(Can each LED be controlled separately, so we could turn the keyboard into a bunch of blinking Christmas lights?) The Escape key has been elongated and the function keys narrowed. Each key cap is larger, which means they should be easier to hit-but the space between keys has been reduced, which would seem to me to be a decision that would increase the chances that your finger will hit the wrong key.īeyond the changes to the key movement itself, this keyboard offers a few other interesting features. With the new MacBook keyboard, when I started thinking of just tapping the key with a finger (as if I was tapping the keys on an iPad’s screen) and not using any extra force, things started to move a lot better.Īpple says the new keyboard’s butterfly mechanism is more stable than the old scissor-switch keys.Īpple claims that the keys are far more stable than previous keyboards, and that seems right, though I admit that I’ve never really had a complaint about the keys on my keyboard feeling unstable. My typing style on a physical keyboard includes a lot of force as a push through depressing each key. In fact, I found that I typed a lot faster on the new MacBook keyboard once I adapted some of my iPad typing technique to the new keyboard. It’s like a cross between those current Apple keyboards and typing on an iPad screen, if that makes any sense-it’s got the physical feel of a real keyboard but the hard landing of hitting that glass screen. It doesn’t feel at all like a cheap keyboard, but it’s a shockingly different feel than the current crop of Apple keyboards. When you push a key, it depresses slightly, and lands hard (presumably on that stainless steel dome switch). The very small amount of key travel is the first thing I noticed. I’m not ready to render any final judgments-I’m going to need to live with a MacBook for a few days before I can do that-but I can attest that this new keyboard is going to take some getting used to. After Monday’s event, I spent a lot of time typing on the new MacBook keyboard in the demo area. I type around 110 words per minute and write for a living, so keyboards are very important to my livelihood, though I would not remotely call myself a keyboard snob. The new edge-to-edge keyboard got bigger, shallower keys that reminded me of typing on an iPad screen.
So is this a compromise keyboard specifically designed for the MacBook, or does Apple feel this keyboard design is so great that it’s going to make sure that all its future Mac keyboards are exactly the same way? That seems reasonable, but when Apple extolled the virtues of the new keyboard on Monday, they raved about the increased size and stability of its key caps, the clever design of the butterfly keyboard switches, the stainless steel dome switches.
Apple designed the keyboard in the new MacBook to have reduced key travel, presumably because the thing is just too thin to allow those keys to move very far up or down.