MacBook Keyboard Replacement London

The single most useful thing to know about MacBook keyboards is that Apple and an independent repairer are usually doing two different jobs. On most models the keyboard is riveted into the top case, so Apple's standard repair replaces that entire assembly — keyboard, battery and trackpad together — which is why an out-of-warranty quote so often lands between £450 and £600. Replacing the keyboard alone is more delicate and takes longer, but it keeps your original battery and trackpad and costs a fraction of that. Which approach is right depends on your model and on what else is worn, and we tell you honestly which one you are looking at before you commit to anything.

The butterfly keyboards fitted from 2015 to 2019 are their own category. A single speck of dust under a butterfly switch is enough to make a key stick, repeat or stop registering, and the design gives it nowhere to go — which is why the fault comes back on machines that have only been blown out with compressed air. Apple ran a Keyboard Service Programme for these models, and if yours is still eligible we will say so and point you there rather than charge you for a repair you can get free. Where that window has closed, the fix is a proper replacement rather than another clean. The later Magic Keyboard is a far more reliable mechanism, and when one of those fails it is usually liquid or a failed cable rather than the design.

Liquid is the other common cause, and it changes the job. A spill that killed the keyboard has usually reached further, so before quoting a keyboard we check what else the liquid touched — the trackpad cable, the audio board, and in the worst cases the logic board underneath. Fitting a new keyboard into a machine with corrosion still spreading beneath it wastes your money, and we would rather find that first. Straightforward keyboard work is done at your home or office in a single visit; a machine that needs the top case split down or the board cleaned goes back to the workshop, and we will tell you which yours is at the point of quoting.