What is the best course of action for those who need to buy a MBP but holding off due to thekeyboard

[hajime]

Hi, as many of you know, I have been holding off purchase of the MacBook Pro for about 3 years partly because of the butterfly keyboard. I am sure some people are also hoping for a redesign but nothing has happened yet.

As many of you recall, after Apple released the MBP 2018, within a few months it upgraded the MBP with Vega 20 GPU. Given the quiet release of the MBP 2019, how likely will it release one (either a redesign of the whole unit or just the keyboard) with something rather than a butterfly keyboard?

From the internet, some mentioned that the keyboard issues are not due to dust but heat from within the machine. Is that really true? Is it a combination of both?

Given the uncertainty, for those who have been holding off the purchase due to the butterfly keyboard, what is the best course of actions? One possible way I can think of is to just buy a MBP 2019 (probably not the top of the line model especially if I use Nvidia GPU) and sell it when an overall redesign or a change of keyboard type model is released. It is an expensive option though. Due to security of data, I hesitate to sell my computers to strangers so I will sell it back to Apple even at lower cost. Which configurations will have higher resell values if I sell it back to Apple?

Also, will the risk of having data recovered by bad guys be lower if I sell my computers to Apple?

 

[mroy16]

If you need a MBP, and not just a laptop, buy a MBP. At this point, the "newest" non-butterfly design is 4 years old and not worth buying. If you're worried about longevity, get AppleCare. If you don't actually need a MBP, look at non-Apple laptops.

A full redesign isn't going to be a silent update like the Vega 20. A full redesign will be announced before it's available, similar to the Mac Pro and other major updates.

You can always wipe your device completely before reselling it, whether that's to Apple or a third party. As long as you effectively wipe the laptop, no one is going to get your data from it.

 

[Mikael H]

Given the uncertainty, for those who have been holding off the purchase due to the butterfly keyboard, what is the best course of actions?

The previous generations of butterfly keyboards have displayed issues within a few months of delivery. The keyboard was recently updated with new materials, in what Apple obviously believes is a working solution to the problems. I'd say give it a few months to see whether the problems really are gone. Otherwise you'll surely hear about it.

Also, will the risk of having data recovered by bad guys be lower if I sell my computers to Apple?

Unless the bad guys you're afraid of are state sponsored your data should be safe enough if you use FileVault and a good pass phrase. Wipe the computer after use, and all they'll be able to lift from your laptop is semi-random garbage.

 

[hajime]

Is it a good idea to buy a Windows laptop and turn it into a dual/triple boots Hackintish?

 

[MRrainer]

Is it a good idea to buy a Windows laptop and turn it into a dual/triple boots Hackintish?

No.
We're wondering, though, why you haven't fallen off the fence considering how long you've been sitting on it contemplating between the two sides.

 

[hajime]

No.
We're wondering, though, why you haven't fallen off the fence considering how long you've been sitting on it contemplating between the two sides.

Nice to hear from you. Something happened the past few days..

1. I regretted buying an iPad PRO 12.9" since it is pretty useless for me but after the announcement of the iPad OS, I am getting excited about owning an iPad PRO because of the new file system, ability to use external storage and mouse. This is the first time I consider buying a keyboard for it. So, having a MBP may be better for integration?

2. I have tried a few Lenovo laptops but they all have some issues. X1Y4 and X1E Gen 2 are coming but there is no announcement on when the 4K model will be released. If I try these two, I will continue to waste time sitting on the fence beta testing new products for Lenovo.

3. If I read it correctly, the new MBP 2019 have 8+ hours of battery life and is dead silent when doing basic productivity or just playing back 4K videos. If it is wrong, please let me know.

4. As mentioned in another post, when I tried to backup the Windows partition of my MBP 2010, suddenly the external drive lost all the data and also some files of long filenames could not be copied. Perhaps better to use MBP and Bootcamp/Winclone?

5. Cannot find suitable laptops from HP. Need to wait for Lenovo to release new laptops to try them. As for MSI, Acer, Gigabyte, etc., not sure how helpful they are when things go wrong. Asked Huawei. They said that warranty is for one year only and after that, they will "try their best" to fix the computer if there is something wrong. However, there is no guarantee that they will have the parts to do the repairing down the road! At least for Apple, I can go to a store and complain.