Based on the title I assumed that this person was going to be complaining about joint damage due to the low key travel. This keyboard on my 12" MacBook is so bad that between having to get the top case replaced to fix broken keys (when as stated in the article, careful blowing didn't work and trying to replace the keys caused them to break) and my fingers feeing like they have aged many years from the poor ergonomics of no key travel (something I am extremely pissed about) I have mostly just stopped using a laptop: even when using this computer it is now docked at my home with an external monitor and a real keyboard. You have to understand that I am someone who hates desktop computers and has been using the 11" MacBook Air since the moment it came out as a replacement to an HP Mini... I love small computers, but this one is trash. I have it on my todo list to move back to my now-repaired 11" Air, but the thought of having to do that much data movement is demoralizing, particularly as I have grown accustomed to the high-resolution screen. I am not sure what to do as I just can't understand how Apple thinks these keyboards are reasonable... it just seems so obvious that this is dumb.
Your story resonated with me because I had the same experiences with a 12” MacBook.
While I can’t really use you as an example, since you kind of need a Mac for a lot of the work you do specifically, I’ve heard the same complaints about Apple hardware from other long-time Mac users that don’t actually need to have a Mac.
I am curious how many of those of us that don’t need macOS day to day have voted with their wallet away from Apple’s pro line, and what they switched to. I still use a mid-2014 MacBook Pro at work, but at home when it was time to upgrade I took the same path you did and went for the 12” MacBook. It sucked in every way.
Now I’m the owner of a Dell XPS, the supposed most Mac-like PC, and I’m simply stuck with another set of problems: it’s developed a great amount of coil whine, thermal management is spotty to say the least, and the sound card drivers have to be reinstalled every few reboots else it will not detect when I have plugged or unplugged headphones, which has me carrying around a USB DAC. When I need macOS, I’m still running High Sierra on a quad-core Mac Mini server from 2011.
The sad thing is that I don’t think there is a good option at this point. All of the “alternatives” to the MacBook contain their own faults.
Also migrated to a Dell XPS 15 as new Macs stopped exciting me.
No coil whine in mine, but it was hell finding just the right bios version so sleep would work. And if you don't use a specific Intel you driver version you get screen flicker. Le sigh.
For all it's faults, the MacBook Pro is still the best computer for what I do, as someone who doesn't have to use a Mac. macOS being a big factor in favor of it.
Sure, I also bought the MBP, but for the first time in a decade I bought an Apple product grudgingly, getting it not because it's the best machine at a reasonable price, but because switching would be too expensive.
The MacBook Air was a great little nifty machine, powerful enough for my (modest) needs. The MBP is expensive (even the "cheap" "Escape key" edition) with a finicky keyboard and 3h battery life if you actually use the CPU.
I was very jealous reading about the announcement of the Surface Book 2 yesterday. I suspect it will be the ultimate as far as Windows laptops are concerned.
Sadly, iOS development is part of my work, so I'm stuck with Apple. I'm dreading the next laptop 'upgrade' I get.
I did the same as you and migrated away. I was looking at the XPS and ended up going with the Razer Blade Stealth. What's actually surprised me most is how much I enjoy having a touch screen. I could see checking out the new surface pro 2 at some point now.
The other huge thing that surprised me was how easy development is becoming with the new Windows Linux Subsystem. The only thing i haven't gotten to play nicely with it is Postgres, but I just set it up in windows and have the wls connect to it and I'm on my way.
That's the thing, even if I wanted to there is nowhere to go to but Apple, the closest I've seen is a Dell XPS or one of the MS Surface models, but they seem to have there own problems, not to mention I heavily use the Mac trackpad and the gestures, which I've yet to see so well done on a Windows laptop :(
I am going to give the Dell Precision 7520 a whirl. Xeon processor. ECC RAM. No mic/camera. Full size keyboard. Decent discrete graphics. Comes with Ubuntu.
If you're damaging your keys and hurting your fingers, you may be typing too hard for the keyboard. I'm not suggesting that that's your fault, just that there may be a mismatch between your preferred typing style and Apple's. I looked at the 12" Macbook when they first came out and was attracted by the small form factor but completely turned off by the keyboard's almost non-existent key travel. I much preferred the heavy, mechanical switches on my Das Keyboard on my Windows desktop. But ... my Windows machine died, and I switched to a Mac Mini with a bluetooth keyboard for a few months. When I returned to my Das Keyboard, I found I didn't like it as much. My typing speed was much faster on the Apple bluetooth keyboard, partly due to the lighter touch required. I now prefer typing with a lighter touch, and eventually picked up a Macbook and love it. I'd still prefer a bit more key travel, but I'm okay with the tradeoff for the form factor.
TL;DR - Macbook keyboards require a light touch, which may not suit your personal style.
False. We have just demonstrated that two different keyboards have two completely different responses to the same level of force.
If Apple replaced keyboard keytops with sandpaper and people complained of bleeding, raw fingers, would you still say that it's the user's fault for "typing too hard"?
Or maybe, just maybe... that they screwed up a miniaturization attempt.
It's possible for it to be a hardware design error and user error. Or just an impedance mismatch between a particular piece of hardware and a particular user.
I agree that the new Macbook keyboards aren't for everyone. Some people, like my girlfriend take to them right away. Others will never adjust. And that's fine. You don't like it? Don't use it. Return it for something else.
But I think there's a large middle ground of people who could happily use the new keyboards by adjusting their typing style. Doesn't mean they were typing wrong before. But if, like me, they're coming from heavy mechanical keyboards, they will need to adjust their style to be comfortable with Apple's keyboards.
