MacBook test - complete diagnostic check

Check a MacBook before buying or selling, including keyboard, trackpad, hinges and battery health.

Which device are you checking?

Pick the device in front of you. The checks are tailored to it — a desktop is never marked down for having no battery.


The butterfly keyboard years

MacBooks from 2016 to 2019 used a butterfly mechanism with a well-documented failure mode: keys that stick, repeat or stop responding, often after a single crumb. If you are looking at one of those, the keyboard test is the most important thing on this page. Press every key several times, not once.

Battery cycle count

No browser can read it. On macOS it is in System Information under Power. Enter it alongside the health percentage — both are recorded as figures you supplied, because that is what they are.

Trackpad, Force Click and Touch Bar

A browser sees a trackpad and a mouse identically; there is no field that separates them. So the trackpad check confirms which device you actually used rather than pretending to detect it. Force Click and the Touch Bar are guided checks for the same reason.

Screen coating

Some MacBook displays develop anti-reflective coating wear that looks like smudging and does not wipe off. The white and grey full-screen fields show it clearly, and it is worth looking for — it is cosmetic, it is permanent, and it affects the price.

Related tools

Keyboard tester, mouse test, dead pixel test, webcam test.

Quick answer

Open it on the MacBook. On 2016-2019 models the keyboard test matters most - press every key several times, not once. Cycle count is in System Information under Power and must be entered manually.

Key facts

  • 2016-2019 butterfly keyboards have a known failure mode
  • Cycle count cannot be read by a browser
  • Anti-reflective coating wear shows on the white and grey fields
  • Browsers cannot distinguish a trackpad from a mouse