Did My Dad Get A Good Deal? MBP And Questions About It As It Has Different Keyboard

[NewToAMBP]

I currently have a 2019 13" MacBook Air i5, 8GB, 256GB and it does what I need it to do. However my Dad works at a university and the book / supply store had a MacBook Pro on sale and my dad bought it for me as he thought I would really like it, but there is a catch which I will explain. It has a Spanish Keyboard from what I can tell. Its a 2021 MacBook Pro 16" with a M1 Pro Processor, 32GB of Ram and 1 TB SSD, Silver color. He saw it on sale though and just bought it because of the price, with his employee discount and the sale it was on it came out to be $1237.48. He told me the cashier told him it was a special order that a international student was suppose to get but never seemed to come to the college.

I looked up some other posts on here and I see that I can change the settings in system setting to a US keyboard. Does anyone know if there is a way to change maybe some of the keycaps to the English ones and if so how and where to get them? Does anyone know if that would void the warranty? And lastly, would you consider the deal that my Dad got me a good one since its the last model from 2021? Thanks, I am trying to get used to this enter key !

Also, does anyone have any tips or tricks for a new Apple Processor? I am really new to this MacBook Pro and only had my MacBook Air since early 2020.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/would-a-spanish-keyboard-be-that-very-different-to-use.920963/

 

[ctjack]

That is unbelievably freaking awesome deal. At that price, I could live with it even if it had UFO script language on it as long as the keycaps are in normal layout so i could type without looking at it.

Keycaps can not be replaced as it involves the whole topcap replacement which is half of your laptop. You can laser engrave it, pay for new topcase, put stickers on it or live with it. It is your call!

 

[Bigwaff]

Keyboard cover.

Protection Keyboard Covers | KB Covers & Keyboards

Protect your Apple laptop with our keyboard covers without ruining the elegant look on your device. Shop our Protection keyboard covers.

kbcovers.com

 

[realpaoz]

Can you have the keyboard replaced? If not, I second Bigwaff's suggestion.

 

[calliex]

You can plug in an external USB or wireless keyboard. Limits your portability with a full size keyboard but with wireless keyboard you pop into a backpack.

 

[davidlv]

I currently have a 2019 13" MacBook Air i5, 8GB, 256GB and it does what I need it to do. However my Dad works at a university and the book / supply store had a MacBook Pro on sale and my dad bought it for me as he thought I would really like it, but there is a catch which I will explain. It has a Spanish Keyboard from what I can tell. Its a 2021 MacBook Pro 16" with a M1 Pro Processor, 32GB of Ram and 1 TB SSD, Silver color. He saw it on sale though and just bought it because of the price, with his employee discount and the sale it was on it came out to be $1237.48. He told me the cashier told him it was a special order that a international student was suppose to get but never seemed to come to the college.

I looked up some other posts on here and I see that I can change the settings in system setting to a US keyboard. Does anyone know if there is a way to change maybe some of the keycaps to the English ones and if so how and where to get them? Does anyone know if that would void the warranty? And lastly, would you consider the deal that my Dad got me a good one since its the last model from 2021? Thanks, I am trying to get used to this enter key !

Also, does anyone have any tips or tricks for a new Apple Processor? I am really new to this MacBook Pro and only had my MacBook Air since early 2020.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/would-a-spanish-keyboard-be-that-very-different-to-use.920963/

See this;

🔎 mac spanish keyboard layout - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[NewToAMBP]

That is unbelievably freaking awesome deal. At that price, I could live with it even if it had UFO script language on it as long as the keycaps are in normal layout so i could type without looking at it.

Keycaps can not be replaced as it involves the whole topcap replacement which is half of your laptop. You can laser engrave it, pay for new topcase, put stickers on it or live with it. It is your call!

Keyboard cover.

Protection Keyboard Covers | KB Covers & Keyboards

Protect your Apple laptop with our keyboard covers without ruining the elegant look on your device. Shop our Protection keyboard covers.

kbcovers.com

Can you have the keyboard replaced? If not, I second Bigwaff's suggestion.

You can plug in an external USB or wireless keyboard. Limits your portability with a full size keyboard but with wireless keyboard you pop into a backpack.

See this;

🔎 mac spanish keyboard layout - Google Search

www.google.com

Hi All,

Thank you for the ideas and help! I took it to my local Apple Store and made a Genius Bar appoitment, I showed them the computer and explained to them the story. They can not replace the keyboard with a USA type as they said they would have to replace the whole bottom casing and that does not seem to be allowed in their system. But the Genius told me to go have lunch and come back later and he would see what they could be able to do in the back. I came back 2 hours later and a Genius / Repair tech was able to replace all the key caps with USA type ones where they should be! So now its got a normal QWERTY keyboard but the enter button is a different shape and to the left of the letter Z is the `~ button and to the left of the number 1 is some odd symbol button. Other than that though its totally like a normal keyboard and they also showed me the on screen keyboard option too incase I ever need it!

 

[ignatius345]

I came back 2 hours later and a Genius / Repair tech was able to replace all the key caps with USA type ones where they should be!

Amazing! Sounds like someone decided to hook you up.

I'm surprised others missed this, but yeah, the key caps themselves can be removed and replaced. The key switches are another story, but the caps come off, which is what they did. Because they're Apple, they had the right ones in stock. If you were doing this on your own, you'd probably source your caps off of eBay or something.

Anyway, congrats on a great deal. In terms of what you can do with them, the Apple Silicon Macs aren't really that much different -- except enjoy the massive increase in battery life and speed. Maybe take up a processor-intensive hobby like high-res video editing or software development?