> my 2017 MBP keyboard is starting to become faulty. I've been dreading having to turn it in because I actually need this thing up and running.

My '15 MBP retina had it's keyboard and trackpad shit itself about 12 months after I purchased it. It was becoming apparent at the time that a) apple wouldn't repair it (they told me that I must have damaged it myself so they wouldn't do a warranty job, before even inspecting it) and b) they wanted to take the machine for diagnosis and repairs at the "local" apple centre (roughly 400km away at the time) which through experience I knew to take at least several weeks.

This was not a viable solution for me as it was a work machine, and any downtime was problematic. So I've permanently had my wired keyboard and mouse with me since.

Needless to say I've got an 8th gen i7 Dell on it's way in the mail now.

Good luck with dell warranty/service.

The whole point of this story is that you can get such machines fixed at independent repair shops if the manufacturer is not playing ball. Apple is trying to stop that, Dell et al aren't (as far as i'm aware. )

Have you had bad experiences with them (genuinely curious)? The only time I've had to use dell onsite service, they came out the same day... So I bought their 12 month onsite warranty, but I also figure that after 12 months I'll feel happy to start doing repairs myself.

Side note, I'm not normally a massive Dell fan by any stretch, but no one else had a 8750h/16gb ddr4/1060 geforce for the money I wanted to spend (and available on the shelf), even though the chassis is super plasticy and doesn't really inspire the same 'wow' factor I got from apple hardware's look and feel. It's a G3 17 I've landed on ($1,900 aud with a docking station included), as the G7 was out of stock, and I'm an impatient prick. I'm hoping I don't regret it, haha.

Unless you'll get one of the defective units, you'll love your Dell. The plasticky coating os quite durable and it doesn't feel cold to the touch like the aluminium body of a MacBook. Still has sharp edges IMO.

If you'll get a bad unit, I advise you to return it immediately and re-buy. Their replacements come from refurbished units and their refurbishers are no good at fixing everything, and sometimes introduce other issues, so you'll be guaranteed to hate Dell's guts after going thru couple rounds of replacements (as per Dell subreddit). Onsite repair should be fine, though.

I personally like to tinker with my Dells, had performed a not-so-economical upgrade from 9550 to 9560 on mine with great fun and overall just enjoy the 15" laptop. One mistake I made is assuming that the touchpads on 13" XPS would be as good. Boy was I wrong, now my wife's suffering through one. It's the same across 9350 and 9360,but may have been fixed on the 9370, I haven't tried it yet.

No issues with Dell warranty/service here and I send Dells, Lenovos, & Macbooks out for repair a few times a week. Equally as good in my opinion.

I'm not sure which country you are in, but in the Netherlands when I bring in my Apple devices in for repair I just order a brand new one that I return when I go pick up my device after it has been repaired. You need to have money for a new device obviously, you need to order it online and you have to return it within 14 days but it's a great way to be able to keep working.

For anyone who thinks this is an abuse of the system, I don't feel guilty doing this if Apple takes weeks to replace a keyboard, doesn't offer a temporary replacement or do on-site repair the next business day. I have offered my local Apple reseller money for these services but they won't do it. Somehow they are OK with me buying a brand new device and returning it for every repair.

I get why you don’t feel guilty about it (I wouldn’t either), but another thing to consider is what impact it has. From Apple’s perspective, this is clear abuse (the goal of this policy is for new buyers to be able to return a product they don’t like, not a loaner service, and they take a 10% loss when they then sell the device as refurb). If too many people do it, they will make the policy more strict and everybody will loose this great escape hatchet for buying the wrong thing.

(Notice this is not EU mandated 14 day right of withdrawal, which only allows you to unpack and reasonably determine suitability, i.e. do a bit more than what you could do in a store. Heavily using the computer for 14 days is not permitted by it and is only allowed by Apple’s generous policy.)

FWIW I brought my 2017 MBP in for keyboard repair in Houston and had a new one mailed to me after a day. Had a whole new front panel. I left impressed with the service and the ability to digitally book with a face-to-face human.

This is often what happens anyways. I just had my entire MacBook Pro 2017 replaced, all but the bottom plate. Same happened to me 5 years ago..

Doesn’t Apple provide loaner devices during repairs?

No. But you can usually order a new one and return when the repair is finished.

AFAIK, only if you sign up for their "Joint Venture" business program. In HK, it's HKD 3838 a year (about USD 500).

EDIT to add: my 2016 MBP is so bad that I'm seriously considering joining that program.

I've managed it in the past, but only after emailing Tim Cook. Someone picked it up and sorted it.

Was an older Unibody MacBook Pro with a factory SSD, used to randomly decide to delete all the data on it every couple of months. In the end they replaced the entire machine with a newer model.

No.