might have no choice but to jump ship. It makes me so sad!
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I'm in the same boat. My understanding is they replace the entire top case + keyboard as they are all one component. I still have to call Apple to confirm tho. Likewise, I can't be without my laptop and the Apple techs at my Apple Store don't exactly inspire confidence...
Another bad thing about the current machines. I had a 2006 MBP that had a glass of water knocked into the keyboard. The keyboard was fried, but it wasn't hard to replace it ( I think the part cost me $200 and it was about an hour to do the work - even for an only sort-of techie like me.)