Apple ditches the butterfly keyboard in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro
The new ‘Magic Keyboard’ is an attempt to resolve issues with keys from the previous models
Image: Apple
Along with the expected performance upgrades, Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro sports a new “Magic keyboard”, as labelled by the company. The change comes after issues were raised regarding the butterfly keyboard that was introduced in 2015. Unresponsive, fragile and temperamental keys led to Apple extending their keyboard replacement programme. The new Magic keyboard is omitted from this scheme, indicating the company’s trust in its new design. It features a “refined scissor mechanism with 1 mm travel for a responsive, comfortable and quiet typing experience” according to Apple. A physical escape key has been reintroduced, and it seems the touch bar on the top above the keyboard is here to stay.
Moving onto MacBook Pro’s audio capabilities, Apple claim the laptop has “a big voice”. It boasts a six-speaker sound system, with dual force-cancelling woofers, and a studio-quality three-mic array. The woofers are designed to reduce system vibration to produce a clear, natural sound, plus half an octave lower bass range. Apple claims the mic array “rivals professional third-party microphones, for creating super clean podcasts or music recordings on the go”.
MacBook Pro offers various performance capabilities, depending on what features you wish to incorporate. A maxed-out 16-inch MacBook Pro will provide you with a massive 8TB SSD, 2.3GHz 8-core processor, 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory – although this will set you back $5,899.
As standard, it comes with Retina display, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and Touch ID. The more affordable option comes at $2,399 and gives you 512GB SSD, 2.6GHz 6-core processor, 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory and AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. Battery life is said to be extended, too, offering up to 11 hours of wireless web browsing with a 100Wh battery, which Apple says is the largest ever in a MacBook.
Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro is available now, you can find out more at apple.com. For more music technology news click here.
