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[Poll] Should I stay away from MBP 2016?

Stay away from MacBook Pro 2016?

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 48.1%

  • No

    Votes: 27 51.9%
  • Total voters
    52
J

jason1204

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2017
13
6
Currently thinking about getting a refurb MacBook Pro 2016 (13 inch, 16GB) but I read tons of reviews which suggest that the issues like battery life and keyboard failures are very very common. With my budget, I can only get the 8GB model for the 2017 model, so I'd like to assess whether 2016 models are that bad.

Should I stay away from MacBook Pro 2016?

Edit: Currently using MBP 2017 8GB which is within the 14 days return window. Running VM pushes the ram pressure to the orange region with ease, so I am considering moving to 16GB
 
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I’ve had my 2016 nTB MBP since November 2016 and it’s been great. No keyboard problems and the battery life has been great as well. I’d rather have a 2016 with higher RAM and/or storage than a 2017 with less.
 
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maflynn said:
Why spend close if not over 2,000 dollars on a machine that you know very well has a high occurrence of keyboard failure?

Its a beautiful machine, I know but that's a lot of money for a computer that is known to have a significant issue.
Click to expand...

Context is important here - I said "tons of reviews which suggest ... are very very common". Since it's more likely for a disgruntled customer to post something about it than a regular customer, I thought it may not be an absolutely accurate way of measuring the failure rate.

That's the intent of the poll - to hear the opinions and gauge the responses for and against the 2016 from the general population on this forum, not just the disgruntled customers who definitely will have higher degree of bias. (Though I am sure a significant number of people are biased in any forums)
 
jason1204 said:
Since it's more likely for a disgruntled customer to post something about it than a regular customer, I thought it may not be an absolutely accurate way of measuring the failure rate.
Click to expand...
There was a member here who said the exact same thing, he and I would argue and go back and forth, He would say much what you just posted and more in fact. Yet I felt (only an opinion) that it was more widespread then a few upset owners. Basically I'm thinking where there is smoke there is fire.

Oh, and that member I just mentioned, well he created a thread a month or so ago, and said his MBP's keyboards all failed. You see he bought multiple MBPs for his business and they all had keyboard failures and in his talking to Apple Genius confirmed that they the geniuses believe its a widespread issue. He now is ardently recommend against the new laptops because of that issue.

I recommend a quick perusal of his thread:
MBP Keyboard is a total FAIL
 
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My wife's 2016 13" MBP is still going strong almost one year later. No keyboard issues and no battery issues. As a matter of fact, with wireless turned off and just using Word to get some writing done, she gets about 15 hours out of the battery on average. Not sure what the long long long term prognosis for this notebook is going to be, but so far, it's working fine. But the 2017 refurbs are not that much more expensive, so just get one of those. I think they're $1269 when they're available on Apple's refurb site, vs. $1189 for the 2016 model.
 
maflynn said:
Why spend close if not over 2,000 dollars on a machine that you know very well has a high occurrence of keyboard failure?

Its a beautiful machine, I know but that's a lot of money for a computer that is known to have a significant issue.
Click to expand...

This.

I am desperate (*)to replace my 2010 MBP but I will wait until they release a keyboard with ZERO complaints (like in the past).

(*) don't need it, just want it!
 
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I'm having no issues with my keyboard and if I do, it'll be straight back to Apple to fix it. And they don't argue when it's in warranty.
 
It's not really a big deal. Buy it, if there are any issues Apple will take it back no questions asked and order another one. It's a manufactured item, some have issues, some don't.
 
I am waiting until they go back to the original style keyboards. As for what you should buy, go with the 2017 Kabylake, its one step away from planned obsolescence in the distant future.
 
All I can say that we bought around 20 units of 2016 and 2017 laptops last year and haven’t got any issues to date.
 
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I retrieved my 2016 15" from having its keyboard replaced one week ago. It had been cleaned previously at an Apple store. Yesterday, the "b" key started intermittently repeating again. And the "n" key is intermittently either not registering or repeating. If it continues, I'm going to request that Apple replace it, and if the replacement does the same thing, to replace it with a 2015.

As others have noted, the 2017 models *appear* to be improved as far as the keyboard goes; as the keyboard on my 2016 was claimed to have been replaced with a 2017 model I am now somewhat dubious.

I have never had as many issues with an Apple product as I have had with the 2016 MBP (I tried a couple of different ones when they were introduced; but went back to the 2015). Hence, I voted to avoid the 2016.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

What are you using now?
Click to expand...

I currently own a MBP nTB 2017 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. While the computer is good enough for most of my tasks, running some Windows applications on Parallels VM pushes the RAM to almost full. So just for the convenience and the "future proofing" (I know it doesn't exactly work that way but at least RAM won't be an issue in the foreseeable future), I am considering moving to 16GB RAM model.

Naimfan said:
As others have noted, the 2017 models *appear* to be improved as far as the keyboard goes; as the keyboard on my 2016 was claimed to have been replaced with a 2017 model I am now somewhat dubious.
Click to expand...

2017 keyboard appears to be improved based on the reviews and articles I've read. It was a small modification but the general keyboard structure is the same, with some of the same problems happening on 2017 as well. It hasn't been long since it was released but the forums don't seem to be flooded with the complaints, so perhaps it might work better.

Also, while not severe, I noticed today that when I run my VM (and thereby increasing the temperature), certain keys such as Y and U produce a clicky sound that is very distinguishable from the other keys. Not exactly sure if it's the same issue but I may return the current MBP.

I am also considering getting MacBook Pro 2015 (maybe upgrade to 15 inch) too, but isn't it a little outdated? Like slower RAM, slower SSD, higher weight, etc
 
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maflynn said:
There was a member here who said the exact same thing, he and I would argue and go back and forth, He would say much what you just posted and more in fact. Yet I felt (only an opinion) that it was more widespread then a few upset owners. Basically I'm thinking where there is smoke there is fire.

Oh, and that member I just mentioned, well he created a thread a month or so ago, and said his MBP's keyboards all failed. You see he bought multiple MBPs for his business and they all had keyboard failures and in his talking to Apple Genius confirmed that they the geniuses believe its a widespread issue. He now is ardently recommend against the new laptops because of that issue.

I recommend a quick perusal of his thread:
MBP Keyboard is a total FAIL
Click to expand...

have the issues been resolved with the 2017 mbp?
 
tim1000 said:
have the issues been resolved with the 2017 mbp?
Click to expand...

Nobody can answer this since these issues have never been quantified. There are enough reports so that I would say, yes, there might be something going on with some of these computers, but certainly not enough clear evidence to declare that there is a global problem.
 
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No issues with my 2016 out of the ordinary.

I think there's been more complaints occur with the 2016 in general or at least on here as more people have brought the 2016, a lot of people waited a long time for a refresh and grabbed it when it came out. The 2017 is an iterative upgrade that filters through the chain really. So the majority of people who use this forum are the people that got the 2016, and so any issues get raised. The 2017 as far as I can tell is still experiences similar 'problems', and there's not really any discernible difference in design past placebo.

So get whichever your budget allows, always get the newest you can. Either way keep them clean. I'd say the newer keyboards are more premium and precision design so they are more susceptible to particles, and not forgiving like the older keyboards.

Anyway a point to consider is your budget, get the computer you want. If that's a 2017 and it'll give you piece of mind then spend the extra money, if you can't afford it then wait until you can. Don't get the 2016 convinced there will be an issue, as you will probably end up convincing yourself there is an issue and have a bad time.
 
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