Does the 2018 MacBook Pro have the Butterfly Keyboard?

[Merkava_4]

Looking at a refurb on Apple's site. Does it have the butterfly keyboard that everybody hates?

 

[Ploki]

yes, 3rd gen. You can easily identify them by touchbar - if it has a physical escape key, it's a scissor mechanism, if it has touchbar without escape key, it's butterfly.

First Magic Keyboard MacBooks came out Late 2019, on 16", then on 13" in 2020.

 

[Merkava_4]

Hey thanks Ploki!

 

[Fishrrman]

Yes.
You DO NOT WANT any Macbook Pro that has the butterfly keyboard.
It's almost guaranteed to give you problems "down the line".

Fishrrman's MacBook Pro buying guide:
DO NOT BUY any of these:
MacBook Pro 13" -- 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
MacBook Pro 15" -- 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
These have the disastrous butterfly keyboards.

DO buy these:
MacBook Pro 13" -- 2020
MacBook Pro 16" -- 2019
Both of these have the redesigned "scissors" keyboards, like the 2015's and earlier had.

 

[doolar]

We have four 2017 15” at work, all bought in 2017. None of them had a single issue. All are used on the go, not chained to a desk, sometimes in dirty/dusty environments. (I’m a fire recovery project manager).

I’m still waiting for our first failure.

Not saying the issue is not there, but I don’t believe all MPB will fail.

Unfortunately these are our last Macs, all users are being migrated to PC.

 

[Ploki]

Yes.
You DO NOT WANT any Macbook Pro that has the butterfly keyboard.
It's almost guaranteed to give you problems "down the line".

Fishrrman's MacBook Pro buying guide:
DO NOT BUY any of these:
MacBook Pro 13" -- 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
MacBook Pro 15" -- 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
These have the disastrous butterfly keyboards.

DO buy these:
MacBook Pro 13" -- 2020
MacBook Pro 16" -- 2019
Both of these have the redesigned "scissors" keyboards, like the 2015's and earlier had.

They all have a different generation of butterfly tho.
2018 gen3 was largely fine on 13" because they don't generate so much heat. On 15" 2018, they generated a lot of heat so consistently "i" and "e" were the first go go, presumably due to silicon shield deforming due to heat. 4th gen (2019) supposedly solved that.

I and E started acting up on my 15" i9 after a MONTH. i had 13" i5 for 2 years and it never had any keyboard issues.

I also kinda liked the butterfly feel, i wonder how the Magic on my M1 will feel like.

 

[yurc]

My 15" 2018 is having stage light effect, and caps M N and space bar are either very sticky or not register at all. Even it's start to have slightly swollen battery because I cannot close the lid properly.

Totally avoid that lineup described by Fishrrman would a good idea.