I just got my 2016 15" 2.6, 512 SSD Radeon Pro 450 today and have been running it for about 3 hrs with iTunes playing and several safari tabs YouTube video been playing for over an hr in HD and another tab of HD video playing from Benjamin Mayo blog of Apple TV Ariel videos that loop and another tab browsing the web. Brightness is at 75% keyboard brightness full bars. During these past 3 hrs coconut battery is showing battery temp at 90% and about 21.5 watts being discharged. The laptop is a pretty warm underneath.
Activity monitor shows I have NOT used the dGPU. I started with 100 battery at 8:00 pm then I opened all the above I mentioned and it's been running since. I currently have 61% battery left.
I've been doing a lot of typing and key travel is fine and I love the backlit lighting. I have accidentally hit the touch bar several times typing throwing the brightness levels way up. I really hate that, I did it again with the keyboard lighting levels too accidentally. I have the keyboard to always show expanded controls on the touch bar.
The sound from the keys is noticeably louder in the middle of the keyboard. I checked each key several times (again my laptop is pretty warm on the bottom for the past 3 hrs) and I don't have any high pitched sounding keys. However, what I don't like is how most all the middle keys are loud like t y u i and the next row f g h j and next row b n m so in other words most all the keys in the middle have a louder sound like it's hitting hollow. The keys on the side are super silent like q a z s d x p o l
That is my only gripe after a few hours is that the sound is not uniform across the keys. The ones in the middle are much much louder than the ones toward the outside. I would prefer they all be the same. It gives off a cheap feel since they are not uniform in sound.
I have to say the screen is amazing and looks so much better than the 2015 MacBook Pro 15" I returned. I will need to give this another week to see how it goes and if I will return or keep. I think I already prefer the keyboard from the 2015 model with regard to quietness. I also miss the dedicated esc key. I wish I could have the screen from this 2016 model with the keyboard from the 2015 model and no touch bar.
Oh I forgot to note that according to coconut battery the manufacture date of my MacBook Pro at the very top it says Jan 02 2017
Thank you for the thorough post! It gives me hope that the clicking is not occurring on this version. And, that it was manufactured in January. Maybe, just maybe the kinks have been worked out in the manufacturing.
As far as uniformity, I do hear what you're saying. The keys on either edge are softer, and less "drum" sounding than the keys in the center. But, I think that's the nature of this new keyboard (unfortunately). I, personally, am ok with that, but the tin-foil clicking noise is unacceptable.
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Just got my 2nd MacBook Pro (replacement for dodgy screen). The new one has this awful loud clicking noise from the right shift key. It only does it when the laptop gets warm though... Called Apple - laptop number 3 on its way
I'm about to return mine. If I get another one, it will be number 4 for me!!
I can't believe that Apple's manufacturing or engineering of the product is so poor.
It's interesting to me that you have the identical build of computer to me.
My first machine was buggy as hell. The screen got all garbled and froze the machine up, and the trackpad was unresponsive at times. The keys on the second one were terrible. The lower-right shift key, question mark, period, comma, tab, "e", "r", "t" and delete keys all had the loud crackle/pop right out of the box. It didn't even require the machine to get hot.
My current (3rd) one is the "A" key only.
At this point, I'm thinking of just waiting for Apple to either fix this issue or their next MB Pro release. However, I'm worried about the timing of the latter, due to their current, seemingly aloof attitude toward the Mac.
