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Apple May Have Quietly Addressed 'Flexgate' in 2018 MacBook Pros

Monday March 4, 2019 10:59 pm PST by Arnold Kim
iFixit reports that Apple may have already taken steps to reduce the likelihood of 2018 MacBook Pro users experiencing display lighting issues dubbed Flexgate. Affected machines could see uneven lighting that looks like a "stage light" effect with the display potentially failing completely over time.


iFixit was tipped off by MacRumors forum user Olivia88 posting in our Flexgate megathread that their 2018 13" MacBook Pro appeared to have a longer cable than previous models. iFixit confirmed this finding:
Since we were just wrapping up writing the repair manual for the 2018 model anyway, we checked inside our 2018 15” MacBook Pro again to measure its cable against its 2016 predecessor—and found the 2018 cable was, in fact, a full 2mm longer. Since this change appears in both our 15” model and Olivia88’s 13” model, it’s plausible this change is present in multiple, if not all, 2018 MacBook Pros.
iFixit speculates that this could prevent some of the wear and tear that had previously caused the failure though they weren't able to say for certain.

Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue, and our Flexgate guide covers what your options are if you are affected by this issue.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: Flexgate Guide
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Caution)
[ 114 comments ]


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snowboarder
2 weeks ago
let's see... Broken keyboards, flexgate, graphics glitches, T2 chip fiasco.
Anything is working properly in their Macbook "Pro"?
Rating: 42 Votes
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mdnz
2 weeks ago

so only 2018 models are different and address the issue? 2016/2017 are due to break sometime?


Yep.

Rating: 22 Votes
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trifid
2 weeks ago

Let's see...all these "problems" were only mentioned by a few people here and there online, and never gained any traction, sign that are probably issues that occur very very rarely, nothing systemic. So I would venture to say that 99% of MacBook "Pro" are probably working properly? Mine is, and the ten of thousands my company provides to its employees are at least, we all use Touch Bar MBP at this point and I never saw people suffering these issues, aside from a couple of colleagues having issue with a key on the keyboard. I am sure someone suffered these issues, like it happens with all man made items, but pretending these are serious widespread issues...sign of the times I guess.


Read the flexgate thread, this user lokitech posted the following:

“...I work for a company that uses only Apple product and in the year 2016, we brought 160 laptops MacBook Pro 15 top model then out of 160 laptops so far 20 laptops are affected with this display flex cable issue not sure how many would be further and 56 laptops are affected with the keyboard issue...”

By his report alone, it would be around 12% failure rate for flexgate, but it can only get worse with time, the more you open/close the more wear and tear. The issue is significant, Apple needs to issue a repair program.
Rating: 21 Votes
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snowboarder
2 weeks ago

No issues here. Outstanding laptop.


My 2017 13-inch - less than a year in: spacebar is starting to be sticky, graphics is going crazy in Fusion/Resolve.
The worst is the glitches are being rendered, not only displayed :(
Counting Powerbooks I'm probably on my Apple laptop #20. Absolutely no problems before.
They are not only completely not reliable anymore, they are more expensive every year.
As someone mentioned in another thread - you can get 64GB of RAM in a Lenovo P1 for almost the same money
Apple wants for 32GB (64GB not available). 32GB in Lenovo is 3x less expensive. Same RAM.
We are talking probably the most expensive PC brand.
Better screens, better graphics, 64GB RAM. All that for much less money.
When MBP was a great reliable machine, I paid the Apple tax. Now - it simply makes zero sense.
Rating: 20 Votes
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c0ppo
2 weeks ago

Everything is working in mine.
People with problems are obviously more vocal about it.


Yup. Those pesky unsatisfied owners should keep their mouths shut. They are hurting dear, old and poor Apple!

/s
Rating: 17 Votes
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sracer
2 weeks ago

Hey, let’s face it. Apple IS a premium product. I pay a little more because I expect more.

My last MBP suffered a screen failure less than a month after the warranty expired. Pay up, sucker was all I got. Still, I didn’t beat feat. I AM a die hard fan. I admit it. The general public, not so much. The road Apple is going down kinda reminds me of Sears, or Sony at their peak. Hubris. The fan boys like me will come back, the general public won’t stand for it as long. Fan boys will tolerate a lot more than the general public. In the long run, it will cost them.

It’s a shame, it’s still a decent product, but the issues with my last MPB did leave a bad taste in my mouth and had I not been one of the “flock” I probably would have gone elsewhere for my newest laptop. Given the control Apple has over the software across the spectrum of devices offered does help. 99% of the time, this stuff works.

But, I feel as though I’m paying for a Lexus or Infinity of the computer world. I should get service commiserate with the coin I lay out...

And as long as you continue to pay for that level of quality and don't receive it, Apple has no incentive to do anything differently.

Most Apple customers are not much different than the hardcore fans. They're locked into the ecosystem and while they grumble about things like the loss of the headphone jack on the iPhone, a notch, high prices, they still buy the product. There's a current dip in iPhone sales due to the high price, but that is only temporary. Those holdouts will need to replace their iPhone... if not this past cycle, then the next. They'll bite the bullet and pay the price because there is no other option for them (and Apple will discontinue the older, cheaper models).

I continue to be perplexed as to why so many come to Apple's defense whenever the awareness of a defect is raised. Looking at the trackrecord of such customer reports, when was the last time that such a report of a hardware issue turned out to be nothing?
Rating: 14 Votes
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Northgrove
2 weeks ago
Another show of the fantastic communication skills of Apple. I love having to guess whether a potential MBP 2018 buy would belong to fixed or unfixed laptops, and not knowing whether this will even help.
Rating: 12 Votes
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zulkiflim
2 weeks ago

One of my favorite things to do when I read this forum is remember all the millions of happy customers with working-ass 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros. Perspective.



True but the problem comes when it hits you.
As the article say it is wear and tear issue, might be related to climate too since the cable is so short.

So if the warranty is over for your laptop and this comes up, Apple will charge you full price for the repairs.

If Apple was honorable , it would do a recall and change the laptops cable for free.
And I am sure some people would say , Apple is a business, it does not need to acknowledge a design defect since the warranty is over.
Rating: 10 Votes
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snowboarder
2 weeks ago
There is so much more. They offer i9 in their 2018 MBP, but it's limited some crazy way,
so it's slower than i7. They want you to pay $400 or more for a slower machine.
They still include the horrible graphics options as standard, vega 20 - another $400.
T2 made everything so unreliable, it's not even funny and there is no other way
as they include it in everything. They know it's broken, but keep putting it in.
Same about keyboards, 4 or more years, broken as hell - no reaction.
The "fix" is simply getting the same keyboard. It's insane.

But they put billions into cars and TV shows...
Rating: 9 Votes
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Keniutek
2 weeks ago
Price hike incoming, time to cover the loss on this crazy +2mm cable extension...
Rating: 9 Votes

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