As More Users Complain About Poor Keyboard in Current MacBook Pro Lineup, Critics Say Apple Should Consider Recalling the Device (theoutline.com)

Last year, a report outlining what it described as a major flaw in Apple's current MacBook Pro lineup became a talking point in the industry. The issue was that a piece of dust could render keys on the MacBook Pro lineup useless, and that Apple had no idea how to fix it. Casey Johnston, writing for The Outline: MacBook Pro's keyboard keys stopped working if a single piece of dust slipped under there, and more importantly, that neither Apple nor its Geniuses would acknowledge that this was actually a problem. Today, Best Buy announced it is having a significant sale on these computers, marking them hundreds of dollars off. Interesting. Still, I'd suggest you do not buy them. Since I wrote about my experience, many have asked me what happened with the new top half of the computer that the Apple Geniuses installed, with its pristine keyboard and maybe-different key switches. The answer is that after a couple of months, I started to get temporarily dead keys for seemingly no reason. Again. Longtime widely respected commentator Jason Snell says, "I know that we Apple-watchers sit around wondering if Apple will release new laptops with new keyboards that don't have these issues, but Apple's relative silence on this issue for existing customers is deafening. If these problems are remotely as common as they seem to be, this is an altogether defective product that should be recalled."

Comments

Apple Still Has The Culture Of Steve Jobs

[8127972]

.... And because of that there is zero chance that there will be a recall. Because that would be an admission that they've done something wrong. And they rarely admit that they've done something wrong or apologize (the Apple Maps fiasco or the "I Am Root" fiasco being the only two times that I can think of that they've said sorry for something). That's something that Jobs preached pretty aggressively.

What's more likely to happen is that they will come out with a new keyboard design at WWDC in June and call it an "innovation" and shove it into every notebook they make to make this go away over the long term. And they'll likely come out with a repair extension program for this crappy keyboard if they have to so that the bad press goes away over the short term. .

Re:Apple Still Has The Culture Of Steve Jobs

[BronsCon]

You can spellcheck code? You see, I am a developer, and I happen to know that the dictionary doesn't contain even a small percentage off the identiffiers, ffunction names, and variables I use on a regular basis, so a spellchecker would be utterly ffucking useless. More to the point, I shouldn't have to rely on a spell checker to ffix hardware design fflaw in a $2000 computer.

It sickens me that people deffend this as though it's the user's ffault. I can't tell you how dust got under my ff key; I don't eat at this computer and I have a silicone membrane over the keyboard; iff anything, I'd expect dust to have worked its way under one of the outer keys, but not one in the middle row. And yes, I normally correct the double ff's myselff, but I'm not doing it here to make a point: when I can buy a $5 keyboard and not have to correct ffor its fflawed design, I sure as ffuck shouldn't have to correct ffor the design of the keyboard in my $2000 laptop. Period.

That said, going back through my posting history, I'm noticing a pattern. Most of my posts with typos were typed on Apple keyboards; I can easily pick out posts made ffrom one off my PCs, or using a non-Apple external keyboard on one off my Macs, because those posts will have no typos. Now I'm wondering how long Apple's keyboards have actually been the problem.

dead keys here too

[umafuckit]

I'd noticed this happening from time to time on my MBP but hadn't searched to see if the problem was widespread. Typically a key becomes dead for few strikes before coming back to life. Happens once every few weeks.

Recall?

[Opportunist]

Ridiculous. People are just typing wrong.

There i a joke in there omewhere.

[thegarbz]

But really I jut can't ee it.

Re:this is Apple

[denzacar]

This is Apple... So clearly they are holding it wrong.

Apple Keyboards

[JediJorgie]

They still call the *Backspace* key *Delete* so they obviously don't care about keyboards. :)

Re:It's just the weak spot of this line

[Solandri]

A weak spot is usually something the laptop maker skimped on to reduce cost, like a small battery, or a cheap screen, or HDD storage in the SSD era..

The new Macbook keyboard is a deliberately created new feature. Apple came up with a new keyboard mechanism which reduces key travel in order to try to make the laptop a little thinner (like laptops need to be any thinner). It bombed, plain and simple. What's the point of making the laptop 3mm thinner if it forces you to add a can of compressed air to your laptop bag?

Re:this is Apple

[i_ate_god]

just buy a $50 lightning cable attached to an escape key.

it's the apple way