I could never get used to the keyboards on Macbooks. I can see the overall appeal of those machines but they drop the ball where it really matters if you are using your notebook for any fair amount of typing.
There is nothing like a Thinkpad keyboard. Even on their slimmest ultraportables (X1 Carbon and T460s/T470s), the keyboard feels great.
The older chiclet keyboards certainly weren’t pleasurable to use in the same tactile way as a mechanical switch, but I had no particular problem with them. The new super-low travel switches are just plain unpleasant.
Just my opinion, some people love them. But those people do tend to be pretty strongly biased Apple enthusiasts, the same ones who scoff when you complain about removing the headphone jack on iphone.
I have not used the new Apple keyboards, but the little Surface keyboard cover actually has some of the most satisfying feel of any laptop/portable keyboard I’ve used. Certainly more enjoyable than that on my older MacBook Pros.
Yes, the MS chiclet keys feel pretty good. The new Apple switches are pretty unique, nobody else is experimenting with such tiny travel distances.
I suspect keyboard “feel” will always be very subjective. I’ve witnessed some epic debates over the arcana of which mechanical switch type is best, and that sort of thing.
I am not what you’d call a hardcore Apple enthusiast, but I love both my (older) Macbook keyboard as well as MS’s chiclet keys (at least as seen in the Sculpt Desktop).
I love them! Other keyboards feel so mushy in comparison.
Work issued me a 13" MacBook Pro, which is really cool of them. I can finally put the 4 year old MacBook Air (which I bought) to rest. Love the little beast but the keyboard - yikes, that keyboard is really not nice at all. And then I thought of plugging in one of my mechanical keyboards and I realized that there was no USB port! I just want to show Apple my middle finger!
The dust issue is shaping up to be a real problem for Apple. As Endigm noted, there is so little clearance that a grain of dust can render keys inoperable or cause them to register multiple presses for a single event. Replacing the keyboard (which is part of the case) is not a simple repair. It’s hit us twice already (we have 2 devices – one repair incident each now).
You just need to learn to love #donglelife. Get one of the $60 adapters that include a couple USB-A ports, HDMI, and power delivery.
Work got me a 17" 2015 MBP and it’s pretty much perfect. CPU could be a little faster (2.2GHz i7) but I love the high dpi display way more than I thought I would, and it’s before they shit up the keyboard, trackpad, and ports.
I think you mean 15"? Yeah those were the pinnacle of mac laptops.
Do I? Heh. Could be I’m just that much in awe comparing it to my previous 13".
I was expecting a 2015 MBP because they claimed that’s all the have in regards to Pro. So I was surprised it turned out to be the 2017 model. I don’t know if I should feel lucky or, shit out of luck. What a dilemma. Anyway, I probably have to buy that dongle and be done with it.
@stusser was right, this is a 15". Ew, we used to use 17" laptops? Gross!
If this replaced one of its USB ports and power with 2x USB-Cs, it’d be perfect. As it is, 2x USB, HDMI, 2x Thunderbolt, power, and headphones is glorious. And the screen kicks lots of ass. And the keyboard isn’t dumb. The trackpad has the stupid “force touch” thing, but that’s easily disabled.
What’s the point of 2x Thunderbolt? Isn’t passthrough part of the spec?
Both ports handle power delivery, so you can plug-in on either side, which is pretty neat. You do lose Magsafe though, which sucks.
Also TB3 ports can do, well, anything. Power delivery, USB 3.1, displayport, thunderbolt obviously, anything you might want in one port. Apple was just a bit ahead of the times as usual.
I’m still waiting for actual USB-C hubs (and by hub I mean one usb-c in, MULTIPLE usb-c out). I don’t know what the deal is, but every damn vendor seems to mistake “hub” for “converter”, so you can have ONE usb-c out along with a lot of other crap, but no decent option from anyone for single in, multiple out (not counting some 1-star garbage I found, or a bunch of dual-in dual-out MBP “docks”).
The ideal Macbook hub has yet to be born, as far as I can tell:
They will come once people have multiple USB-C devices. Most people have well, one-- their android cellphone.
I edited to clarify: you can’t charge and plug even a single device into the Macbook, 3 years on. Insane.