The thing I don’t like about it is the new arrow layout. The full sized left and right keys make it really hard to find the arrows by feel. It’s been months and months and I still can’t reliably find the arrows without looking, and I had no problems with the previous MacBook keyboard.
The keys need constant cleaning. Simple dust/dirt particles that don't really affect the old keyboards are the nemesis of this keyboard.
I have to literally blow into keys to get rid of dust/dirt particles every single day.
Just recently the smaller up/down keys have simply stopped registering presses (unless you press they keys quite firmly). Many other people have this issue too; here is one thread discussing it:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7769526
It's so bizarre to have to remap some unused modifier keys to up/down because of a likely design flaw on a flagship product like this.
As far as touch screens go, I don't care for them at all. If nothing else, it gets fingerprints all over the screen which distract me to no end.
IMHO the Surface Book from Microsoft is a great idea with a beautiful design but poorly executed [1]
I would have expected Apple to come up with this kind of product and phase out both the Macbook Air and the ipad. The Macbook + touchbar seems so half baked I'm not sure why Apple thought it was a good idea.
1: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/life/features/mesquite/2017...
- Unbalance the weight of the laptop.
- Lead to finger print smudges all over the screen.
- Take your hands off the home row
- And tap areas need to be far bigger than mouse areas. You either get too tiny tap areas that make interfaces harder to use, or you get too large areas that are a waste for scrollpad/mouse users.
On a related note, I was trying out the MacBooks at an Apple store and couldn't believe how bad the keyboards have become. The key travel was nearly non existent. Perhaps this is Apple's way of slowly conditioning their users to a keyboard with no physical keys, but rather touch keys powered by force touch. It certainly seems like the next evolution as they keep reducing the key travel lower and lower. The sensation of typing on the keyboard, IMO, was so bad that I would never purchase or recommend one. I would, however, still recommend the previous generation with a proper keyboard.