They may be affected, but the frequency of both outright failures and that high-pitched popping sound appears to be reduced considerably. Time will tell how significant of a difference this is in the long term.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MacBook Pro 2016 Keyboard Failure
- Thread starter rroch
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They may be affected, but the frequency of both outright failures and that high-pitched popping sound appears to be reduced considerably. Time will tell how significant of a difference this is in the long term.
Not according to the folks I spoke to at Apple.
In fact I was offered the 2017 model in exchange, but when I asked if there was a significant change in design to make failure less likely, I was twice told NO.
Otherwise I would have happily accepted the newer machine.
Let me put it another way. My friend works a Genius Bar in Chicago. That, along with my sources via the case I had to file lead me to make this statement: Do NOT buy the new MBP if you can wait for a redesign of the keyboard.
R.
I just had to leave my 2017 15" MBP with Apple to have the top case replaced because of a faulty H key! They genius tried cleaning the key first, but it did not solve the double press issue. Having now read all over the web about issues with this 2nd gen butterfly keyboard, I'm beginning to regret my purchase...
I work part-time at an Apple Authorized Service Provider and I am the person who handles the checkin process where I interact with the customer, verify the problem, provide the software support (if applicable), and/or check the system in with documentation to get it to the Apple Certified technicians (if applicable.)
Whatever Apple did with the keyboard, I agree it was not significant. But they presumably did something, because the number of 2017s at this point in time coming back with keyboard issues is a small fraction of 2016s. That's my personal observation. But I do not want to speculate to the long-term implications given how the 2017 is still a relatively new lineup and how Apple has not published sales numbers regarding 2016 vs. 2017 sales quantities.
Fair enough. My point is that the best course of action is to wait for (hopefully) a redesign in the keyboard that makes it a non-issue.
Enough people are reporting identical problems (non-responsive or repeating keys) to give anyone pause.
R.
I don't think this is Jony Ive at fault but the short travel keys certainly cause many issues and part of it cause of the tight manufacturing tolerances.
The lack of key travel makes it even more sensitive to register user input, so if they do increase it by even 0.5/1mm, it should reduce this "manufacturing defect"