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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

I love the new 2016 MBP, and after using it think most of the purported issues are BS.

That said, there is one very real issue that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: because of how thin they are, many of the minor issues that could previously be fixed in the Apple Store now require sending it out.

I had an intermittently working key on my keyboard and took it in for something I assumed would take half an hour to fix. They told me they needed to mail it in and it would be 4 - 6 days, probably 4. It's now going on day 13.

Fortunately my last one was old enough that it had zero resale value, but for anyone thinking of upgrading I'd highly recommend keeping a backup.

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You love your new computer that has been in the shop for 13 days? May I ask, when did you buy it?

It came in early December, and I dropped it off Feb 2nd. So just a few days outside the 40 day RMA window, though had it failed earlier I'd probably still have opted for them to repair it.

I thought that was strange too.

Three fingers drag is buggy on the new trackpad.

Control strip is buggy, especially when using external monitors. The software is not able to adequately deal with external monitors being connected and disconnected throughout the day.

Another anecdote: I have two LG monitors on my desk, and frequently connect and disconnect the laptop during the day. I've had no issues with this, the touch bar, or with the trackpad.

really? You've never had 3 finger drag being registered as a two finger scroll?

Compared to my MBA, i can 100% reliability input 3 fingers vs 2. on the new MBP, that reliability rate is about 80%

Really, it does work 100% for me. I just tried it quite a few times. The only way I can make a three-finger drag register as a two-finger scroll is when the third finger is actually not on the trackpad.

I've found this too - connecting an external monitor messes up some of my Touchbar functionality until I restart the whole laptop.

another solution is to run this command in terminal: killall ControlStrip

I've noticed this too with the control strip. Eventually the whole thing goes black except for maybe one "button" worth of area, like it missed a redraw or something. Tapping on a black area where you know a button is will redraw that button but you have to close and reopen the lid to get the whole thing normal again.

It also had a kernel panic displayed on the control strip (which is a separate OS) the moment I turned it on for the first time. It was kinda hilarious, the panic text was written sideways on the control strip, and since it's so thin there was a line break every 4-5 characters.

I have now had mine in twice with key issues. Out of the box, my 'b' key would type 'bb' about 60% of the time instead of just 'b'. 15-day repair that involved apparently replacing the entire front panel, trackpad, battery, and a few other things.

3 weeks after that repair, my 'o' key stopped responding unless I hit it in the bottom left corner. Took it in and they fixed it in-store. Said that many people are having keyboard issues.

I also had one faulty key, it took 14 days to repair. They needed to replace half of the macbook. The whole top body panel with keyboard, batteries, trackpad and whatever else, because everything is glued together. When I got the macbook back, enter key was not working properly, fortunately it started working the next day.

There are couple of software glitches and I'd choose non-TB option if there was any for 15 inch, otherwise it's great laptop.

I've had the same intermittent key issue on my keyboard since I got it. Opened a support ticket with Apple days after I received it but still haven't send it in. Joel Spolsky had the same issue[1], TWICE [2]. If there's anything wrong with these machines, it's the keyboard, not the things everyone who doesn't even own one thinks it is.

[1]: https://twitter.com/spolsky/status/815245283818733569 [2]: https://twitter.com/spolsky/status/815245490010787840

Yeah the space between the keys is wide enough that dust from the air can get in between them, but too narrow to get it out. And the precision levels seem to be high enough that that's all it takes to cause this issue. (At least according to the other folks experiencing this on Reddit.)

It's a shame because I really like the feel of typing on it, but if it keeps breaking that's a huge issue.

I sloshed a bit of coffee on my keyboard, first such fck-up in over fifteen years. They want $620 to rub wipe the coffee off and put the keys back in place (they sent a photo). I'm praying that tomorrow morning I can talk them into mailing it back to uncleaned but still disassembled and let me pop them back in place....

