Exactly my first MacBook Pro is this 2017 NTB, so great to me so far. With the peace of mind that I have a 4 year warranty on the keyboard....
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How have people managed to adapt to these butterfly keyboards?
- Thread starter Meus Me
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I actually find the 3rd gen generally less pleasant to type on because it still has very low travel and the new membrane seems to soften what little physical feedback the 2nd gen had.
I'm a few hours in with my new nTB model and, much like the 12" MacBook I had, I can type fine on it. I doubt I'll ever love it but I'm sure in a few weeks I'll have forgotten that it's not all that great. I think it's absolutely silly they didn't just adapt the Magic Keyboard, which has great stability and low travel, into this smaller form factor because that keyboard is genuinely good.
As for the noise it doesn't bother me. I had a mechanical keyboard with 'Blue' switches I bought specifically because I like the noise feedback on keyboards.
Perhaps I'll eat my words if it fails but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Otherwise, it's just... fine I guess. I won't be writing term papers much longer anyway.
I'm a few hours in with my new nTB model and, much like the 12" MacBook I had, I can type fine on it. I doubt I'll ever love it but I'm sure in a few weeks I'll have forgotten that it's not all that great. I think it's absolutely silly they didn't just adapt the Magic Keyboard, which has great stability and low travel, into this smaller form factor because that keyboard is genuinely good.
As for the noise it doesn't bother me. I had a mechanical keyboard with 'Blue' switches I bought specifically because I like the noise feedback on keyboards.
Perhaps I'll eat my words if it fails but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Otherwise, it's just... fine I guess. I won't be writing term papers much longer anyway.
Recently retired a 12" Retina MacBook initially liked the keyboard, grew to loath it in time. Right now there's no other practical option with Apple, add in the reliability/quality concern's with the MBP and the poor port solution for an alleged profehinal grade device - No sale and no new Mac's, I'll run the old ones into the ground and replace them with more appropriate Windows based hardware.
To be frank I've used a $300 2in1's with a better keyboard, as per launch it was all about being thinner, similar the to new IPP that brings a trade off (structural rigidity), one either accepts, or one does not...
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Personally I'd prefer "it just works" at over 4K for my spec, I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation. Seems to me that the MBP is ever becoming a lottery if you get a good on or a bad one, between; keyboard, T2 crashing, display flickering, port latency, flaky speakers...
Maybe it's better for those that are covered by the 14 day return "umbrella" for many of us once we purchase we're stuck with the device for good or for bad and Apple's endless looping "well I never seen that before" tactics which pisses me off to entirely another level...
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To be frank I've used a $300 2in1's with a better keyboard, as per launch it was all about being thinner, similar the to new IPP that brings a trade off (structural rigidity), one either accepts, or one does not...
Q-6
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Personally I'd prefer "it just works" at over 4K for my spec, I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation. Seems to me that the MBP is ever becoming a lottery if you get a good on or a bad one, between; keyboard, T2 crashing, display flickering, port latency, flaky speakers...
Maybe it's better for those that are covered by the 14 day return "umbrella" for many of us once we purchase we're stuck with the device for good or for bad and Apple's endless looping "well I never seen that before" tactics which pisses me off to entirely another level...
Q-6
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I actually enjoy trying on it. I feel like I can type much faster than with other keyboards I have used. To each his own...
Me too - I have a couple around the house and even use one with my Gaming HTPC.
Huge mistake by Apple to not just put a Magic Keyboard on the laptops. They have exactly zero reliability issues and would still have been lower travel than the 2015 era keyboards (if thinner simply had to happen to satisfy Jony)
You cannot get used to it with a few minutes of usage. After a few days / weeks of consistent usage, I find it to be just as comfortable and fast as any other keyboard I have ever used. I am able to type roughly 105-110 WPM without any issues.
Oddly enough, when I go to a computer with deeper key travel, it tends to slow me down.
Oddly enough, when I go to a computer with deeper key travel, it tends to slow me down.
Not me. Not at all.
Have had years with the 2016 around (spouse machine) and just used it for a month exclusively.
By far my least favorite keyboard, ever.
Glad you like it though.
To each our own.
I have met keyboards that I like more than this one, but I don't have many complaints after getting used to it. The largest issue that I have comes from the terrible arrow key design....
I have been thinking about picking up one of the Magic Keyboards for numpad functionality and arrows that I don't smash all over the place. Excuse my ignorance here, but what makes for the large difference between the typing experience on the laptop and the external keyboard?
Magic keyboards are using traditional scissor switches
I could never get used to the clickliness of the Blues or Reds. Only use keyboards with the browns. But love the long travel of Cherry MX switches. And strangely I also like the short travel on my 2018 MBP, just seem right in such as small flat computer.
I miss my 1982 IBM PC/AT keyboard — just kidding.
I’ve been using my 2011 MBP 17” and just very recently started using my 2018 MBP 15”.
I was surprised to find that I greatly prefer the butterfly keyboard. The keys feel solid with a short but well defined range of depth. I was surprised because I kept reading of complaints.
I’ve been using my 2011 MBP 17” and just very recently started using my 2018 MBP 15”.
I was surprised to find that I greatly prefer the butterfly keyboard. The keys feel solid with a short but well defined range of depth. I was surprised because I kept reading of complaints.
