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Comment by neuronic | Hacker News Reader

Of course this is a matter of taste, but I seriously don't get the hate for the new keyboard. It took me two days to get used to it. The one thing I concede is, that it is loud.

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It's super clacky, there's no key travel, and it's hard to blindly feel the edges of the keys. There's also no escape key.

The key travel is very important. When you can type 140+ Words per minute key travel becomes important to stop rsi in the wrist.

Sounds like my old Atari 400, except it did have Esc.

The 2018 keyboard is much less clacky than the 2016 one but the travel is the same. I’m glad most of my typing is on an external keyboard anyway.

I don’t have a problem with Esc being on the Touch Bar because it’s the leftmost target and nothing is that close to it. Maybe I’d feel differently if I was a regular vi user.

I liked it well enough until keycaps started sticking to my fingers and falling out while I was typing. I think the overheating weakens the tiny and fragile plastic hooks. Also, some keys get stuck or repeat letters but I got used to it.

If it is a 200€ laptop, I might be okay with this. But paying 2800€ (15" model, least expensive configuration) and then not being able to work because the keyboard falls apart … unforgivable. Let’s hope Apple introduces a more reliable Pro laptop next year. Until then I have to plug along on my 2014 model.

For me, there was a huge difference between generations of the butterfly switches.

The first gen felt like typing on a flat surface for me, whereas the newer ones feel really nice to type on.

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