iFixit Teardown Suggests 2018 MacBook Pro Keys Feature a Silicone Barrier to Prevent Malfunctions Due to Dust

[BigMcGuire]

Quite a few people actually prefer the butterfly switches.

Hang out in a mechanical keyboard enthusiasts' forum and you'll find that people have really wide ranging preferences for how they want their keyboards to feel and many of them are convinced that the one they prefer is the one that everyone should prefer.

Agreed. And I'm one. Typing on it now and I like it. And I am a huge mechanical keyboard fan - I've got Steel Series and several other Made in USA mechanical keyboards in my possession. Only difference, I'm not going to tell you what is best for you. Why would I? What works for me may not work for you. Personal preference. It really gets me when people who don't even own the laptop bash on it and say everyone hates the keyboard.

 

[smirking]

I spent a whopping $10 for a USB-C to USB-A 3.1 cable. Works great. Though today I see they're $7. Wah...

Would you believe that it gets EVEN cheaper? Like just barely over $1 kind of cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Woodcovo-Converter-ChromeBook-Supported/dp/B07CK84F7H/

8 of them for $8.99. Just put a USB-C endcap on every USB-A device you own and get on with life.

 

[citysnaps]

Yeah. I vastly prefer the 4X thunderbolt 3 ports: I literally have compatibility with everything and can mix and match accessories as my needs require. I can use the ports as usb A, FireWire, SD cards, external displays, or some combination of the above. Cables and dongles, while annoying now, are a relatively cheap and very functional solution. I can finally use both of my FireWire audio interfaces, FireWire hard drive, and an external monitor at the same time. This wasn’t possible on any of the previous MBPs.

Same here. And I like the fact that I can charge my MBP from either the left or right side, depending where an outlet is. You can also charge devices from any of the four ports, though I haven't tried that yet.

 

[haruhiko]

Oh no...

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of thousands of tech divas on Twitter, blogs, YouTube, throwing out the scripts they were writing to FUD people about the keyboard...

... just to make new ones spinning this around...

iFixit is the first. It's a "cover up" now... according to them...

Apple: damned if you do, damned if you don't.

If I were Tim Cook, I would drop the battery replacement costs from $29 to $9 and shut them down for good.

I had never had keyboard failure since my first notebook in 2002 and my 2016 MacBook Pros b key stuck and produced repeated outputs and Apple quoted me $400 to fix it with a top case replacement in late 2017. It's not a FUD it's a real problem and Apple admitted to it and now offers a replacement program. I will choose not to say something stupid in this situation.

 

[SteveJUAE]

That's not the case from my experience. Lifting my arms and not allowing them to rest while typing is tiring and causes strain and fatigue. I know what feels comfortable for me and it's the rested position with a slightly propped up back end.

And if the case is too cool you're not working hard enough!

Sorry to hear that, it seems you are shifting one problem to another potential without realising it

If you are bending your wrists or angling them inwards (around the TP) to type let alone taking the weight of your limbs on to you palms for extended periods it's not good for you, seems like you need better forearm support from your chair.

Plenty advice if you google it, take care

 

[BigMcGuire]

I had never had keyboard failure since my first notebook in 2002 and my 2016 MacBook Pros b key stuck and produced repeated outputs and Apple quoted me $400 to fix it with a top case replacement in late 2017. It's not a FUD it's a real problem and Apple admitted to it and now offers a replacement program. I will choose not to say something stupid in this situation.

I would hope that you'd get a full reimbursement, similar to what Apple did to those of us who bought battery replacements for our 6s+ phones (got a $50 credit even though I bought the battery last year).

 

[Abazigal]

3 keyboard revisions in 2 years. #innovative

Hadn’t Apple always done that?

The first gen product is typically more of a proof of concept, then they spend the next few years iterating the heck out of it till it is complete. Then they move on to the next big thing.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Because the Dell XPS 15 is so problem free, it could be defined as a perfect laptop. (I realize this is a 2 year old thread, but... https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3spvho/list_of_known_issues_with_the_xps_15_9550/)

My brother got an XPS 13 this year. He can't play a intensive game on it without it shutting off on him from overheating. Dell won't do anything about it so he has to use a laptop cooler and hope his laptop doesn't restart in the middle of a game.

Only Apple laptops have problems.

That said, our office did buy a nice XPS 15 - Costco had them on serious sale a month ago? or two. Specs are nice. Screen, build quality, overall feel not so much. But I could see myself living with it, especially at the Costco discount price.

I miss the mid-2000s. Laptops just seemed "better" back then. Maybe it's because that's when the Internet was still taking off (at least where I'm from), Windows XP and OS X coming out... we still had the rose-tinted glasses on. Everything just seems to be regurgitated crap now. Make it thinner, compromise usability, add a notch to the display. Every other company follows like a lemming.