Did they tell you that they were going to just wipe the coffee off and put it back together? I used to do Apple repairs and the $620 sounds in line with a full upper clamshell w/ keyboard replacement. Just "rub wiping" the coffee off wouldn't be satisfactory since you can't reach all of the places that the coffee penetrated, even with a full keyboard teardown.

I just had the full upper clamshell plus the keyboard replaced of my MBA 2013. Cost me ~$320. They even threw in a free battery replacement.

Curious if anyone else had constant sleep/wake failures?

I otherwise love the computer, but when I sleep it overnight it inevitably shuts down and has to restart in the morning. I'm sending in the crash report daily just in case they actually use them and maybe it'll get fixed.

Not a huge deal since computers boot so fast and I always save things, but it's still annoying.

Yeah, I'm having similar issues. Also having issues with multiple monitors. For some reason, one of the monitors will just flicker on and off or won't register at all.

Yes. It's very annoying because my sessions and apps are open exactly how I want them. Anyone have a solution?

It could be due to a specific USB device. I had the issue once with what seemed to be a USB-C to USB-A adapter and a high power draw device. Many others have reported issues with external drives.

More anecdata because facts are sparse... My 15" late 2016 MBP will not properly wake from sleep when I use my Dell USB 3.0 dock. I need to test further but it may be more directly due to the monitor plugged into the dock.

EDIT: on the topic of the article, my battery life is great, the whole computer is great EXCEPT for having to keep activity monitor open to keep an eye on which GPU I'm using. the discrete GPU will burn through a whole charge in 3.5 hrs. Some apps will call for it without actually needing it, like reading a pdf in Adobe Acrobat. If I kill off any apps calling the dGPU, battery life is fine, albeit not exciting. I keep the full MS Office suite running, Google Earth Pro, a dozen or so tabs open. Frustrating but hoping it will be fixed on a software update.

I agree that the heavily load dependent battery life is a pain, but one suggestion is to get iStat Menus. The CPU usage widget can show a icon to indicate if the integrated (i) or discrete (A) GPU is being used.

I have literally no USB devices that I use regularly, and none that are plugged in overnight while it's sleeping.

I'm still always amazed Apple doesn't offer better support packages for professional users, given that they clearly are in the premium market. Something like "we'll swap your SSD in a loaner device if we can't fix it immediately" sounds like it wouldn't be too expensive to implement.

Maybe with previous models, but considering the new MBP SSD storage is soldered in I don't think that would be practical.

Apple doesn't really support "professional" in the "enterprise" sense. E.g., here(1) is Lenovo's options for service agreements for the standard public. It outlines standard levels offering on-site tech support and the possibility of international support. I've worked with firms that have had a strict 12 hour on-site tech to service whatever broke (a 3 million dollar z12 or a 300 dollar Ideapad) in the SLA negotiated into the package of a bulk buy.

A good litmus test between "professional" and "premium consumer device" is 1: do you have a direct line to a domestic tech who can address your issues (i.e., generally not having to waste your time with a level 1 service tech, but directly reaching someone who is at least semi-competent and capable of authorizing work orders and/or warranty claims in the ERP) or an option to buy an SLA, 2: does the company offer a mil-spec and/or pre-authorized GSA listed items, 3: does their financing dept offer 3 (or 5, depending on how your organization decides to do their depreciation) year equipment lease schedule ?

[1] https://www.lenovo.com/images/products/services-warranty/dat...

You can't say you love the new MBP and that you recommend that anyone that buys one has a backup computer in the same comment...

Stockholm syndrome.

The need for a backup computer is related to Apple's service, which is (currently) bad. I'm not defending that, but it's different than the product itself.

That's bad. I am nowhere near an Apple Store and needed a repair on my 2014 rMPB. Apple overnighted me a box. I packed it and it was picked up that evening around 8pm on a Wednesday. They got the computer fixed and back to me by Friday morning. I would be very unhappy to wait 13 days.

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