People have experience similar challenges transitioning between manual and electric typewriters. And between pianos and MIDI keyboards with unweighted keys.
I encourage you to spend time with a pianist. Your comparison is not supporting the point I think you're trying to make.
I encourage you to differentiate between someone who diddles the keys for 10 minutes once a week vs. someone who dedicates 90+ hrs per week and whose livelyhood depends on quality and precision of the tools they use.
If it's consumer trash then take it to windows-craptop land. I thought Apple made rugged, performant, premium machines, but it's looking more and more like they're a fashion company.
Otherwise if you're advocating for "consumer choice" then point me to the legal hackintosh laptop market where I can get a better integrated keyboard?
Dude, you can "encourage" me all you want, but I'd understand you better if you simply made your point directly.
Midi keyboards with unweighted keys aren't "consumer trash." Their are plenty of professional musicians who use them on a daily basis. They are merely different from pianos with weighted keys, which require more force to play. Some prefer one, some the other. It's largely a matter of which you were exposed to first.
The solution seems clear to me: you don't need to stop using laptops, you need to switch to another brand. There are plenty of laptops (or notebooks or whatever you prefer to call the things) with keyboards which work by manufacturers who put function over form instead of the other way around. The only snag you might hit is if you're stuck - emotionally or otherwise - to a given operating system but even that is solvable, albeit slightly hackish.
The essence of the thing is that Apple only looks at its bottom line so that bottom line is the only way you have to influence their behaviour. Don't like what they sell? Don't buy it, get something else.
The problem is the OS. Apple hasn't entirely screwed up macOS yet (give them time). It is still better than Windows and Linux in my opinion.
The hardware decline brings them closer to even with other laptops, all things considered, but I suspect many people prefer macOS enough to still stomach the bad hardware.
Plus the trackpad. Everyone's still playing catch-up on that. Mac laptops are the only ones I've ever used for which I don't halt all work immediately until I can find a mouse, if I'm doing something that'll take more than ~5min. This makes it the only line of laptops I know that are actually usable as self-contained devices (that is, for their intended purpose)
Don't you think you're going to far when you "halt all work immediately until [you] can find a mouse" when using anything but an Apple-branded device? That actually sounds like the human-interface-device equivalent of the audiophile attitude.
I mostly use Thinkpads which are known for having good keyboards. While I do prefer the keyboards on these machines over those on the others spread around the place I don't "halt all work until I find an IBM M1" when dealing with other machines, not even when dealing with those modern chiclet-inspired monstrosities. I might grumble a bit, miss a key here and there and wonder what the designers were thinking but those keyboards do get the job done. The same goes for touchpads, some are better than others but most of them work.
Glass touchpad with multi-touch is infinitely better than synaptics plastic trash with "somewhere on the right side we'll pretend there's a scroll bar".
Nearly all touchpads support multi-touch, this includes Synaptics "plastic trash". You just need to enable things like two-finger scroll and three-finger-click (etc). If you're using an older version of Windows you might need to update the driver, those who use Linux generally get this out of the "box" and can just enable the required options.
Having both two-finger-scroll and side-scroll enabled is possible and quite handy for those occasions you can't use or don't feel like using two fingers, e.g. when you're holding a hot soldering iron in one hand and a collection of parts in the other - just scroll using a knuckle.
How many hours have you logged on an Apple touchpad in the past 5 years or so?
What you say is technically correct, but you can enable all those things and Synaptics still is miles behind Apple in accuracy, comfort, additional possible gestures (I use "pinch" "four finger up" and "get outta here" gestures frequently).
Sometimes the Synaptics just doesn't recognize what I'm doing with simple two-finger scroll. That literally never happens with Apple hardware.
More than a thousand I'd guess, why do you ask? I use a 'magic touchpad' (first generation, a bit of a battery eater) with some stationary machines. The thing works, sure. It is rather big which - in my opinion - is not all positive. The clickpad-function can sometimes be handy but one annoying thing about it is the fact that it takes more force to click on the back side than the front, this due to the way they implemented this function. Touch gestures are not really my thing as I tend to use the keyboard for those things reached throgh gestures - maybe I need to add that I use a tiling window manager?
But the precision and comfort of tracking between the "plastic textured" pad v. the etched glass top that macs use is light years apart, even if it's possible to spend an hour and tweak the plastic one to have the same functions and behaviour.
I'm really sad because I really like Apple hardware. I would still get the newest line of MBP even if I hate the keys because it'll still be lightyears ahead in terms of hardware sturdiness and feel.
I bought a XPS 15" since I didn't want to dish out for a new Macbook. It's running Elementary OS. I like it well enough, but it has a lot of trouble handling HiDPI that requires constant tweaking.
My experience is eerily similar. I bought the 11" Air the second it came out but gave it away after purchasing the 12" MacBook. Talk about buyer's remorse.
I also have a second gen 12" Macbook. It has by far the worst and most dangerous (!) keyboard I've ever used on a laptop. I loved the form factor and tried as hard I could for months (!) to find a way to type on those keys without it significantly hurting my hands but failed. I now also always use a physical mechanical external keyboard instead. The keyboard surprisingly turns out to probably be the biggest drawback of that computer (I didn't expect the keyboard of all things to be such a big problem on a mac).
I've been a loyal mac laptop user for over a decade, but definitely my next laptop purchase won't be a mac...
I use my company one in a dock. The OS drives me nuts. It seems like the whole thing resolves around the touch pad. I don't have a track pad on the keyboard and it makes the OS so much worse then it already is.