 

[vipergts2207]

I had never had keyboard failure since my first notebook in 2002 and my 2016 MacBook Pros b key stuck and produced repeated outputs and Apple quoted me $400 to fix it with a top case replacement in late 2017. It's not a FUD it's a real problem and Apple admitted to it and now offers a replacement program. I will choose not to say something stupid in this situation.

So that must mean you dumped a big bag of dust on your laptop. That’s surely the only reason you could possibly experience an issue with this keyboard. Everyone knows Apple is incapable of a mistake. /s

 

[BroTim52]

Oh. Awesome. Thanks for that!

Also go on youtube and check apple insiders review and the compared benchmarks. Absolutely amazing!!

 

[dannyyankou]

“Quieter Keys” is sure better marketing than “it won’t malfunction due to dust”

 

[SteveJUAE]

“Quieter Keys” is sure better marketing than “it won’t malfunction due to dust”

It will still malfunction due to dust just less likely to happen...… maybe

 

[smirking]

Personal preference. It really gets me when people who don't even own the laptop bash on it and say everyone hates the keyboard.

I know. I find it exasperating that some of the most opinionated people have the least experience with the keyboard. I don't expect everyone to like it. As a collector of mechanical keyboards, I knew right away that the butterfly keys would be polarizing. I wouldn't blame anyone for not liking it, but if you're going to bash it every chance you get, at least have the diligence to give it an honest try first.

The butterfly keys aren't my favorite switch, but I actually grew to like them after really hating them at first.

 

[thadoggfather]

“Quieter Keys” is sure better marketing than “it won’t malfunction due to dust”

Is the general consensus in this thread that the silicone will fix the keyboard issues?

 

[MauiPa]

Uh, no. Because it's not. Next question.

People wanted:

Old keyboard system (even ignoring the reliability problem, the new keyboards feel gross to type on. the new ones are still super loud, too.)
The old, smaller trackpad (new one is too big - lots of accidental input)

Ports - USB-C is great, but 20 years of legacy won't vanish overnight. Having the ability to hook up my stuff without dongles is essential

The stupid ****ing touch bar to go away - Transitioning from typing on keys to touching glass mid-sentence is just gross.

A resolution bump - the 15" MBPR still has the reduced effective resolution of the original Retina MacBook Pro.

Core count bump - delivered

32GB of ram - delivered

Pricing reduced to 2015 levels - nope, a semi-decent largely base 15" config is still well over $3000. A bit much for a fairly terrible laptop.

Apple, just go back to the 2012-2015 keyboard design. It's far superior. It feels better, it was more reliable, and it was MUCH quieter. It checks all the boxes. Why did you change it and make it suck so much in these newer models? Just swallow your pride and go back to your great design!

presumptive of you to speak for everyone, isn't it? . New keyboards feel great, and Apple sales continue to outpace PC sales, so maybe, just maybe, this isn't the issue you pretend it to be.

Legacy, Oh I couldn't agree, I want them to add a vga adapter to my iPhone, I miss it. and man, where is The 5 1/4 floppy drive? Who gives a crap about 20 years of outdated stuff? Everyone I know who uses a a laptop in the office uses a dock, One cable to a dock instead of many, isn't amazing? Yah pretty much it is. A shame other vendors are going with Thunderbolt/USB-c ports, kind takes the wind out of your argument for "everyone".

dude, don't like the Touch Bar, don't use it. jeez, what a baseless complaint.

Price reduced? talk to Intel about that, I bet you want the 8th generation Intel chips, too though. Have you priced out other comparable builds? Pretty much inline with Apple pricing. I looked at Razor and Dell. Apple has better/faster RAM, SSD, screens and I/O for a comparable price. I guess you can always buy a craptop for less, but why are all the PC guys copying the Apple experience with thin/light quality enclosures and pricing them the same, if no one wants them? I guess just to sit on the shelves.

I hear yah though, you might want stuff, but everyone? not even close. For example, I bought a 2014 15" MBP with the graphics card, which I never use, and 16 GB, of which I never use more than 8, because at the price point, it had everything else I wanted. Sometimes we do have to go with what is available versus what we want.

 

[0388631]

Praise the numpty at Apple who thought of this two years late.

 

[MauiPa]

Maybe the keyboard problems are a result of excessive heat due to usage patterns affecting the plastic keys parts and/or the aluminium case. Apple's design requires the parts to be manufactured with extremely fine tolerances and won't take much deviation/deformation to have a negative effect. Also, because of this dust, skin flakes will also be an issue. This may account for not everyone having the problem during the same time frame. Hope this silicon cover helps for those buy this.

excessive heat? did you make that up?

