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Comment by knallfrosch | Hacker News Reader

I remember my Macbook 2019 Pro for its bad hardware: horrendous touchbar and terrible ports (no HDMI, no magnetic charging, no USB-A..)

But the software wasn't polished either: You can't use it in closed ("clamshell") mode, because it shuts down and you can't configure it. You need a 3rd party software to keep it on.

But you also can't keep it closed because then you can't reach the fingerprint sensor. You see: iPhones can't use fingerprint recognition because they don't have fingerprint sensors, iPhones use facial recognition. But Macs do have fingerprint sensors, but can not use facial recognition (for example using an IR camera like Windows Hello)

It's amazing how MacOS lacks features that everyone knows Windows has supported since XP days. ("When you close the lid > Power down / Keep running")

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Lest anyone be misled: I assume the comment means that you can’t leave it in clamshell mode without an external monitor. I almost never open mine.

There are three alternatives for the fingerprint sensor issue:

- Apple Watch can replace most uses for it

- One of Apple’s external keyboards has a fingerprint sensor

- You can always just use your password

> One of Apple’s external keyboards has a fingerprint sensor

Which only works on the M1 and higher models, not the 2019 Intel MacBooks.

Good point.

I also didn't realize (or remember) the power requirement for clamshell operation; my laptop is being charged by the monitors it's plugged into.

The “late 2019” intel MacBooks were some of the worst computers ever built:

- I had two screens fail,

- The battery swelled.

- It did not sit flat on my desk.

- It warped a pine desk that I used during the pandemic.

- At any time after a few months of using it, no fewer than 6 keys would drop or duplicate keystrokes.

- It got under 2 hours battery life, when new.

- under heavy use, it got about 4 while plugged into the provided charger.

- If you charged it using a port on the left side, it’d throttle the CPU to 10% normal speed.

- Kernel panics on resume.

- They had random monitor incompatibility issues with the LG monitors Apple sold at the time.

- My colleagues also had the exact same model, and mine was better than average.

- no escape key

- the touchbar was over sensitive, so pressing backspace would send a ghost keystroke that launched siri a few times a day.

However, you could run them in clamshell mode with the monitor plugged in. It worked out of the box.

(Edit: I might have the model year wrong. I used it for a long time before the pandemic. It was the last one before they brought the escape key back.)

> It did not sit flat on my desk.

Because the battery was swollen?

> - The battery swelled.

Ah, of course.

That could also explain many of the other issues, such as poor battery life, slow charging, CPU throttling, etc.

In general though, I have had a terrible experience with Apple's QA as well. I've had 4 Macbooks over the years and they all had multiple (usually different) things that really sucked and drove me insane.

The battery swelling happened after the other issues (like not sitting flat on the desk).

Also, my sample size is dozens of these laptops. My experience was typical.

I used one of those for work until last year, don't know what you call typical but it did last for 4 years without major problems so maybe that was atypical. It made a noise like a hairdryer when starting Teams (but then, even my new M3 doesn't like Teams). Also, the spacebar did sometimes trigger twice but not often enough to make a fuss about. First MacBook Pro I've used that didn't need replacing something during warranty ;).

> The battery swelling happened after the other issues (like not sitting flat on the desk).

I had 2 x86 MacBooks that had issues with batteries swelling. Not sitting flat on the desk is simply the first symptom of the problem. Once it swells up a bit more the keyboard starts to show problems.

I think the main issue with those machines was thermal management. That Intel chip got too hot and that affected the battery as well. I used mine quite intensively and they regularly ran hot even with the fans running full speed.

Something went wrong with the 2019 models, because almost every time I hear someone complain about an intel MacBook it's a 2019 model.

I am still using my 2018 15" MacBook Pro, and it works great. About six months ago I brought it in to Apple because the keyboard backlight quit working. Turns out the battery swelled and damaged things. So they replaced everything, top case (with keyboard and trackpad), logic board, LCD display, and battery. I still have AppleCare so this was all done free of charge. Prior to that I had zero issues with the laptop in the 6 years I owned it.

Now my M1 Air has had a logic board failure, and the LCD cracked all within two years.

> Which only works on the M1 and higher models, not the 2019 Intel MacBooks.

What? Oh man did I waste a lot of time trying to get that setup on my 2019 Intel Macbook.

You mean you ordered the product advertised as "Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for Mac models with Apple silicon" and expected it to work?

No, I requested a keyboard from my employer and they sent me one.

- I don't own the $700 Apple smartwach, since I had an Android phone at the time and it has terrible Android integration - I already owned a mechanical keyboard and was unwilling to downgrade to Apple. - I don't want to use my password (?), since passwordless is kind of the whole point of biometrics.

I forgot to mention that macOS didn't recognize the keyboard layout of my USB keyboard, something that Windows has done for the last 15 years automatically. The proposed solution was, I think, editing a text file.

Given that you mentioned the 3rd party software, you probably know this, but I think even the 2019 MacBook Pro supported working with the laptop closed--but it requires the laptop to be charging, otherwise it will just go to sleep.

I, too, downloaded the 3rd party app ("Amphetamine"?) to allow it to stay on when closed and unplugged. As far as I can tell, it doesn't work at all.

Circa 2019(?), Amphetamine worked for me.

No idea about currently.

There is a builtin cli tool “caffeinate”. Prefixed to a command it will keep the machine awake until the command exits, on its own it will keep the machine awake indefinitely.

Why do people pretend people buy Apple products for its features. They are the best company of all time at Marketing.

Can we just admit they are really good at mind control and humans are predictable?

Maybe it hurts the egos of fans who spent $2000 on a mid CPU with 8GB ram, but the only people who benefit from this open secret are Apple stock holders.

Must you show up in every Apple/macOS discussion to offer your tediously boring Apple hate?

Apple hate? No, low quality, big price hate.

Check out my profile yo. No one is spared.

Apple hasn’t had “mid CPU”s in laptops for years now. People buy them because they are hands down the best portable machines on the market.

That's just the mind control. If you actually compare, they are not.

> That's just the mind control.

Nope.

Burying your head in the sand isn't doing this discussion any favors.

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