26 PCWorld DECEMBER 2019NEWS HANDS-ON: 16-INCH MACBOOK PRO
available for order on Apple’s
website, and should now be
available for sale in the Apple
store—doesn’t completely
rewrite the MacBook story,
but it’s definitely better in
some key areas.KEYBOARD
CHANGES
Critics, rejoice: Apple
dumped the butterfly-mechanism keyboard
that it’s been using in the MacBook Pro since- The new 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard
uses a scissor mechanism, and is based on the
The Escape key is back. Yay!Unlike the 15- and 13-inch MacBook Pro models,
the Touch ID button is separated from the Touch
Bar on the 16-inch version.Also making a comeback: the T configuration and
half-height buttons for the arrow keys.keyboard for the iMac and iMac Pro.
This new keyboard doesn’t feel as stiff and
hard as the previous, oft-maligned keyboard.
The keys feel like they have a tiny bit more travel.
With the previous MacBook keyboard, I always
felt like I was slamming my fingers against a rock.
But the new keyboard feels more like the
keyboard on the 2015 MacBook Pro—and that’s
a good thing. And it’s much quieter, too. Are
you familiar with the pounding sound effect that
emanates from the butterfly-mechanism
keyboard? Yeah, it’s not there in the new model.
Beyond that, the new keyboard makes
some small but meaningful changes to the
key layout: The Touch ID button has more
room to breathe, the Escape key is back, and
the arrow keys get a new config.SMALLER BEZELS,
BIGGER DISPLAY
Apple reduced the bezels on the 16-inch
MacBook Pro, allowing the engineers to spec a
larger display for more usable screen real estate.