MARCH 2020 • TECH ADVISOR 27Withtheprior15inmodel,therewasalways
a “Yeah,but...”Withthe16inMacBookProthat
replacesit, there are fewer chances for users to say,
“Yeah, but....” The new laptop is a great combination
of usability and performance, and it fixes the biggest
issues with its predecessor.
Bye-bye butterfly, hello Magic Keyboard
Ofallthefeaturesofferedandpromotedonthe
16inMacBookPro,theonethatstealsthespotlight
is thenewMagicKeyboard.Thebutterfly-mechanism
keyboard, introduced in the MacBook Pro in 2016, is
gone – and with it, Apple hopes, are the scores of user
complaints and problems. It’s not hard to find users who
hated the butterfly keyboard; I did, and the Internet is
filled with articles and forum posts deriding it.
AppleuseditsiMacMagicKeyboardasthebasis
forthe keyboard in the 16in MacBook Pro. It uses
a scissor mechanism and it feels a lot different than
the previous keyboard, with keys that have a bit
more give and travel (1mm vs 0.5mm). The butterfly
keyboard, despite its soft-sounding name, feels hard
and uncomfortable, and typing on it is like pounding
your fingers against rocks. That’s not the case with the
new scissor keyboard. It’s softer on the fingers, and
if youhadsorefingersaftera longtypingsessionon
thebutterfly keyboard, you won’t have that experience
on the Magic Keyboard.
It’s a lot quieter, too. The butterfly keyboard has a
distinct, deep-sounding hammer to it that fills a room.
It’s noisy. The new scissor keyboard is a lot quieter,
and its lighter, crisper tapping sound easily drifts into