I think that for most people, much like everything else out there, it comes down to personal preference. I have grown to enjoy the keyboard. When I first purchased my Late 2016, there was a learning curve and I was not a huge fan first. The 3rd gen in the 2018 is a pleasure in my book.
Actually there are lot of people that love the AT keyboard. The industry of Cherry MX based keyboards grew up trying to emulate and now surpass the feel of the AT keyboard. Some people still horde the AT keyboards and will pay big money for them.
Ive adjusted to it pretty well. I use the standard iMac keyboard often and owned a few MacBooks prior, granted the 2018 has even less travel than those.
I noticed the way i type on my MBP is different. I don't rest my wrists on the computer...I hover my hands above the keys to type, I guess im in fear of denting the metal....i don't know.
I noticed the way i type on my MBP is different. I don't rest my wrists on the computer...I hover my hands above the keys to type, I guess im in fear of denting the metal....i don't know.
lol
Sorry - made me laugh in my office here...
Apple has everyone conditioned to be treating their latest hardware like crystal stemware in fear of anything breaking or going wrong.
This is nuts..
lol youre right. I keep reading "the metal is soft...it bends...it scratches..."
We need to treat these delicate things with white gloves. Treat them like theyre premie babies!
The trick is to learn to tap lightly, almost as if it is a touchscreen. After a while, the old chicklet-style keyboards feel a bit mushy.
One company even bought the AT patent and still produces them. I like the new Macbook Pro keyboards but also like the older fashioned keyboard feel of the 1990s.
I tried a few keyboards with Cherry switches and a few months ago purchased a Steel Series Apex M750. It hasn't got Cherry switches but has a very similar feel which I preferred to others I tried. It also has backlit keys with 'disco light' patterns
and 4 million colours to keep me awake during a long day. It's a good keyboard I can recommend.
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I don't disagree with you at all.
Apple used to be well known for products that would take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. I never once took too much care of my 2008, 2011, 2012, or 2013 MacBook's. I didn't necessarily baby my Late 2016, but the more money that I have spent on these things, the more I try to make sure that they're not going to get too terribly f'ed up.
My 2018 15" was a hair over $5,000 with taxes and AC+, so...don't make too much fun of me for putting a hard plastic protector onto it when I know that I am traveling with it.
I tried for a month and it still sucked to type on. Did I "get used to it"? Sure. You can get used to anything. But finally I just sold the Retina MacBook and went back to my MacBook Air.
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Yeah. If you have to learn a "trick" to use a keyboard, it's a bad design.
Not necessarily. Remember the chicklet keyboards were a new design once, too. I’ve been using keyboard since the AT keyboard that someone else mentioned on this thread.
Overall, I think the best low-travel keyboard Apple has is the Apple Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro, though it’s missing a backlight. It wouldn’t surprise me if they make some tweaks at the next major redesign of the MacBook, but it’s a perfectly serviceable keyboard.
I kinda find the older keyboards overrated. I'm not pa
The iPad Pro keyboard really is good for how thin it is, being water resistant is also a plus. Personally I find the chiclet keyboard overrated. On my desktop I use cherry blues/ whites depending on how I feel and the iPad keyboard is up there in terms of comfort and feel.
No ****. If I wasn't using gift cards that I have collected for awhile, I would have purchased from B&H or Adorama...even then it would have only saved me about $380. I know that's a lot of money, but, when you look at the total...it's less than a 10% dent and you don't get the nice return options that you get if you purchase from Apple.
This 2018 MBP was $4,249 before taxes and AC+, and they get much more expensive from there depending on storage options. Granted, my model is the top spec processor, RAM, and GPU. You could easily save some money in those areas if you wanted to, and if I were to buy a second one, I would probably opt for the i7, because quite frankly, I think it might perform better for large project exports due to thermal headroom and design on this body. My similarly level spec'd (at the time) 2016 was about $3,500. The 2013 was a top spec 15" and I would have been surprised had it cost much more than $3,000.
I went all in on this model, partially because I have been waiting for hexacore, 32GB of RAM, and the better dedicated video card options. Why? Because it is doing the work of two machines that I was using. Finally, I have the power I want in one machine that is portable. That's how I justified it, anyway. The keyboard improvements are appreciated, although they certainly don't make it as nice a typing experience as the old ones had.
Yeah...still going to be using a hard plastic case for it when it's going anywhere.
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I used earlier generations of Apple laptop keyboards, specifically the ones installed in the early 2000s "Wall Street" and "Pismo" designs, and later the keyboards in the iBooks and such -- and frankly they were mostly pretty awful in retrospect The chiclet scissor-switch keyboard was massively more stable, still had a good amount of key travel and tactility, and was a LOT more durable and dirt-resistant than its predecessors. If it took any getting used to, it was because the thing no longer flexed across its whole length every time you hit a key the middle. There's a reason the scissor-switch chiclet design stuck around so long and remains widely imitated to this day.
Contrast that with a keyboard that, years after its introduction, remains divisive at best and has a pretty abysmal track record of physical failures due to intrusion of common dust.
Fact is, people shouldn't have to have strong opinions about keyboards. A keyboard should "just work" and should provide more or less the physical feedback people are accustomed to. If big segments of the user base are turned off by a design this far after its being introduced... that's a bad design.
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