Apple is no longer using its butterfly keyboard on the MacBook
You may've seen the news is out: Apple have released a brand new 13" MacBook Pro but besides the new 10th generation Intel processors (on the highest spec model) is the brand new keyboard.
That's right, Apple is now no longer shipping its Mac laptops with the butterfly keyboard that's caused a lot of trouble for them. This means the new 2020 13" MacBook Pro ships with a all new, improved keyboard and even though we've not been able to get hands on with it yet, we just know it'll be better and hopefully, shouldn't have as many, or if not no issues what-so-ever like the butterfly keyboards did.
So, some history on those butterfly switches then. Those troublesome butterfly keyboards started shipping on the 2015 12" MacBook. Yep, it was just called the MacBook. The thin, light, overpriced machine with not much power under the hood.
The reason for the butterfly keyboard was because it was much thinner than the previous keyboards they've used in MacBooks and if something is thinner, it allows Apple to add in more tech and components underneath.
From that, then, it seems you're getting a lot: a sleek looking, lightweight machine with a new keyboard? Wrong. The keyboard caused Apple huge pain in the backside, as we'll continue to explain below.
The actual mechanism of each key wasn't the best. It was almost stamping on glass and just waiting for it to crack into little pieces everywhere. Ok, this might seem a little harsh. Sorry Apple. We'll make it up to you at the end.
The likelihood is, you'll have seen videos all over the internet of the butterfly keyboard breaking when any tint piece of dirt came underneath the key and then broke when you pressed down onto the key. The result? It meant a lot of the keyboard could stop working when attempting to type certain letters and keys and also when pressing down on some keys, it could result on a double press of that letter. No ideal at all.
Apple must've known this was an issue as they soon launched a repair program in 2018 but fixing the broken keys wasn't as simple as it sounds because of the way it's put together. When you took your laptop to the Apple Store, most of the your pricey laptop had to be taken apart to resolve.
All in all, before the program was a thing, Apple made at least four different versions of its butterfly keyboard in an attempt to fix the issues for good. One of those fixes being adding silicone under the keys to stop dirt and dust from getting in.
The new keyboard that features on the 2020 13" MacBook Pro is named the Magic Keyboard - the same name as the new keyboard for the iPad Pro which features a trackpad! If you want to know more about that, go here.
All that's left for us to say on this matter is: goodbye. Or is it? The trouble is, even though butterfly keyboards are being replaced, if you're one of the many people who has purchased a MacBook in the past few years, you'll still be using the butterfly keyboard, so you'll still be typing away on it for a while longer then.
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