It created a “ second-generation” version in 2016. Through it all and up until the November 2019 launch of a “new” keyboard design in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple kept defending and tweaking the butterfly keyboard. It required taking the laptop into an Apple repair center where the entire machine would have to be disassembled.Ĭasey Johnston was the first major tech journalist to call Apple out on this issue in a serious and sustained way, beginning with a 2017 article in The Outline titled “The new MacBook keyboard is ruining my life.” A March 2019 editorial from Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal also made a huge splash, taking the idea that these keyboards are fundamentally flawed to the mainstream.Īpple tried tweaking the butterfly mechanism through several iterations Adding insult to injury, Apple’s laptop construction meant that replacing that single key wasn’t a simple operation. The mechanism was so fragile that seemingly any little piece of debris or grit could break a key, keeping it from working or making it type double letters. The biggest is simply that the design was unreliable.
#Keyboards for macbook air pro#
Notably, today’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro is ever so slightly heavier and thicker than the last one.īut those benefits were eclipsed by the butterfly keyboard’s many faults. It also meant that the keys were more “stable” as you pressed down, giving you virtually the same feel when you pushed down on the corner of a keycap as the center. The primary benefit of the butterfly keyboard was that it was thin, giving Apple more flexibility to use the extra space for more components or to make the entire laptop thinner. Apple clearly believed in it and thought its benefits outweighed its problems up until relatively recently. But that little MacBook really was influential: the keyboard mechanism spread to the MacBook Pro and the first iterations of the redesigned MacBook Air.
That MacBook was discontinued in July 2019, replaced by the refreshed MacBook Air. For a brief time, it seemed as though Apple intended it to be the MacBook, but it was too small, underpowered, and expensive to go truly mainstream. It kicked off a new design language, complete with USB-C ports and that butterfly keyboard. It was just called MacBook (no “Air” or “Pro” modifier), and it was heralded as a new kind of laptop for Apple. The era of the butterfly keyboard kicked off with 2015’s 12-inch MacBook.
So while the butterfly keyboard may be gone from Apple’s store, it’s certainly not gone from this world.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to receive a daily newsletter from The Verge that highlights top stories of the day, as well as occasional messages from sponsors and / or partners of The Verge. If you’re using a MacBook yourself, there’s a good chance you’re typing on one, too. I would say good riddance, but I am typing this on a MacBook Pro with a butterfly keyboard right now.
Apple obstinately stuck with this keyboard design for much too long, hurting its image and causing wholly unnecessary hassle and cost for its customers. Switching the entire product lineup over to a new keyboard in the span of six months is impressive, but the decision to finally do so came far too late. After five years of applying bandages to the butterfly keyboard, Apple has switched over its entire laptop line to the scissor-switch-based Magic Keyboard in the span of six months. With today’s announcement of a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple has finally stopped trying to fix one of the most controversial and problematic hardware designs in its history: the butterfly switch mechanism on its laptop keyboards.
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