Apple has released a new 13-inch MacBook Pro that has managed to attract praise from critics, despite the fact that the lower configurations remain quite modest in comparison to the price tag which accompanies them.
The main reason for the praise is a strategic switch made by Apple after years of complaints from disgruntled users.
Five years ago, the company introduced the butterfly keyboard. Apple aimed to enhance the user experience by offering a keyboard that was lightweight and slim, two traits that tend to be valued by laptop fans.
Great concept, flawed implementation
While, in theory, the concept seemed to be great, the implementation was more than troublesome. The design of the keyboard favored the accumulation of crumbs, dust, and other small debris within the mechanism. As a consequence, the keys tended to become jammed in time, and key presses were no longer recorded correctly.
People who depended on their devices for the creation of large text documents suffered the most, especially since, in most cases, they didn’t have the option to use a different device.
A good keyboard is a must for a laptop
Despite the presence of complaints since the first MacBooks models equipped with butterfly keyboards arrived on the market, Apple decided to maintain the criticized feature and attempted to improve it in the following years.
Independent technology specialists disassembled various MacBook Pro models and observed that the company played with several versions of the butterfly keyboards.
Since macOS remains a closed platform, many MacBook Pro owners who preferred or needed to use portable devices powered by Apple’s OS were forced to buy MacBook Pro models with the flawed keyboards and face the potential problems bravely.
Redemption arrived in 2019 when Apple introduced the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the Magic Keyboard, based on the classic scissor-switch mechanism. The presence of a reliable keyboard restored confidence in the brand and attracted many buyers.
