Mech Problems in Disguise (Macrumors Macbook Keyboard Article)

[KHAANNN]

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/21/2016-macbook-pro-keyboard-issues/

I guiltily laughed a bit, however, I fully symphatise

It seems new Macbook owners got mechanical keyboards without any of the benefits, like the ability to replace or select switches

The sound/feel issues reminded me of my initial struggles with mech keyboards

Probably the lesson for Apple is to not fix something if it wasn't broken, older macbook keyboards have been acceptable in typing experience on-the-go

[Daniel Beardsmore]

That depends upon how you define "broken" — laptop keyboards are universally sub-optimal so there's nothing wrong with trying to improve upon them, but there's not a lot you can do when you artificially limit the space available to the keyboard. There's only one laptop I've ever used with a decent keyboard, which as I recall was a Dell Latitude E4310. The Apple (Aluminium) Keyboard is probably the worst ever made, for being utterly lifeless; Sony VAIO keyboards looked the same but had a bit more feel to them.

Unfortunately Apple make a habit of bodging their attempts to fit things into an impossibly small space.

[Puddsy]

Apple's laptop keyboards have been consistently easy to break for a long time now, I'm not really surprised to see this.

[cribbit]

Laptop/chiclet boards aren't that terrible. The new Apple laptop keys are terrible. Zero travel, just haptic feedback. They might as well have put just a giant trackpad there and painted on the keys. The haptic feedback feels terrible when you try to use it, at least with an ipad or a phone they can highlight keys as you use them since it's a screen.

[Findecanor]

The stand-alone aluminium keyboards are still much better than any Apple laptop keyboard from the last five years.
I (and many with me) think that the feel of the domes is actually pretty good for a low-profile, it is only the shape of the keycaps that is lacking.

Apple "butterfly" keyboards do not give feedback through the "taptic" engine, although it feels like it. There is actually a small metal dome under each key. Last years' MacBook "Pro" models got a fraction of a millimetre more key travel than the (one-port) MacBook but they are still abysmal, horrible keyboards.

Oh, and the "Magic" keyboards that come with current iMacs are also horrible, pretty much like on the MacBook Air.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The stand-alone aluminium keyboards are still much better than any Apple laptop keyboard from the last five years.

Ouch.

I (and many with me) think that the feel of the domes is actually pretty good for a low-profile, it is only the shape of the keycaps that is lacking.

Oh hell no. Not unless yours are from a different OEM to mine, which is of course possible. Up at the very top is Cherry ML on a good day (very tactile but not harsh like white Alps), and right down at rock bottom is Apple Aluminium with no travel and no feeling. It's like typing on a rattly touchscreen. The Latitude E4310 is up at the top for what you can get into a laptop (again, OEM dependent!) — the obsession with paper thin laptops means that we're not reclaiming the space freed by shrinking the electronics, to enlarge the internal depth of the keyboard. We survived through an era of chunky laptops, so it wouldn't kill anyone to make them a bit thicker and use that extra space to genuinely improve the keyboard.

I had a Trust scissor switch desktop keyboard with a reasonable feel, but it has the "rotten domes" feeling that you get with Dell D series Latitudes — compared to other scissor switch keyboards it's still one of the better ones.

[tp4tissue]

Why are you guys worried..

Macbooks are powered by magic..  special +15 fix , cast by hip-wizards..

[KHAANNN]

If I were Apple, I would replace the entire bottom part with a touchscreen, I suspect it is what they are moving towards too - not very comfortable to use, but it would at least have a use for people like me who almost never uses the keyboards, could be entirely configurable, view data when the keyboard is not being used

Mechanical keyboards all have their issues, for me, the fun is to overcome those issues, fix the issues when they arise, rebuild when it's not possible, but for a non-serviceable laptop, I think the less mechanical the keyboard the better

Tho, as Daniel pointed out, a seriously hefty laptop with serviceability would be nice too, kind of like a small desktop with a lithium battery attached - at least it's what I dream of on the opposite side of the spectrum

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Oh no, I never said seriously hefty. I don't mean like returning to the 386 era, or those mobile workstations with a power brick the size of a Mac mini — I just mean that we've gone too far. My ThinkPad T43 (which is fairly old!) is 1 1/8" thick (a bit more than the vaunted 1" PowerBook G4), it gets a decent 1400×1050 display in 14" and has a reasonable keyboard. It's pretty much ideal for a laptop (although the keys need rearranging into a sensible order, and I've put a faux pad printed Windows logo on the Alt Gr key (with decal look and everything) and remapped that to the Windows key that IBM still denied us following their OS/2–NT butthurt).