LAUREN GOODE IS A SENIOR WRITER AT WIRED WHO COVERS CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY.
Previously, the free keyboard fixes applied to anyone with a MacBook dating back to 2015 or a MacBook Pro from 2016 onward. The expanded program includes repairs of keyboards on any Mac laptops purchased within the past four years, and regardless of warranty status. As I wrote at the time, “Basically, it will include all keyboards that use Apple’s butterfly mechanism. This also includes MacBook Air keyboards.”
Apple said at the time that the “vast majority” of Mac laptop customers have had positive experiences with their keyboards, which is a nice variation on the “limited number” of customers who have not.
May 21, 2019: Apple announces a second repair program that day, this one “Flexgate.” You couldn’t be blamed for having missed this one, especially if you were hanging out at the Apple Store at this point waiting for your turn in the laptop repair line. That same day, Apple also said it would offer free repairs to owners of MacBook Pros with backlight issues, dubbed “Flexgate” because the uneven backlighting was possibly caused by a fragile flex cable.
This repair program only applies to 13-inch MacBook Pro models from 2016 (both Touch Bar and non-Touch-Bar models), for up to four years after the laptop was initially purchased. Apple said at the time that a “very small percentage” of 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro displays were affected.
June 20, 2019: Apple announces a battery recall program for MacBook Pros. Which brings us up to date. Apple said some older 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops are at risk of having batteries that may overheat and cause a fire. The company says it has “voluntarily decided to replace affected batteries,” which can be done at the Apple Store or at an authorized Apple service provider. You can also mail your computer in for repair.
Apple says this primarily applies to a “limited number” of 15-inch MacBook Pro units sold between September 2015 and February 2017.
There are a few things worth noting about these repair and replacement programs from Apple over the past year. One, some of these have been called “repair programs,” and today’s is a “recall program.” It was worded as such because it poses a safety risk. That’s fairly cut and dry.
Since Apple doesn’t share specifics on how many laptop units have been plagued with each of these problems, it’s hard to know how widespread the problems are. There are Reddit threads, support forums, tweets, and personal reports from journalists; all extremely useful anecdata. Some of these laptops, ones aged four and older, might be reaching the limits of their lifespans, and repairs are to be expected. But as long as the company continues to offer vague statements on a “limited number” of affected units, we don’t know how serious these missteps are within the broader context of the Mac laptop lineup.
Lastly, while Apple is offering free repairs for known issues, it sometimes takes months to address the issues customers have flagged. “Flexgate,” for example, was brought to light in January of 2019; Apple didn’t address it until the end of May. And it took Apple a year and a half––from the fall of 2017 until the spring of 2019––to address the butterfly-switch keyboard problems in a comprehensive way. The number of customers affected by these issues may be limited, but the amount of time it takes to diagnose the problem is not.
Microsoft's Surface Studio 2 is quite an attractive PC — particularly for designers — but it also comes at a hefty price. If you've been looking to get your hands on something similar at a much cheaper price, then the upcoming Sefree Apollo might be worth a look.
Starting at $1,549, the Sefree Apollo is about half the price of a Surface Studio 2. For the money, the Apollo looks to be a virtual clone of the Surface Studio 2, offering a compact PC base attached to a display that can be rotated between 95 and 15 degrees. That display is a 4K touch panel that should offer crisp visuals in either 27-inch or 32-inch options.