I bought a 13" 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar around a week ago. I've used it only in my apartment, at my desk and in bed.
This is my first MacBook since I first bought an MBA in 2012 or 2013, and it's a pretty big letdown. The keyboard is not particularly pleasant to use for writing for any length of time, but I could live with that. The problem is that my 'r' key is already affected by the sticky key issue. Key presses in the bottom left corner of the key are not registering. Of course the keyboard is still usable if I take care to press the centre of the key, but this is not what I expect from a $2000+ laptop after a week of light use.
So much for the fabled apple build quality... I have an appointment at the Genius Bar on Tuesday, where I expect I'll be told there's nothing they can do.
mindfulmac -- I'm an Australian lawyer and you can be sure I don't intend to go quietly if Apple isn't willing to assist...
Told you so! Well, not you specifically, but any reputable forum, that these things were badly designed, and no amount of market driven claims will fix a fundamental engineering flaw. Then again, Insider had leaks that the Macbook Division had been gutted by 2016 by very high double figure percentiles, in money and personnel. My 2015 Pro still runs flawlessly with 15 hrs playback time on flights. As much as I cannot believe it, the Huawei is the best Mac right now!
[doublepost=1539969237][/doublepost]The r
Just to nitpick, they have a repair programme.. a recall would be asking everyone to return their laptops for a new keyboard. ( Not that I don't think that should be what they do.. but as they're not replacing it with a different design.. )
The reason they cannot do a recall, as I argued many months ago, is MONEE. Having sold tens of millions of these butter-jam garbage, with a projected repair cost of let's say 500$ per keyboard, ok 300? IF they sold 50 million units it is 15 Billion$ recall. So cheaper to have ongoing 4 year warranty, even if owners will get no use out of defective machines worth 2,400-6,500$... unless some class action addresses it once and for all. Shocking to say, as aMac fan, but the best Macbook right now is Huawei's Matebook Pro! That chiclet design has decades worth of development and billions of typed on keys... Someone invented Butterjam to save Apple IP costs, and VOILA it is your problem now, or the consumer's..
[doublepost=1539969482][/doublepost]How abo
Quite the most technical and well-explained explanation I've read so far in any forum. Well said sir.
A simpler explanation: chiclet was a time proven design with billions of presses and decades worth of development. Someone at Apple decided to save IP costs by inventing their own butter-jam garbage, and the Matebook Pro by Huawei is the best Mac right now!! remove ports etc, and 2,400-6,000 butter-jam not working brick Macbook is the best con job in history. We can also get into materiel science and plastic polycarbonate types, softening point at 40C (which weakens a butter-fly type mechanism with cycles of cold-warm-cold-warm) but that gets too technical.
[doublepost=1539969914][/doublepost]I'd love them saving face bu
I've been using Mac laptops since 2001 and I've never had a keyboard fail from "dust". I really hope Apple finds some face-saving way to back away from this horrible mistake and put usable keyboards with decent tactility back into their machines.
I'd like them to save face, but it will cost them. Lets say their KB replacement cost is 300, not 700, then 50 million units is 15 BILLION USD to slap the shareholders with... That Huawei Matebook Pro looks more and more like the Macbook that never was! From a consumer standpoint, I remember the 2016 announcement as soon as I heard the butter-jam description, instinct told me "GONNA FAIL." How could it best decades worth of chiclet IP and billions of success key types? People said "It's Apple, they got engineers" Insider kept saying "Engineers told us the Mac Division was completely gutted before the 2016 redesign". Reality is slapping all the fanbase in the face. Every Apple store I walked in saw demos with not functioning keyboards. NEVER a chiclet one. 2015 Pro still runs flawlessly, still in warranty until 2019, and 15 hours airtime movie playback... Yes, slower than the new processors, but works across 24 time zones. Butter Jam? Try repairing it in Tanzania!
[doublepost=1539970761][/doublepost]
Can you list your build?
I've been going back and forth between the 2.2 and 2.6, as well as 555x and 560x. I wouldn't mind spending a bit extra to get better performance, but am more worried about how these laptops will hold up over time due to the increased heat from the CPU and GPU upgrades. In my past two 15" MacBook Pros, I've run into GPU issues (Nvidia) over time. I'm a bit wary.
There is an entire material science that tells different types of plastics and softening point. If you wish to know what is the key temperature, it 33-49C for HDPE and LDPE plastics. No matter the type of plastic, thickness affects everything. Since Chiclet/membrane does not have uber tiny butterfly mechanism, it can survive 90Celsius Hp laptops. But Apple's Butterjam, uber thin, combination of heat cycles AND, possibly, dust- as I refuse to believe it is all caused by dust- this has not been demonstrated empirically, dooms these things. The fragility, plus temperature and finger pressure is more likely to mess them up than dust, but dust appears to do it as well in some cases. Not all. Keys that stop responding and are not dust related, as youtubers demonstrated, are related to how the butterjam signal cease transfering the signal. A youtuber opens a key and adds tape, thus fixing the typing issue. That says, beyond a doubt, that dust was not it, but the butter-jam's compression ratio had changed, needing the tape. What the membrane does, glancing at it, acted a bit as a shock absorber, silencer and pressure distribution (so distributing forces and changing the compression), even if that may not have been its intended design (perhaps a measure of silence was it). Underneath the membrane, the butter jam mechanics was as fragile as originally intended, and will be so unless replaced completely.
