Is the Air KB issues THAT common?

[AltecX]

I'm looking into getting a 2018 Air. I use Macs occasionally due to having to support them, but I have not owned a Mac in nearly 4-5 years. Is the KB really that likely to give issues that I should perhaps rethink my decision?

My alternative would be a Surface Laptop 2 as the Surface line has served me reliably since they came out.

 

[auxbuss]

Well, folk with problems post here. Folk who don't have problems, don't (mostly).

 

[torana355]

The telling sign for me is the amount of people who have had multiple failures, that tells me the issue is quite severe, there is no way I'll be upgrading to a new Apple laptop till they fix it.

 

[vaugha]

I don't think the issue is overblown as others have stated. I've heard of people who said they never issues w/ their old mba but they had w/ the newer ones. When I went to a local apple store, and played w/ 2 models on display, one of them had intermittent double key presses on the space bar. I couldn't believe it.

If you insist on getting a macbook and can't trust the reliability of the machine, make sure you get applecare+. This way you will have a peace of mind for 3 years. It's a shame b/c I purchased applecare for my 2012 rmbp 15" and 2013 mba 13" but never used it. That's how reliable these machines were but seems like applecare is pretty much mandatory nowadays. Sorta tells you how much downhill macbooks have become reliability wise.

 

[AmazingTechGeek]

What I've learned from my previous windows laptop is that some people hit the keys too hard (as if it's a desktop keyboard). It's not to say the butterfly keyboard is flawed, but I wore out my windows laptop in a year because I thought push pressure wasn't that relevant.

 

[myrtlebee]

What I've learned from my previous windows laptop is that some people hit the keys too hard (as if it's a desktop keyboard). It's not to say the butterfly keyboard is flawed, but I wore out my windows laptop in a year because I thought push pressure wasn't that relevant.

So, "You're typing on it wrong"? Sorry, had to do it. I'll show myself out.

 

[Dave245]

The problem is that we just don't know! People only tend to post on these sites when they have issues, so that does skew the outlook and figures. How many have Apple sold? how many people don't have issues and never visit these sites/forums? we just don't know.

At this point i would say that the 3rd gen is better than previous versions (1st and 2nd gen) BUT you do still get a 12 month warranty, any issues during that time and you can send it back for repair.

This shouldn't be happening at all and Apple really do need to fix it, will there be a gen 4 keyboard this year? i think that's another question people have. Apple have definitely explored the idea of an all new keyboard. I personally don't think that will come until the redesign of the MacBook Pro next year.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/04/apple-exploring-new-glass-panel-keyboards/

 

[AltecX]

The problem is that we just don't know! People only tend to post on these sites when they have issues, so that does skew the outlook and figures. How many have Apple sold? how many people don't have issues and never visit these sites/forums? we just don't know.

At this point i would say that the 3rd gen is better than previous versions (1st and 2nd gen) BUT you do still get a 12 month warranty, any issues during that time and you can send it back for repair.

This shouldn't be happening at all and Apple really do need to fix it, will there be a gen 4 keyboard this year? i think that's another question people have. Apple have definitely explored the idea of an all new keyboard. I personally don't think that will come until the redesign of the MacBook Pro next year.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/04/apple-exploring-new-glass-panel-keyboards/

That sounds like a nightmare to type on.

 

[bbednarz]

I bought a 2018 Air on January 29th and haven't had any issues. Granted its only been 2 weeks... But I actually prefer this keyboard over any I have used in the past. I like how low profile they are. I cant stand typing on keyboards with large keys and large key travel.

 

[Nokers]

For what it’s worth I don’t think it’s that common. I took mine to the Genius Bar for this issue Monday. It was sent for repair with no hassle, but today I got an email offering to send me a new (non-refurbished) replacement if they could keep mine for engineering to study. If it was that common an issue on the new models they wouldn’t be interested in doing that.

 

[Ghost31]

It’s impossible without real research done on this to know anything. People with issues will come here and complain and more will join in and it’ll seem like a new “gate” just because you see people getting pissed off. It’s hard to get perspective when you’re on sites like this.

Personally, I think a good indication it’s not super widespread is the media hasn’t covered it and they love their new apple related gates. Bend gate, antenna gate, gate gate, etc. if there was a widespread issue that affected a LARGE amount of people in the tens of thousands even, this would be headline news. The fact it’s not speaks volumes. We all know how terrible media and outrage culture is right now. And how apple is always under a microscope.

My guess? It’s an issue, apple knows it and is trying to mitigate it by releasing the new 3rd gen keys. It’s not a huge issue though. It’s just a thing that happens sometimes like any other technical issue whether it be dead pixels or flex cables or hard drive failures or whatever. It’s just one of many issues they deal with

I got my 2018 air at launch and it stills works perfect. Take that for whatever it’s worth

 

[AustinIllini]

Its safe to say at this point it isn’t that common.

Notice they keyboard threads have about 5 pages of posts but only one person reporting the issue and everyone else being useless and saying “how could Apple do this?!” and picking fights with people who don’t join the whining

 

[Nokers]

Well, time to adjust my opinion. I still say the keyboard issue isn’t that common, but wow has Apple service gone down the toilet. They gave me the option to getting the unit repaired or accepting a new unit so they could study the issue on the old one. I did them a favor by letting them keep it, and if I had ordered a new one I would that day (Wednesday) it would’ve arrived by Friday. It STILL hasn’t shipped, and after getting off the phone with support they couldn’t do anything.

 

[Michael383]

I'm not sure how common the problem is but I've had my 2018 MBA for about 2 months and haven't had any keyboard issues.