It's one thing to fail at designing something because it is hard and you haven't figured it out yet. It's quite another to regress to incompetence on something you already perfected.
Coming from a Thinkpad (the standard for what makes a great keyboard), PowerBook Titanium (keyboard was bad, but nothing like the 2016/17 MacBook Pro), PowerBook 12 / 17 (my favorite), and the first MacBook Pro (still pretty great) everything starting with the unibody has been downhill. Ever since, the keyboard and I believe battery even have not been user replaceable. There was a time one could walk into an Apple Store and actually purchase the battery in a box off the shelf, take it to the counter and buy it like any other product.
I have a 2017 and 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro. The 2017 is almost unusable. The 2018 is much better relatively. I also had a 2015 13 inch. Can't say the keyboard was great on that either.
I've been tempted to try retrofit a 12 inch PowerBook with more modern parts like the devoted Thinkpad users have done.
I wish they would keep it basically as-is, replace one of the (generally unused) thunderbolt ports with a USB-C port, add their secure enclave T2 security chip, and update the CPU/chipset. Maybe even add FaceID...
On the USB-C version there is a 1.5 to 2 second lag where if you turn the volume up you'll actually be turning the volume up on the speakers because it takes that long to switch audio sources.
No longer feels like a premium machine.
I've been suffering with a 2018 MBP as well, and I'm done. The Touchbar and the arrow keys are killing me.
I'm giving them one more chance to fix their mistake with the 2019 MBP which should be announced in the next few weeks, otherwise I'm, going to a Vaio.
- The keys were shaped to match the curve of your finger
- the stroke distance was very nice
- escape key
I think it started going downhill with the flat keys. Your fingers could not feel the key edges, would therefore not center, and you would mistype.
Seriously, the thing is a workhorse. I consistently run 4 screens while streaming Twitch/Youtube, running 1 or 2 emulators, 2 IDE's, and dozens of Chrome tabs. Thing only slows down on hot days when it can't cool off well enough.