Speaking of which, did you read the verge review of the Razor with comparable features and pricing? they said you could fry a steak on it. Never heard that with Apple ---- ever. and heat damages internal components and throttles stuff. Who would buy a premium product with thermal's l issues. begging for short life there.

 

[zooole]

Is the general consensus in this thread that the silicone will fix the keyboard issues?

Dirt and dust will always be capable to break keyboards. The same can happen to scissor ones too. Just a hell of a lot less likely than with the butterfly mechanism.

No, it won’t be perfect, but if they bring down the failure rates to the average scissor levels, it’s going to be fine.

 

[MauiPa]

Yeah I think this nails it. The Legal team have a lot of power within companies and if they'd admit outright the faulty previous keyboards, then it's ringing the dinner bells for more lawsuits.

This is really good news here...

isn't the case kind of moot now that the few customers with problems are refunded and can get free repairs? Oh your being facetious. dah!
[doublepost=1531544996][/doublepost]

...not to mention, dandruff and hair. Hasn't Apple seen the movie Gattaca?

and not to mention if you spend too much time looking at naughty stuff
[doublepost=1531545179][/doublepost]

So it took them 2 years to implement this fix since filing, in the meantime they sold 1000's of laptops knowingly with a defect

View attachment 770532

the impacted a few people. the shame

any trolls want to make this out to be a large scale problem, please prove it, facts do matter.
[doublepost=1531545295][/doublepost]

First off, way to go iFixit! Those guys are awesome. I love their clever use of "cover up".

This is clearly an intended fix for the keyboard failures, but Apple doesn't want to admit it. This may be in light of class action lawsuits still in progress and not wanting to admit that the previous keyboards were flawed.

PS. The 2016-2018 keys are definitely larger in area than the previous generation, thereby having a reduced gap between the keys. I can't see how this improves accuracy. Again it just seems like somebody decided bigger is better and not that there might be an size that isn't 'as big as possible', just as there might be an ideal thickness that isn't 'as thin as possible'.

Further, a larger key area also means a larger perimeter for dust and particle ingress to occur.

The Deep Apple State. get your tin foil hats out folks.

 

[Abazigal]

Is the general consensus in this thread that the silicone will fix the keyboard issues?

Time will tell.

 

[MauiPa]

This is being overlooked by a lot of people evidently. I still use an original Retina MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) and won't feel compelled to upgrade until Apple bumps up the resolution to 3360x2100.

Your point about the dongles is valid, but I've long stopped hoping for Apple to bring back USB-A ports or MagSafe or an SD card slot, and decided to just hope for a lower base price instead.

USB-C will eventually replace USB-A, but it's happening very slowly as I expected. USB-A is still found in many places that USB-C isn't, like the 2013 Mac Pro and 2014 Mac mini Apple is still selling as current models, as well as the 2015 MacBook Pro literally discontinued just yesterday.

One wire to rule them all. Isn't that cool, just get a dock, no more three or four wires to plug in. If the premise is that Retina is the densest pixel count the human eye can see, what is the benefit go going to 4K in a 13 or 15 inch laptop, sounds kind of foolish, like a 15 HP lawnmower for 1/4 acre of lawn. I'll admit I'm older now, maybe I can't see better than 20/20, maybe there is a benefit.

 

[itsmilo]

God I hate my boss for her butterfly keyboard alone. Whenever she is in my room I just want to throw her MacBook out of the window. It is SO loud when she is typing.

My 2012 keyboard also feels so much better

 

[Playfoot]

I would imagine the top case is refurbished with a new battery in it. It makes it quicker for them to replace, but they get the customer to front the cash. Kinda sucks.

A battery is almost like gas for a car. It's inevitably going to need replacement.
[doublepost=1531532820][/doublepost]

What's wrong with the track pad?

Too large. Results in too many mistakes created by the jumping cursor. The only solution is go back to typing class and raise the palms completely off the palm rest . . . Ironic.

 

[johannnn]

So much negativity here. Why not just focus on how much better gen3 seems to be?

I don’t expect the failure rate will go down to zero (I’m sure some YouTuber will do disgusting things like eating a pizza just above the keyboard and then complain it doesn’t work), but the addition of a membrane sure seems to fix the problem. Both problems.

 

[macintoshmac]

the arrow keys - when pressed softly, you could feel them click but they didn't register a keypress. After testing tens of MB/MBPs, tb/non-tb, in store and through friends, I learned that they all exhibited this behaviour.

My original November 2016 keyboard had this issue with the up arrow key. Pressing in the centre was unreliable!

I have had a replacement in May 2018, according to battery info this is December 2017, and the key press registers in the centre but not when pressed in the corners.