Ming-Chi Kuo released a new report this week that claims future MacBooks will finally ditch the controversial Butterfly Keyboard and return to the standard scissor switches found in all other keyboards. The Butterfly Keyboard has been a very polarizing addition to the MacBook line when it appeared back in 2015. Many are ready to see it go.
Me, I have mixed feelings.
The MacBook and the Butter fly Keyboard
Back in 2015, Apple announced two new devices: The Apple Watch and the MacBook.
While the Apple Watch eclipsed by the MacBoo in excitement at the event, the MacBook sparked some interest as a new Mac form factor. The new Macbook was the slimmest MacBook ever created. To achieve that slimness, Apple had to get creative.
Apple slimmed down the internals of the MacBook more than ever before. One of the ways they achieved this reduction in size, they had to create a new keyboard mechanism. This resulted in the infamous butterfly switch for the keys.
Every other keyboard at the time used a scissor mechanism that Apple claimed wasn’t as stable or accurate as their new Butterfly Switches.
The complaints started once users got their hands on the keyboard. It turns out that the butterfly switches were more stable, but had such a shallow distance of travel that many users couldn’t get used to it. To many, it felt like typing on a slab of glass.
At the time though, it was just: do you like the key travel or not.
The Isssssssssue
When Apple updated the MacBook Pro with the same keyboard, more users were getting their hands on the keyboard. Of course, key travel is a personal opinion, but reliability isn’t.
Users started to notice that keys were getting ignored or stuck. Typing became much more difficult on these machine. Many bloggers started to complain and soon, normal users were too.
While Apple had designed a new keyboard that they thought was superior. They also hadn’t accounted for all the issues that started to spring up with them. At first, Apple claimed that it was just dust that lodged under keys causing them to get stuck. But Apple hadn’t really made the keyboard easily repairable either. Users were having to pay out hundreds of dollars to try to get a usable keyboard.
These issues led Apple to iterate on the keyboard. Iterating is one of Apple’s strengths, but this time, they seemed lost.
Apple did create a second generation keyboard which was quieter and had some protection under the keys so that dust couldn’t get in making keys stuck.
But that didn’t work.
Laptops keyboards kept breaking. Apple iterated again with the third generation of the Keyboard last year with the MacBook Pros and the MacBook Airs. Then in 2019, it revised that system as well, changing materials inside the keyboard.
But Apple kept going with the butterfly mechanism. They also rolled out a warranty on any butterfly keyboard that goes for four years. The warranty will fix any broken keyboard for free in those four years. That should give users a piece of mind. Still, I would think users would want a system that isn’t going to break at all.
My Experience
I actually liked the feel of the Butterfly Keyboard when I reviewed the MacBook Air last year. The press of the keys felt solid to me, and when I had to go back to my 2013 MacBook Pro, I missed that solid feeling.
I never had an issue with stuck keys, ghost presses or anything. The keyboard worked for me, but I only had it for two weeks.
I never got a new MacBook with this keyboard for one reason: my MacBook Pro was still rocking away, as fast as ever. However, I’m not sure that I would have jumped into a MacBook for the price, with the keyboard that might break.
The Rumors
According to the note released today, Apple will be ditching the butterfly key switch for the scissor switch keys of old. The switch will be happening as early as this year with a new 16-inch MacBook Pro.
For some reason, this makes me sad more than it makes me happy.
Now, I don’t want keyboards to break. I don’t want people having to take in their thousand dollars plus machine in for a day or two to have it repaired. But I also don’t like seeing Apple having to roll back on something they were very proud of designing.
By all accounts, I want users to have a reliable keyboard, but I wish that Apple had been able to really nail down what was happening here and how they could have fixed it. It wasn’t like they didn’t try, they’ve changed things at least three times now.
It just seems like a failure. Apple spent more time on fixingit than they should have if they were going to move on. Maybe if they had figured it out, it could have been a great keyboard.
Maybe the next one will be even better though. I just feel bad for everyone that got caught up in this version of the keyboard. I don’t want to say that the machines were a waste, because they were clearly faster and more efficient than the ones that proceeded them. Still, it leaves me with a bad feeling.
How about you? Did you have issues with the butterfly keyboard? Are you upset or happy that the keyboard might be changing later this year?
