henrybay

Mike Wuerthele said:

The new MBP is one piece of paper thicker than the 2016-2018. At the same time, it is thinner, smaller, and lighter than the 2012-2015 RMBP.

The average piece of paper is .1mm thick  (.004 inches), whereas the new MacBook Pro is .7mm thicker than the previous model. 

Quote: ‘To blogger critics who have never done anything apart from writing their opinions on a subject, the solutions are simplistic: stop making light and thin machines, go back to using a keyboard from 2015, and add more RAM! Also, be faster with less heat and don't spin those fans up!’

It turns out that the solutions WERE quite simplistic - stop making such a thin and light machine, go back to using a scissor keyboard with a decent amount of travel, and add more power while addressing the heat issues.’

It was Apple who complicated things by pursuing its silly ‘thin at all costs’ mantra which undermined a generation of Macbooks. Now, with the new MacBook Pro, they are back on track

Apple, please stop trying to reinvent the keyboard. Just use the 2015 scissors version. It’s reliable, tactile and feels great to use with just the right amount of key travel. In other words, IT WORKS! If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. 

I really hope this is true. 

The Butterfly Keyboard is a flawed design, and not just a matter of preference. Here’s why. 

Keyboard travel is like cushioning in a sports shoe. If there is insufficient depth of cushioning, the shoes will feel harsh to run in. Similarly, a lack of key travel makes typing feel like pounding your fingers on concrete. 

This harshness can’t be fixed a adding softer membranes under the keys, because the problem is one of physics, not materials. 

By compressing the key travel distance, as Apple has done, they have also compressed the keystroke duration to about 40 milliseconds - which causes the keys to ‘bottom out’ too early. This lack of travel is insufficient to allow a soft landing of the fingertips on the aluminium frame.  

Sure, you could argue that you can get used to shallow keyboard travel - like you can get used to running shoes with no cushioning. But after you’ve run a few miles (or pounded out a few thousands words), the lack of cushioning takes its toll. 

This is why it is so critical that Apple increases the amount of travel in the next generation of MacBook keyboards. 

But how do they keyboards compare on these two computers? Surely, the review should cover the way we actually interact with the machine.