The MacBook Pro keyboard

Apple’s butterfly keyboard has taken a lot of flak, and for good reason: it’s pretty awful. I’ve never been a fan of how it feels; I like keys with more travel. If it were reliable it’d just be lousy, but it’s unreliable to boot. After 2 redesigns it still has issues with missed or repeated keystrokes. Apple claims the issue only affects a small number of users, but like DHH I suspect that affected users significantly under-report the issue to avoid the hassle of living without their laptop while Apple fixes it.

I know that I personally haven’t reported the issue with my work laptop. I’ve got a 2017 MBP with an ‘f’ key that periodically repeats. I’ve tried cleaning it with compressed air with no luck. I decided to live with it because most of the time I use an external keyboard and mouse, so it only occasionally affects me. And it’s easier to backspace over the occasional extra f than live without my laptop for an extended period of time.

Plus Android development is becoming increasingly possible on Chrome OS, so if I hold out a little longer I can switch to a Pixelbook for work. It’s got a very nice, reliable keyboard…