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Buying a used Macbook with butterfly keys?
- Thread starter levmc
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I think it's several hundred dollars, as they have to replace the entire top of the machine.
Not true. People were reporting multiple failures that seemed to come almost randomly -- or maybe from some invisible bit of lint or a random crumb or something. I do recall there were at least a couple of revisions of the butterfly switch design, but my understanding was that they're all failure-prone and very expensive to fix out of warranty.
Personally, I would avoid like the plague any Mac with butterfly keyboard. Apple's special repair program for them is over, so you're just rolling the dice -- especially when any Apple Silicon Mac is probably going to roast it in performance and battery life.
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I have a 2015 MacBook with a butterfly keyboard. A couple of time I had sand stuck under some keys after going to the beach with it. Removing keys and cleaning them is actually really doable. I don’t know why people say it’s impossible.
When the butterfly keyboards first started getting hate, I figured it was overblown. The next time I was near an Apple Store I went in and typed the typical "The quick brown fox" sentence. It works nicely as a keyboard test since it uses each character.
The result? I could not find a single machine in the entire store where all the keys worked. While not a sterile environment, the store is fairly clean. It's not like people are eating over these keyboards, and it's not like the store isn't going to repair or replace them when they notice their display models are faulty, and yet every single one was broken.
I would not buy a butterfly MBP. Even if it's fixed for free, I'd expect it to be a hassle, leaving you without a machine for a few days at completely random times.
I have a 2015 base model and 2017 MacBook. Never had any trouble with either keyboard and I do type a lot on them. I don’t have food/drinks while using it and give the keyboard a quick wipe down with a lint free cloth before closing the lid.
Having said that, buying used will always be a roll of the dice. One will never know the environment in which it was used previously. If you are able to test it out before buying, then I would be more confident if all keys are working and it looks to be in good shape. Of course, YMMV.
Having said that, buying used will always be a roll of the dice. One will never know the environment in which it was used previously. If you are able to test it out before buying, then I would be more confident if all keys are working and it looks to be in good shape. Of course, YMMV.
The out of warranty repair can be upwards of $700, and the new part is as fundamentally flawed as the original. The problem is simply faulty design and no amount of care can prevent a keyboard failure with any certainty. You should not buy one of these.
I have to agree here. I had a couple of different models with the butterfly switches from work, and while I never had one fail, I did get very sore hands from typing on them when I had to use them as actual laptops, and I made far more typos. I would advise that you stay away. They're bad enough that even Apple doesn't use them anymore.