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Comment by sebringj | Hacker News Reader

The keyboard is really the main problem as the laptop performs very well otherwise. You have to turn off force feedback etc. I don't recommend taking your laptop to the beach but i kind of tend to and the butterfly keyboard will utterly fail if you get a single grain of sand near it as its too damn flat. Otherwise, I like the dynamic bar and trackpad and the thing just works without heating up.

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I don't agree the keyboard is the only issue. But it is the one thing that, if they fixed it, could sway me to buy one. And I know many others feel similarly

I've had the new MBP for about 18 months, and the keyboard is the only element that continues to consistently trip me up. Most of the time, it's fine, but every once in a while I get that out-of-body sort of feeling that something is off. I have never had that experience with any other keyboard, except possibly the Kinesis, which is a very different layout.

Otherwise I have to agree with the GP. Most of the complaints about this computer are not valid. E.g. dongles: I upgraded from the late 2011 MBP, which was old enough to have a DVD drive, and I always carried around dongles for video connection. Now it's a different set, but basically the same situation.

Yes! As it stands right now, my current MBP will be my last one as I'm by now willing to migrate back to Linux/FreeBSD after quite some years. If they throw out the shitty touch bar thing from the Pro lineup and give the next model a proper keyboard instead, I could see myself giving this a second thought …

It's not just the keyboard. The big-ass trackpad often mis-clicks. It gets worse with BTT, but the force-touch combined with the unavoidable size has been in my experience, a step back.

I've had to stop working using my laptop on my lap (yes I use a lap-pad/cooler) which I had found incredibly productive in previous years with former MBPs.

When working on laptop in my lap I found trackpoint (I own ThinkPads) incredibly powerful, as I never need to put my hands away from keyboard.

Also once you get used to track point you will always look down on clunky workflow with touch pads - moving hands from/to keyboard all the time is worth it only with real mouse.

Yeah I'm with you there. I've had a 2017 15" MBP for about 6 months now and the keyboard is acting up a bit. I guess I must have something under the left Command key because it's not really pressing the same way as the other keys. The 'H' key sometimes decides it doesnt feel like working or feels like working too hard and I end up with "hh".

Other than that it's a great system. The performance I'm pretty happy with, even for gaming.

I love the new keyboard and the super low travel. It definitely took a lot of getting used to.

I love the new keyboard as well. Hate the fact that like 5 of my keys have a strange combination of sticking and being not properly affixed (ie they just fly off the keyboard at random times). It's pretty crazy that to get your keyboard fixed you have to turn it into an Apple affiliated store (Apple Store won't take them in Berlin), and suffer through a 10 day wait. For fixing... a... few... keys.

until the keys stop working. It really breaks your flow when once in a while a shift or ctrl keypress does nothing. This keyboard is a failure and it is way too unreliable for daily work with lots of typing.

As I wrote the main comment here, I just performed an experiment in real time...the language you use in a comment has to be carefully worded to not convey too strong of an opinion excluding others or contain too much colorful language reflecting one's personality that may stray too far from the mainstream relatability. This is a perfect case to apply machine learning as I could see in real time votes responding up or down solely based on the emotional tone rather than the underlying meaning.

this morning my space bar requires two thumbs to work, seemingly random. show stopper.

I love the keyboard. The Touch Bar is interesting sometimes, but the virtual Escape key is a deal breaker.

My guess is the upcoming MacBook Pro update this year will solve the keyboard problem. There is a reason how Apple name their new macOS. They want you to use the new MacBook Pro 2018 in Mojave dessert to showcase that the problem is gone.

ha ha this keyboard was a conspiracy to upgrade. I'm kidding kind of but after using it it feels like they were just warming me up by letting me down.

This is exactly my point. The comment here reflects a more emotional experience that is too personal as to alienate the mainstream thus causing a negative perception. If it were worded as "Apple may have unintentionally created a motivator to upgrade based on their current keyboard design." this would be received positively yet the underlying meaning remains.

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