Malcolm Owen
An initial teardown of the 16-inch MacBook Pro offers a close examination of the new keyboard mechanism used in the model, with the scissor mechanism deemed to be a massive improvement over the prior butterfly mechanism.
Over the last few years, Apple has taken criticism for the butterfly mechanism it employed in its MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup, with repeated reports claiming the three generations of mechanism were not up to scratch. The ingress of debris, even with the added protection of a silicone membrane around the mechanism, was a common issue for complaints, prompting calls for Apple to change it for something else.
In the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple made the switch from the butterfly for a scissor-switch style it uses in the Magic Keyboard. Initial analysis of the keyboard on the 16-inch MacBook Pro reveals it has a much larger key travel than in models released in recent years, while at the same time generally being quieter than the mid-2019 keyboard.
The first part of a customary teardown by iFixit gives a closer look at the mechanism under the keycaps, confirming a shift away from butterfly. The version used in the new Mac Pro is claimed by the repair outfit to be "almost identical" to the switches used in the desktop Magic Keyboard, as well as pre-butterfly MacBooks.
The similarity with the desktop Magic Keyboard extends to a point that keycaps from the desktop keyboard could be used on the switches in the MacBook Pro.
Made from two plastic pieces that are crossed with a central pivot, the mechanism is considered to be more robust than the butterfly equivalent, with 0.5mm more travel in the key to enable it to handle debris more gracefully. Unlike later butterfly keyboards, Apple has not included a membrane, suggesting Apple is confident about its durability.
There is further strength in the way the keycaps connect to the switches. While 0.2mm thicker than previous versions, the clips attaching the keycaps to the switches are seemingly reinforced, reducing the chance of damage in heavy-duty usage or for disassembly for repair.
Aside from improving the mechanism, Apple also updated the design to include a physical escape key, and altered the arrow keys to form an inverted-T, creating more space around the four keys.
The changes to the keyboard were part of a multi-year development process, Apple VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller revealed on Wednesday, with criticism from "Pro customers" prompting a rethink of the MacBook Pro keyboard. Schiller did not advise on whether the switch mechanism will spread to other models, stating "We are continuing both keyboard designs."
The iFixit team anticipates revealing its full teardown of the 16-inch MacBook Pro on Monday.
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55 Comments
Win - win - win.
Having the ability to remove an individual key-cap to remove debris alone is a huge improvement over the butterfly keyboards. The increased key travel likely means that a piece of debris that would compromise a butterfly key will be much less likely to cause an issue with the new keyboard. For people who switch between keyboards (most of us?) the increased travel will lessen the difference between the keyboards.
I'm sure there are people whose job it is to research stuff like this, but it seems to me that there is probably a minimum distance needed for comfortable typing. From the days of manual typewriters that had a travel of over an inch we've steadily progressed to shallower and shallower depths. In general, no one had problems with the Mac keyboards that had travel of ~2mm and then more recently just over a mm but many people didn't like the shallow, 0.5mm travel of the butterfly keyboards. Extrapolating from that it appears going much below 1 mm gets bothersome for people.
Looking forward to trying this out, alongside the long-awaited 16" screen.
I don’t understand why they would not roll this new improved design out over the whole product line.
Guess this is the nearest we will see apple kind of accepting that the butterfly was a flawed design. Going back to the old working design with very minor changes. They probably can't talk more about the reason for dumping butterfly and going back for fear of litigation.