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Keyboard wear, how are yours doing?

clearguard too although i have been using it only a few days and i am trying to get used to it, it is really very thin and probably one of the thinnest out there and already i do have to press a lil harder i cant imagine the silicone ones which i think are thicker. so far so good.
 
I also started to see some shiny keys on my unibody mbp. Quickly bought the clearguard and am pretty happy with it. Very thin, extremely light (almost too light) but as people have said you definitely have to press down harder...

Before I put the clearguard on I cleaned up the whole keyboard area and keys with 91% rubbing alcohol, some q-tips, and the microfiber cloth that came with the machine...It got rid of most of the shiny keys except for the spacebar -- in the right light you can tell it's been worn down in certain areas.

Another option I thought about was to buy individual keys off ebay or something (as there's a lot of youtube videos of how to safely remove keys and put them back on) however I decided I'd wait on that until my keys got real bad (but this was before I bought the clearguard so I doubt I'll ever have to do that)...Also I'm not sure the cost per key...

To your main question...I don't think you'll have a problem with keys becoming totally translucent and the black paint wearing off...I haven't heard that happening with anybody's old black macbooks so I don't think it would suddenly start happening with these. Instead, you're just going to have a bunch of shiny (aka greasy) keys like all those black plastic macbook people have...either get used to it (if you don't want to buy a keyboard cover) or continually replace individual keys (or the entire top section)...
 
Goettel said:
Hi all,

I have noticed that my keyboard is starting to get shiny, especially the keys that get used most often. I am concerned about having letters disappear as I plan to keep the computer for a long time. Being a college student, I type quite a lot and replacing the keyboard (and the whole top panel) comes out to over 300$ CND. Also, I don't want to use a keyboard skin as I hate typing with those.

The way I understand it, the keys are translucent white (for the backlight) with a black paint. Do you think I should be concerned with the paint wearing out 2-3 years from now?
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you have a laptop that you use a lot but you don't want wear and tear showing? huh? something heavily used can't look pristine all the time...i mean, come on. other than shoving the thing back in its box and occasionally looking at it, you will have wear no matter what! What is such the big deal?
 
My keys and trackpad are shiny from 2 and a half years of use, which is to be expected. However, my M key is in pretty bad shape. The aluminum has begun to wear away, creating a dark spot surrounding the key (the back light is beginning to shine though it a bit as well). But the keyboard still works perfectly so I wouldn't worry about some letters wearing away; as long as you know how to type without looking at the keys, and the keys still work you'll be fine.
 
Benjamindaines said:
My keys and trackpad are shiny from 2 and a half years of use, which is to be expected. However, my M key is in pretty bad shape. The aluminum has begun to wear away, creating a dark spot surrounding the key (the back light is beginning to shine though it a bit as well). But the keyboard still works perfectly so I wouldn't worry about some letters wearing away; as long as you know how to type without looking at the keys, and the keys still work you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

i never looked into replacement keys but i imagine you could get them for non unibody laptops. pc laptops have replacement keys readily available, i imagine apple would as well.
 
Mr. Clean magic eraser will get rid of most of the shiny spots.
 
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